Christmas Mice

Making these chocolate mice has become a Christmas tradition for my grandson, Jennings, and me.
The process is a deliciously chocolate mess. They are double dipped.
We end up with whole nest of mice. Also, small nests of two to six mice get put together and delivered to special people.
These mice are chocolate dipped marachino cherries with chocolate kiss heads and slivered almond ears. Their eyes are a black gel frosting that comes in a small tube (purchased in the grocery store). They're fun and easy to make. The challenge is finding cherries with stems. If you're tempted to add these cuties to your holiday treats, be sure to drain and dry the cherries before dipping. Also, use a tempered chocolate (candy bars or chocolate meant for this purose) rather than chocolate chips so they don't end up spotted white.

I wish all of you a happy and peaceful holiday.

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Happy December

Now that it's December I'm getting in the mood for the holidays. Go here to see me do a happy dance to welcome the season. While you're there set up a session for yourself or even your loved ones. Enjoy and have fun!
One of my traditions is making a big nest of chocolate mice. Their bodies are maraschino cherries double-dipped in chocolate. They have heads made of Hershey kisses. Slivered almonds make great ears. Drops of black gel frosting create their eyes. They're almost too cute to eat .... but, YUM!

PS: I had posted about making the mice a year ago here. There's a bit more information about the ingredients in that one.

PPS: If you cannot find stemmed cherries, pipe cleaners make cute and colorful tails. I recommend the chenille craft pipe cleaners be cut in half and cork screwed around a pencil. Then insert them into the cherry before dipping, so you have a handle for the process. The stiffened chocolate will help to cement them in place.

Snowy Tennessee

We've had snow on the ground for over a week which is a rarity.  Wonderful ice sculptures have formed in the rain bells that recently replaced the drain pipe next to our front door.

 

Kids have been sledding out on the golf course as well as building snowmen.  Finally the snow has begun to melt and those snowmen are looking like this ....

I haven't yet made these too cute to eat cookies.  I found them at the Truly Custom Bakery site which has instructions.

I did, however, make this nest of mice to share with my quilting bee friends for my birthday.

You've most likely seen previous posts where I've featured these cuties a couple of times.  There are a couple of things I did differently this time.  Their ears are toasted pine nuts instead of slivered almonds.  The almonds make really cute oversize ears, but they're very fragile and prone to breaking.  The other addition I've made is to place each mouse on a really good chocolate square.  It made for more than one BIG bite ... it took at least 3 before there was only a tail left.