The holiday season is upon us. Can you believe it? When I picture the holidays, I think of tables full of delectable desserts to make your mouth water like cheesecake, fruit tarts, gingerbread cookies, and many other appealing yummies. I'm sure many of you do a lot of holiday baking during this time! Scarlett and I both share an extreme love for chocolate and would NEVER turn down any chocolate based dessert. If you're a chocoholic like we are, you'll be thrilled to know about the Chocolate Pen.
The Chocolate Pen from SkyRocket toys allows a child who is 6 and over to draw in real chocolate! This kid-friendly design features a pen that automatically loads chocolate and a melting tray that keeps colors melted and ready to go. Fill the pen with melted chocolate and you're ready to go! Kid chefs can draw their own shapes or create colorful treats with 40 mold designs that are included. Choose from so many different mold designs like french fries and hearts to animals and smilies. There is a mold to make an any child smile. The candy creations harden in minutes to delight your little one's eyes and tummies. The Chocolate Pen combines the best of both world, chocolate with arts and crafts.
The pen comes with an equivalent of 4 1/2 bars of chocolate produced in the USA and allows you to draw in different colors. Refill packs are available too so you'll never be without! Your child will go absolutely nuts for the chocolate pen! Any child would be amazed to draw whatever creation comes to mind and then be able to eat it too. This will definitely be a day your little one will never forget.
Scarlett was beyond excited when her package from Chocolate Pen arrived. To keep the element of surprise, I didn't mention it would be coming at all and she was ecstatic when she opened the box! Scarlett and I were instructed to participate in a holiday challenge from The Chocolate Pen. Not only did we receive the pen itself, but the box contained baking supplies, sprinkles, melting chocolates, holiday chocolate molds and hot chocolate ingredients. We were to create various holiday treats and be creative by using the items in the box. This was beyond fun and even I was so excited at the prospect of this challenge! Scarlett and I talked about what tasty treats we wanted to create and then we got to work.
The pen comes pre-assembled. All you have to do is put the batteries in. Once you've done that you're ready to begin creating your chocolate masterpiece. The warming tray took about 20 minutes to warm-up and kept the chocolate the perfect heated consistency the entire time Scarlett used the pen. You have to melt the included chocolate first before you put it in the warming tray though. Also, it's simple to switch from "fill mode" to "draw mode", and the pen fits in little hands well. If you're a master baker and decorator, any adult can even use the pen to create unique chocolate art to display on their cupcakes or cakes too!
There was a trial and error period with the pen until we got it just right. Put out some wax paper or parchment paper for your chocolate artist to use to keep the drawings easy to take off once hardened. Scarlett thought it was amazing that she was drawing in chocolate! My tiny tot enjoyed some free-draw as well as using some of the included molds. She said the molds were easy to fill and she didn't have a problem switching from draw to fill modes.
I think the chocolate pen would be ideal to use for cupcakes. A snowflake on the top of perfectly piped icing for a winter wonderland theme cupcake would be a hit for sure. You can easily decorate any cookies or brownies in a beautiful and creative way that would be show-stopping.
Since it's chilly outside this was a perfect indoor family fun activity. I'll also welcome any activity that keeps her from watching too much TV or using the tablet and this was ideal!
Once we unboxed everything, we got to thinking what we would be good to make. Since this challenge was for a child, I didn't want to help her at all with the decorating process. I wanted this to be her vision and have her produce what makes her happy. Of course it's not going to look professional, but the whole point is that she created her own treats! In my opinion, gaining confidence and skills in the kitchen is extremely important since she's only 5 years old.
Scarlett first wanted to make candy coated vanilla spoons to go into coffee or hot chocolate. I melted the red candy melts in the microwave while she then filled the spoon molds. Scarlett is a sprinkle-aholic and poured sprinkles on the top. Can you blame her though? Sprinkles makes everything delicious.
While we waited for the spoons to cool and harden, we started working on our next two activities. Scarlett loves chocolate covered pretzels so I figured she'd be thrilled to dip pretzels into the candy melts as well as cookies.
I helped her mix the ingredients for the cookie batter and place them on the cookie tray to bake. Once the cookies were baked, we waited for them to cool. In the mean time, we melted green candy melts to dip pretzels in. Of course the red sprinkles came back out again to make the green pop! I just love red and green together, it's a beautiful pairing. Scarlett enjoyed dipping the pretzels completely in the candy melts and shaking the sprinkles on top. She was very proud of her work and I was too!
We were able to use the same green candy melts on the red vanilla cookies we baked. The cool thing about the vanilla cookies is that they were red, so I suggested to Scarlett the idea of dipping half of the cookie in the green candy melts and shaking some sprinkles on. I enjoyed watching her creative side as she dipped the cookies and made them beautiful. My mini budding pastry chef was doing excellent work!
Scarlett had the idea of bagging up some of the treats to give to neighbors as early holiday gifts, which I thought was very nice. Scarlett put the treats in the provided Christmas tree bags and tied them up to deliver. I can't wait to see the neighbor's faces when they see what's been made for them! We may make more treats soon to give to her school friends in the coming weeks too. I know they will gobble them up!
I can't wait to make some more tasty treats in time with Scarlett. Mom and daughter bonding time is the best and always needed. We'll make some yummy hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream on top with chocolate shavings. I know a chocolate spoon to stir it with would really make Scarlett smile. The sweet treat possibilities are endless!
Family fun activities are what life is all about. I'm thrilled to be able to spend this time with Scarlett in the kitchen making memories and creating sweet treats! What could be better? Wishing you and your family a tasty and happy holiday season.
*DISCLOSURE Thank you to Chocolate Pen for providing this baking challenge. All thoughts and opinions are strictly my own.
*DISCLOSURE Thank you to Chocolate Pen for providing this baking challenge. All thoughts and opinions are strictly my own.
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