Are you looking for some unique party favors made from chocolate? If you like ducks, or you’re throwing a party for someone who loves ducks, then these duck-shaped chocolates would make a wonderful party favor!
You can make your own duck shaped chocolates at home. Serve them on a platter, or package them in clear bags for each person to enjoy. If your party has theme colors, you can close the bags with matching ribbons to continue your color-scheme.
Your party guests will love these personalized party favors. The ducks are adorable, and chocolate is always a hit!
Even if you’ve never worked with chocolates before, you’ll find that making chocolate duck party favors is a fun and easy project. Chocolate is great to work with because if you do make a mistake you can always melt it and start again.
Here are the supplies you’ll need:
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Duck Shaped cookies cutters (it’s handy to have several)
Cookie sheet
Parchment paper
Towel (a hand towel or dish towel will work)
Chocolate (milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or white chocolate; whichever you prefer)
Double boiler (or microwave-safe bowl)
Spoon
Possibly: a small paring knife (hopefully, you won’t need this!)
Optional: Nuts
Optional: M&Ms
Optional: Frosting
Optional: Plastic sandwich baggies
** Lay out your duck cookie cutters
Do this first, because you need to have them all ready as soon as the chocolate melts. Start by laying your towel on the cookie sheet, then put a layer of parchment paper over that. Set out your duck cookie cutters on the parchment paper. It’s handy if you have several duck cookie cutters, so that you can keep working on more ducks while the earliest ones are cooling.
If you have trouble finding duck shaped cookie cutters for this project, click HERE to look for them online at Amazon, very reasonably priced.
** Melt your chocolates
If you’re not using chocolate chips, you’ll need to break your chocolate into small piece before you start melting it. (It’s difficult and messy to try to melt a solid block of chocolate without scorching it.) If you’re using a double boiler, put water in the bottom pan and your chocolate pieces in the top. Watch it carefully, and stir constantly until it’s smooth and creamy.
If you’re using the microwave, put your chocolate pieces into your microwave-safe bowl and microwave it on high for 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each heating. Don’t let it scorch!
** Add any ‘extras’
If you’re planning to add nuts to your chocolate duck party favors, now is the time to add them. Just sprinkle a few into each duck cookie cutter, so that they’ll be covered by the chocolate later.
** Fill your ducks with chocolate
One by one, hold your duck cookie cutters steady and pour chocolate into them. As you hold the duck cookie cutter, you should press it gently downward, into the parchment paper and towel. The towel will act as a cushion, letting the cutter seal more tightly against the parchment paper, so that the chocolate doesn’t leak out underneath the edge of the cutter.
Pour up to about half an inch deep of chocolate into your duck cookie cutters, and keep pressing them against the towel for a moment or so, to give the bottom edge a chance to start setting. If your ducks leak a little bit, you’ll be able to fix it later, so don’t stress over it too much. Just be as careful as you can.
** Add decorative touches
Move as quickly as you can through as many duck cookie cutters as you have available. Then, if you’d like to add M&Ms for decorations, this is the time to add them. For instance, you might want to give them eyes.
** Cool your ducks
You’ll need to let your ducks set until the chocolate hardens. You can speed up the process by putting your ducks into the refrigerator for a little while. DON’T put them into the freezer though; going from melted to frozen too fast can do odd things to the chocolate.
** Free your ducks
Once they’ve hardened completely, gently pop your ducks free of the cookie cutters. Now you can arrange them nicely on a serving platter, or bag them up in favor bags. Unless….
** Need to fix your ducks?
If you find that a bit of chocolate has leaked out of the bottom of your duck cookie cutters, and hardened there, you can cut it off. Use the paring knife to carefully carve off any overflowed chocolate.
** Want to frost your ducks?
If you want to add embellishments with frosting, put the frosting into a sandwich baggie with the corner cut off. That will allow you to pipe frosting onto your ducks. You can add markings to them, or even label them with your guest’s names. They’d make cute nameplates at your dinner table!
Have fun with this project and enjoy your chocolate ducks!
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