Easter chocolate balloon bowls

So i said on Monday that i would post a recipe on Tuesday or Wednesday. Well i will own up that i did in fact make them on Wednesday evening but it went completely wrong. I know where i went wrong and i can now share tips and advice to ensure the same does not happen to you.

This is the finished Chocolate bowl.

If you like the look of this fun project then please read on and enjoy.

The items you will need are;

• Your favorite chocolate - Read on for how much i used for this recipe.
•  PLAIN balloons.
• A heat proof bowl to melt your chocolate in.
• A spoon.
• A plate or tray- depending on how many you are making.
• Grease proof paper.
• A pin or pair of scissors.
• Fillings for your bowl.

How to make;

1) Firstly, wash your hands.

2) Prepare your work space, this recipe takes no time at all and you have to work quickly with the chocolate. 

3) Cut your grease proof paper to the size you need. I used a small plate as i was only making one medium sized bowl. If you are making more than one bowl you may wish to use a tray lined with the grease proof paper to keep them all together. That idea is good if you have plenty of space in the fridge, if space is limited then perhaps use individual plates, this way you can move them around the fridge better. 

4) Once you have decided how many bowls you want to make, blow up your balloons. Once they have been blown up and knotted. Wash your balloons under warm water. they need to be cleaned or it will leave a horrible taste in your bowls.

(The reason 'plain' is in bold in the list of ingredients is because when i tried it, i used balloons with ink on them without thinking. I soon learnt my lesson). 

Remember the bigger the bowl the more chocolate you will need. For the medium bowl i made i blew mine up to a small-medium size.

This is the balloon on a small dinner plate.

5) Break your chocolate into a bowl, one big bar of dairy milk makes one medium bowl or two small bowls. 

 6) You now need to melt the chocolate. There are two methods you can use. The first one is in the microwave, if you use the microwave then be sure to have the power on 50% especially if your microwave is powerful. Do 30 second bursts and stir each time after and do this until its all fully melted. 
The second method is to melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Be careful with both methods to not burn the chocolate as it will solidify and you cant use it. 

7) Once the chocolate is melted, place a spoonful of chocolate onto your grease proof paper on either your individual plates or tray.This will be the base of your bowl and will help to anchor the balloon in place in the next step.

8) This is where the messy fun begins. Take your balloon (hold it by the knotted end) and place it into the bowl of melted chocolate and twist the balloon to get an even thick layer of chocolate. If the layers on the balloon are not thick, the project simply will not work- I found this out the hard way!
You do not need the layers to go very far up the balloon at all. If you look back to the photo of the completed bowl its only shallow. Then place the chocolate covered end onto the little puddle of chocolate you made earlier (the base). Repeat this step with all of your balloons.

Then place into the fridge to set for 1- 1 hour 30 mins.

After the stated waiting time it should look like this ..

Its now ready to pop!

9) This is the fun part, once all of your bowls are out of the fridge get your scissors or pin and pop the balloon very carefully near the knotted end so it doesn't ruin your bowls.

(Please be careful when handling scissors or pins and if your a child you should always have adults supervising you.)

Gently peel the deflated balloon away, try not to add pressure to the bowl when doing this step as you could risk ruining all of your hard work. This is another reason your layers have to be thick. 

Ta Dah... you have your bowls!!!

10) Now simply fill your bowl with your favorite things. A few ideas of fillings could be; ice cream with fresh fruit, a wafer and a drizzle of fruit sauce, or fill it with your favorite sweets or simply fill it with marshmallows like i have done. 

I love marshmallows.

How lovely does it look on my aunties window ledge with that gorgeous view!

I also made small bowls. To achieve these all i did was make my balloons a lot smaller and chose a very small bowl in which to have the melted chocolate in to make the dipping process a lot easier and coverage more even. 

These balloons are on a standard size dinner plate, this was simply to show you just how small they are. 

And here is the finished look of the small bowls.

Cute eh?

This is a fantastic tasty project to do with the children, just be careful not to burn yourself in the process. It doesn't have to be for Easter but i thought it would be a creative change to traditional Rice crispy cakes :).

Make these any time of the year. Be creative.

Have a fantastic Easter. xxxxx