January birthdays are always difficult. I find I tend to spend a lot of time in the build up to Christmas thinking about pressies and what friends and family would like or what would make them feel special, but as soon as Christmas is over, all my ideas go out the window! However, my Dad (who is quite difficult to buy for anyway) has a birthday at the end of January, so each year I have to try to save some present-coming-up-with-brain-energy post Christmas. During the last couple of years I’ve made him whisky marmalade and fudge which have both gone down well, so this year I decided to carry on with the hand made tasty treat theme and make him some chocolates.
Previously, I’ve made some yummy chocolate truffles by combining cream cheese, cocoa powder and icing sugar and then rolling the mixture into balls and coating them in dessicated coconut, chopped nuts or cocoa powder. This time though, I wanted to try something new so I bought a silicone tray of chocolate moulds in assorted shapes to try to make the finished chocolates look more professional. I’ve never used a silicone mould for chocolate before other than in an attempt to make teacakes once, so if anyone has any tips on using them effectively or pictures of chocolates they’ve made using them do let me know!
My Dad and I always used to sneak into the larder and eat raisins together when I was little so I decided to include some in my recipe, but to make the gift more interesting than simply chocolate coated raisins I soaked them in amaretto before using them.
I used both white and dark melted chocolate and really just made it up as I went along, putting raisins in the bottom of some moulds and then adding the chocolate, in the centre of others after forming a chocolate shell in the mould or pushing them into almost full moulds of chocolate.
I think they turned out quite well, they taste great and Dad really liked them so I’m pleased! If you get a chance to try these perhaps try soaking the raisins in rum or using a different fruit- I think dried cherries soaked in cherry brandy or just normal brandy could be delicious!
I also made my Dad’s card using origami this year. I first got into origami when I was about 11 or 12, I love the neatness of the finished product, though I can never make my edges line up perfectly! For this card I made an origami star using a tutorial from origami-instructions.com which you can find here, then glued it to the front of a plain white card.
And that’s it! Now to start thinking about February birthday and valentines presents…!
Joy Being Creative 