Hat Food

I trialed the ice cream cone, cake and cookie method. It didnt really work for me. My cones kept cracking every time I tried to put the cake inside...there was no way I was going to get out 60 or so of these.

So I adapted the idea, to marshmallows on biscuits.

First, you need a goofy assistant.

Sorry, snot-nosed, filth-encrusted, eager-to-steal-every-marshmallow, sibling of the assistant- you are banished to the living room with daddy.

(but I have a happy face mum? Cant you see I've put on my happy face???)

Then you need some of these...or any other kind of biscuit. I chose Arnotts Mint Slice's because they were already covered in chocolate and they're delicious (and I was feeling tired and lazy).

A good quality cooking chocolate....*droooooooooool* (is it wrong that my sweet tooth even extends to compounded chocolate?)

Marshmallows...

X-treme Sour Straps...or any other kind of strappish sweet, eg licorice, roll ups etc.


And something for a hat buckle. I used mini m&ms.

Watch child assistant cut straps into hatbands (ignore the almost cutting off of digits and take photos instead).

Mmmm, delicious straps....

Ready the biscuits by laying them all out on some sort of chopping board that you dont mind getting dirty. I had to use 3 boards because I was making a lot of them.

Then get something ready to melt the chocolate. I occasionally use the microwave, but I find this method to be a bit inconsistent...I basically burn the chocolate 1 out of 3 times. So I decided to pull out the fondue saucepans...this gives a much more even and smoother melt in my opinion. Or it could just be that our microwave needs to be replaced.

Watch the chocolate start to melt and try not to drool into it...you should never mix saliva (or water) with melting chocolate.

When its nice and smoooooth....

Dip in a marshmallow until its coated in chocolate. I like this little chocolate spoon. I dont remember where I got it, or how much it cost, but they're great. It lets all the excess run off quickly. You can also tap it on the side of the saucepan for any additional drops you want to get rid of.

Then you quickly place the marshmallows on the centre of the biscuits.

Before the chocolate sets, wrap some of your cut up straps around the marshmallow to make a hat band...


My fingers were too messy to document the next part. But you just take some mini m&ms or whatever you fancy and press it on to make a hat buckle.

Place trays/boards etc into the fridge to set.

Realise that with all of this going on, dinner is now a very sad and sorry state of affairs. *sigh* at overcooked lump of meat and put it aside to rest.

Catch assistant sneaking lollies while you're sighing at sad lump of meat.

Start process of making next hat-themed treat.

You need some mushroom bites....

And peggy pig & pals....

Ahh, look at little Peggy and her pals....the cleanest farm animals I've ever seen

(You can also talk to the animals at this point. Eg:

'Peggy, would you like a little hat peggy-poo?'

'Peggy, you're stuck on this farm but I know you've always wanted a holiday in Mexico- you'd look great in a sombrero...'

And other statements that reflect your tired, emotional state.

Dab chocolate on the animal head before placing an upside down mushroom over the top of it. What? IT'S HAT-ISH. The chocolate also doubles as mud...so dont worry if your animals get a little dirty at this point.

They just look so much happier now dont they?

Its a good idea to retain the trays from the biscuit packets. The animals stack nicely in these and you can put them in there, then in the fridge to set.

And speaking of the fridge, lets see how the hats turned out....

Not too bad at all! Not overly crazy- I probably couldve used sprinkles or even dunked the whole thing in coloured white chocolate. But whats done is done.

Mmmm, but what to do with all that leftover milk chocolate?

(Consider running to a dark corner of the house and secretly binging on it like a rabid monkey)

Then consider bag of rarely used chocolate moulds. Poor chocolate moulds.

Make some koalas. And then some frogs. Thats much more civilised.


And everyone's happy.

Thanks for the idea's, particularly Heidi for the hat-cones, which were the inspiration for this; and Shelby for the games etc. Im also going to serve popcorn in party hats as suggested. Fun!

Now Im off to prep the hall for all the games etc.