Easy Chocolate Hearts

As a parent, I can't let Valentine's Day go by without a little something for the offspring! At least until they have a girlfriend then I can pass the baton!

My son has been after some of those slipper boots for ages (ones like his Dads preferably!), and as I got some for Christmas he is even more keen to have some. So off I went to track some down, scouring the internet for styles and sizes. You would not believe how hard they were to come by! If you have small children you can find a whole host of them and if you want them for yourself there are again hundreds to choose from. If you want them for a tween age child, however, you can forget it! I guess perhaps most tweens wouldn't find them cool? My son rarely follows the crowd (except if it's Minecraft or Loom bands) so couldn't care less if they are the must have thing or not.

Surprisingly Asda came up trumps with a nice pair at only £6.00! They are similar to his Dads so he will be chuffed to beans when he gets them.

Not bad huh? They feel very cosy and I have been wearing mine a lot as they keep my toes so warm and I am not normally a slipper person!

I wanted to get him something else to go with it. something a bit more Valentined themed. I am such a sucker for holidays, decorations and themes are my thing! Naturally being a kid and a human, he loves chocolate! I saw some chocolate hearts in Next that looked fun and knew they would be easy to reproduce. I started thinking about using a cookie cutter to pour melted chocolate into. I did think that the chocolate would probably seep out the bottom so scrapped that idea! I had small heart molds but had my heart set on making a big one! I then remembered that I had acquired some silicone heart molds from my Mum that I had never used. I had a look at those and was really pleased when I saw the size of them. Perfect for making one large choccy heart!

I used milk chocolate for mine and just bought some basic stuff as my kid is not very fussy! Of course you could make this very fancy by using more high end chocolate.

I decided to switch it up a bit by adding mini marshmallows to the chocolate as well as some flavouring. My son loves pretty much anything cinnamon flavoured (just like me!) so that was the natural choice.

I bought a bunch of these extracts from Amazon. They are pretty intense and about 6 drops equals a tsp. 

I started by breaking and melting a bar and half of chocolate in the microwave in small bursts. The bars are 100g each and I used 2 bars. I started with 1 min, then reduced down to 30 seconds for 2 more bursts, stiring each time. Once the chocolate was melted and smooth, I added 6 drops of the cinnamon extract. I did sample to make sure it wasn't too intense and then poured it into one of the molds.

Mmm melted chocolate! Cannot get enough! This filled the cavity about half way. 

I then added some mini marshmallows and pressed these gently into the chocolate. I think next time I would add glace cherries or nuts along with the marshmallows.

I didn't need them to be completely immersed in the chocolate. I then melted the other half bar of chocolate, added a couple of drops of extract, then poured this over the top of the marshmallows, smoothing it down with a spoon.

I popped this in the fridge and left it for about an hour. I did check after half an hour to see how it was setting and of course all fridges are different.

I then took it out of the fridge and carefully peeled away the mold. I didn't need any greasing of the mold for this, it just came out cleanly and easily.

One perfect looking heart! The marshmallows are now near the bottom and I am left with a glossy plain top. Looking at the size of it, it's going to take him a while to get through it!

To wrap this up, I used some greaseproof baking paper and tissue paper.

I set the heart in the middle of the baking paper and cut a piece of tissue paper to match. I carefully folded the greaseproof paper up and did the same with the tissue paper securing it in place with some tape. I then finished it off with a red bow to keep it in the Valentine's spirit!

Seeing as I wrapped this loosely you cannot tell what is inside, or the shape of it. You could wrap up in coloured foil or even use some royal icing and write a message on the top.

I can't wait to see his face on Saturday!

Hope cupid brings you a nice treat!