If you’re on a tight budget but still want to show your nearest and dearest that you care for them, why not have a go at making homemade versions of their favourite chocolates? Making your own can be much cheaper than buying chocolates from the shops.
Here are some top tips:
Choose easy recipes to try first
If you’ve never made chocolates before, it’s important that you don’t try anything too complicated to begin with. Once you’ve mastered a simple chocolate truffle you can experiment with different flavours, adding peanut butter, strawberries, mint or rum raisin. Making fudge and toffee might only require a few ingredients but they’re harder to create so you might need to do a few dummy runs before you get them right.
Experiment with different shapes
You’ll probably roll your truffles into ball shapes but you don’t have to. There are lots of different moulds available and they can make even plain chocolate look exciting. For Christmas, why not opt for star or Father Christmas moulds? Star Wars fans would love chocolate shaped like Darth Vader or Storm Troopers and if the person you’re giving them to has green fingers, why not opt to make their chocolates flower shaped?
For children, you could have a go at making your own lollipops by adding a lolly pop stick to a large circular chocolate before it sets. If you buy an alphabet mould, you could even write their names in white chocolate to make the lollipops more special.
Think about presentation
You have lots of options when it comes to choosing the packaging for your chocolates. You could put them in colourful boxes, transparent treat bags or wrap them in brown paper. Using colourful ribbon or string can be a great finishing touch, and why not make some handmade gift tags too?
Why not try our delicious baked treats which also make perfect gifts?
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