Easy Chocolate Candy Shapes

We had lots of pieces to our Valentine's Day projects - Chocolate Lollipops, Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, and these little heart candy shapes to top our cupcakes to make them a little more festive.  This project is SO EASY and you can make lots of different edible shapes in a matter of minutes!  I chose to do very simple hearts, but the possibilities are endless.  You can easily make an dessert a little more festive without a lot of effort.

We used these chocolate hearts to top our cupcakes.

Age: 4+

Time: 20 minutes +

Mess/Cleanup: The chocolate can get a little messy, and the age of your child will increase the mess factor for sure.  It only took 5 minutes to clean up our table.

What You Need:

• Candy Melts or chocolate chips (You can buy candy melts at Michaels, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby, or any craft store in the cake decorating section.)
• Food Coloring
• Sprinkles.  The flavored sprinkles we used added an extra nice touch.
• Wax Paper
• Plastic Baggies or an empty squeeze bottle.  I used a squeeze bottle.

Why I Like This Craft:
Again, so easy and depending on what you create and can be very impressive. My mom and sister also thought the mini hearts were quite yummy.

Variations:
You can obviously make lots of different shapes.  You could also put a pattern (e.g., coloring book pages) underneath the wax paper and trace the outline of the shape with the chocolate.  I can imagine creating some Hello Kitty candies for my daughter's upcoming birthday party.  They make perfect cupcake toppers and it only costs a few cents to make!  Just think ... Shamrocks, Christmas Trees, Easter Eggs, Spiders, Witch's Hat...easy shapes and you don't have to be an artist.

I was also thinking this might be a fun edible painting project.  Dye your chocolates a variety of colors and arm you kiddos with paint brushes or squeeze bottles and pieces of wax paper.  Once the chocolate cools, they have edible art.  I think I might make that into another post.  Maybe edible greeting cards?  How fun!

Step 1:

Melt the Candy Melts in the microwave at 30 second intervals.  Stir in between until smooth.

Step 2:

Transfer melting chocolate to a baggie or a bottle.  If using a baggie, snip off one corner.  For these, I used a bottle.  You have more control over the flow of the chocolate, but the cleanup is a bit more work.

I used a mustard bottle I bought at the Dollar Store.

Step 3: 

Make heart shapes on a piece of wax paper. Add some sprinkles.  This was my son's job during this project.

Step 4:

Once the chocolate is completely cooled it will peel easily off of the wax paper.  

-Rose  @-}---