Forest Fun In Quebec 🐗__Our day at _par

April 15th, 2016

Not only is it pretty, this edible garden is delicious and very easy to make! Fun activity to do with the kids any day or to plan for their next birthday party.

Edible garden

This project takes about 2 hours to do and can be a lot of fun if you have a bit of patience. Bonus: not only is it a pretty display of fun treats for the kids to eat, you can brag to your guests about how you created it w/ only a few simple ingredients.

What you'll need: large marshmallows, 2 packs of white chocolate chips, red/yellow/blue edible glitter, thin black icing tube, black licorice nibs, knife, spoon, 2 small bowls, branches, ribbons, flowers & foam block.

For the marshmallow butterflies :

Step 1 - Make small triangle cuts on both sides of your large marshmallow. Try to cut w/ a bit of a curved edge to really give the effect of wings to your marshmallow. Cut a tiny slit w/ your knife down the middle (for your body later).

Step 2 - Make the body of your butterfly w/ a black licorice nib , a small twig and icing pen. Try to break off small pieces from a branch/twig that resembles 2 antennas & body. Glue your wood piece to the nib w/ your icing pen.

Step 3 - Pour edible glitter in a small bowl so that's it's ready for dipping. In a separate small bowl empty half a pack of white chocolate chips and microwave for 1 min. to melt. Once heated, stir well, making sure all of the chunks from the chocolate chips are out and you have a nice consistency. Dunk your marshmallow into the melted white chocolate and use a small spoon to lightly coat your marshmallow w/ chocolate (letting excess drip off) and dunk in edible glitter. Roll your marshmallow ball around the glitter bowl to make sure that it is evenly coated w/ sprinkles. Easiest way is to use both hands to hold the bowl and stir the ball around the bowl in small circles manually... this way you get the best coat with no mess (try not to touch the marshmallow too much). Once fully coated with glitter, place on separate side plate. To stick the body of the butterfly to the wings, dab a small amount of melted chocolate to the back of the licorice body and press down slightly when sticking to the wings so that the body fills in the insert you made earlier.

Place butterfly on a branch right away before the chocolate sets fully.

The Bumblebees -

Dunk chocolate coated marshmallow into yellow sprinkles. Again, making sure that the ball rolls around the bowl smoothly getting fully coated with sprinkles and without getting handled too much. Set aside on a plate for 4-5 minutes to let the chocolate harden a bit. Dab a small amount of white melted chocolate to the back of a black licorice nib. Glue the black nib to the front of the body to be your bumblebee's head.

Now make slits w/ your knife on both sides of the bumblebee's body. It's important to do this now, otherwise the chocolate will crack and the glitter will fall off if doing this later when the chocolate has hardened. Place bees on a plate. Use a thin black icing tube to draw the black lines across your bee's body... trying not to handle too much... leaving on the plate when doing so. To get a more accurate defined line, squeeze icing out of tube very slowly and hold a bit away from the body to keep a steady thin stream and have more control to direct it. We only went half way down the body for ours and stopped at our slits on the sides (figured it would be less mess then icing the whole body). Let dry for 1 hour.

Dab 2 yellow candy melt chocolates a 1/4 of the way up with melted chocolate. Carefully glue the yellow candy melt wings into your side slits, holding the body at the front and the back. If they won't push in as far as you'd like, hold a finger on each wing and slightly press into each other. Place on branch now before the chocolate completely hardens.

For the bumblebees we wanted to try two different styles because we had these awesome edible googly eyes and adding them changed the look to a more playful one. To give the eyes more pop, we cut a really small piece from the tip of a black licorice nib and glued it with melted chocolate. The googly eyes themselves, were firmly pressed down into the licorice.... sinking in (not glued).

The Ladybugs:

Dunk a marshmallow in melted white chocolate and coat it with red edible glitter, making sure the marshmallow is completely covered. Set aside for 5 minutes to allow chocolate to harden a bit. Once the chocolate has set a bit, poke a hole in the bottom (this is to attach to the branch later) and cut a very slight slit on the front of the body. Dab a little bit of melted white chocolate to the back of a black licorice nib and glue it to the slit you just made pressing down a bit. Using the same thin tube of black icing, draw spots on the ladybug's body. Place on branch right away, before chocolate hardens fully.