Easter Gifts: Treat Filled Chocolate Bowls

These beautiful homemade Easter gifts require a bit of patience but the result is well worth the effort. They make a great Easter gift for both adults and children.

Easter would have to be the best holiday for gift giving because you don’t have to think too hard about what to give. Everyone loves getting chocolate at Easter, don’t they? I know I do! And the shops don’t exactly make it hard either. Easter eggs start popping up at the supermarket in early January most years! We usually try to stay away from the chocolate eggs and hot cross buns until much closer to the actual holiday.

In previous years I would have picked out some simple chocolate gift boxes for close family and friends. This year though, I thought that I would have a go at putting together some more personalised Easter gifts.

I didn’t want to go the whole hog of buying chocolate moulds and making my own chocolates. So I decided to have a go at making some chocolate bowls that are made using balloons. I have seen this done on YouTube several time and it looked kind of cool.

It looked very easy to coat a small balloon in melted chocolate, refrigerate, and then pop the balloon. I could do that!

The following video gives a good guide to what you need to do when making a chocolate bowl using a balloon.

YouTube video: Divas Can Cook

* You can also read the Divas Can Cook Edible Chocolate Bowls blog post here.

Well yesterday I had a go myself and while it is a bit harder than it looks it does give a great edible chocolate bowl that can be filled with treats and given as a gift at Easter. I varied my method just slightly from the above video. Firstly I didn’t add any shortening to the melting chocolate and I placed my balloon bowls in the fridge to chill rather than the freezer.

My first few attempts didn’t go very well. Most of my bowls cracked badly while I was trying to get the balloon out. It is definitely not as easy as it looks, practice makes perfect is the advice I would give.

My Tips for Making Easter Chocolate Bowls

• Have a big batch of melting chocolate (about 500g) so you have plenty of room for tilting/swirling
• Spray the balloons with cooking spray and then wipe off the excess (makes getting the balloon off easier)
• Be prepared to re-melt some of the bowls if they crack
• You can use a small amount of melted chocolate to plug any small holes in the base

After I made the chocolate bowls I filled them with various flavours of mini Easter eggs. Really once you have the bowls made you can fill them with any small treat that you know your family and friends love.

If you would like some inspiration for making more elaborate chocolate bowls you can check out this video.

YouTube video: How To Cook That

Now that I have had a bit of practice at making simple chocolate bowls I would love to have a go at the more complicate ones. They would look really great as fancy dessert bowls!