DD1 wants a Chocolate Party

[CointreauVersial]

DD1 turns 13 in a couple of weeks and really wanted to take some of her friends to a Chocolate Workshop, where they get to make/decorate chocolates. But they are so expensive - about £30 a head - so we thought we'd do it at home. Melt some chocolate, pop it in a mould, a few sprinkles....how difficult can it be?

So I'm looking for inspiration/ideas/suggestions about how to do a Chocolate Party at home, for about eight girls. What to do/what to make/where to get the necessary equipment. I picked up a few bits and pieces in Lakeland but really need to devise a couple of easy "projects" for them. Suggestions welcome!

[Parietal]

blind tasting? get a bunch of different funny flavour chocolates and have them guess the flavour?

[Parietal]

chocolate fondue can be fun too

[NormHonal]

Can you borrow a chocolate fountain from someone?

[YellowBellow]

You do have to know how to temper chocolate though. I'm a cake maker but I can't do that. You can work around this by using candy melts sold in hobbycraft or cake covering chocolate which is yuk but it won't go cloudy like regular un tempered chocolate would, once it has set.

You can also spend a long time showing them how to make truffles...made using ganache, which is melted choc and cream mixed together. You can make various flavours of ganache and decorate in various ways and you won't need to worry about tempering issues.

You could also google recipe for making modelling chocolate. Make sure you get a uk recipe. It's v easy to make. You would need to prepare ahead of the party. During the party, get them to make models with it. There are a few chocolate modelling rose tutorials on the web that you could teach yourself and then teach at the party.

Just make sure you give everything a dummy run beforehand. As with most things, you are likely to encounter trouble spots and you really don't want to spend the party trying to work it all out. I am sure they'll have lots of fun and it would be way better to buy materials like moulds etc that you can use again afterwards than spend a tonne of money on something that might not even be pitched at their age level.

Good luck!

[Scousadelic]

Where are you OP? I went to this place where they did a demo and a tasting. If you are near somewhere like this you could do the cheapie bit then go home and make stuff

[snice]

make sure you play the chocolate game-roll a six, put on hat scarves gloves etc then start to eat using knife and fork. Relinquish the cutlery when next person gets a six

[Eastpoint]

We did this for one of my DDs birthdays. I bought a mould, pastry brush & display/gift box for each of them and loads of sprinkles, malteasers and things they could add to the chocolate. I melted dark, white & milk chocolate in bowls over boiling water, showed them how to brush chocolate into the moulds & then left them to it. We poured the remaining chocolate onto baking trays covered with cling film and they made chocolate bark which we divided up at the end. They each took their chocolates, mould, bark home with them after pizza & a DVD at home while the chocolates set. V easy & cheap. Another year they decorated cake pops, I bought a cake pop machine & made 96 the day before. On the day I gave them coloured melts from an online store and they decorated them. This was followed by yes - pizza & a DVD. I think the second party cost about £65 including the machine & pizza.

[CointreauVersial]

Eastpoint - that sounds just perfect. I hadn't thought of chocolate bark.

That whole "tempering" thing - I did wonder about that. But surely if you just melt a bar of Galaxy and stick it in a mould it will be good enough - maybe not professionally glossy, but good enough for a 13yo to wolf down?

I looked at those Candy Melts but they look so artificial and revolting. Maybe a bag to melt down and use for decorating....

We used to play the chocolate game at school. I never actually managed to get any into my mouth!

[CointreauVersial]

Scouse - I'm down in Surrey so nowhere near that place. I rather think DD1 wants to get stuck in rather than watch a demo, though.

[CointreauVersial]

Bumping for the Sunday afternoon crowd.....