Effortlessly Make Chocolate Bowls With One Simple Balloon Hack
If you're looking for a fun way to serve up some desserts at your next party, consider making some chocolate bowls. The bowls will be functional for holding your dessert, and then eaten as a fun way to finish off your food — no additional cleanup required. And, to make it easy to form the bowls, you can employ the help of some balloons.
All you'll need to do is blow up some small balloons and dip them in perfectly melted chocolate. Then, allow them to rest so the chocolate can solidify again. Once the chocolate has cooled, just pop the balloons and carefully peel them out of the chocolate cup. Then you can fill the bowls with your favorite sweets, like ice cream, fruit, or pudding.
Before you begin, you'll want to blow up those balloons. Thicker balloons will withstand the heat better and will be less likely to pop when you're working with them. Be careful not to blow them up too much, either. If the balloons are too big, they may not be the right shape for the bowls. If you really want to make sure your edible chocolate bowls stay small, you could use a package of water balloons, rather than the standard size. Once you've blown them up, wash them with some dish soap and rinse them off, ensuring that they'll be food-safe.
How to make the chocolate bowls
Once your balloons are blown up, washed, and dried, you'll want to melt some chocolate in a heat-safe bowl. This can be done in short microwaved intervals, or on the stovetop in a double boiler, be careful not to overheat the chocolate. Once the chocolate is smooth and somewhat cooled, take the balloons and carefully spray a small amount of nonstick spray on each.
Then, dip them in one by one, pushing down just enough and moving them around gently to form the chocolate into a bowl shape as it clings to the balloon. Slowly remove the balloon from the melted chocolate, and place it on a piece of parchment paper to cool down, with the bottom of the bowl resting on the parchment.
As the chocolate cools down and solidifies, it will maintain the bowl shape, thanks to the balloon holding its shape. When it's completely hardened, you'll need to pop each balloon in order to remove it. But be careful — quickly popping it could cause the chocolate bowls to break from the force. Instead, carefully snip the neck of the balloon near where it's been tied off. This will allow the air to escape more slowly, rather than in a sudden burst.
Try different types of chocolate for your cups
As the balloon shrivels and detaches from the chocolate bowls, you'll be left with edible dishware to serve your desserts in. If you're hosting a birthday party, they can be a super fun addition to a build-your-own ice cream bar. Or, if you want to add some extra sweetness to your other desserts, you can serve pudding or fruit salad in them.
Simply dipping the balloon in chocolate is the easiest way to achieve the bowl shape. But if you want to amplify the appearance even more, you could try melting different chocolates and drizzling them on. To start, dip the balloon in milk chocolate to make the base of the bowl. Then, once it's hardened, melt white chocolate and dark chocolate. Turn the balloon upside down, and drizzle the other chocolates over the bowl to create some different colored designs. Or, to brighten things up, you could coat the entire exterior in sprinkles before the chocolate solidifies.
The best part about the process is that there will be minimal cleanup required. Instead of having to wash your bowl out after eating, you can just break off small pieces and enjoy some extra chocolate.