Name: Hot chocolate stirrers
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 3 min
Total time: 13 min
Yield: makes 6
Ingredients: sunflower oil for greasing; 300g dark, milk or white chocolate (or a mixture), broken into squares; selection of chocolate buttons, hundreds and thousands mini fudge pieces or chopped peppermint candy canes

sunflower oil
for greasing
300g dark, milk or white chocolate
(or a mixture), broken into squares

To decorate

selection of chocolate buttons, hundreds and thousands
mini fudge pieces or chopped peppermint candy canes

Method

step 1
You will need:
6 cupcake cases, pencil, pastry brush, 6 empty 47g fromage frais pots (washed and dried), 6 wooden lolly sticks, cellophane and string or ribbon for wrapping, 6 gift tags
Push a small hole in the middle of the cupcake cases with a pencil and put aside for later.
step 2
Dip the pastry brush in the sunflower oil and paint a very thin layer of oil over the insides of the fromage frais pots.
step 3
Put the chocolate in a bowl and heat in the microwave in 30-sec bursts until runny, stirring after each blast. Or melt it in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (get an adult to help you). If you’re using different types of chocolate, you should melt them separately.
step 4
Carefully pour the melted chocolate into the pots. Put a lolly stick in the middle of each and sprinkle your chosen decorations around it.
step 5
Sit a cake case on top of each pot so that it covers the chocolate and the stick pokes through the hole. Put them in the fridge to set overnight.
step 6
The next day, carefully pull the chocolates out of the pots and throw away the paper cases. Wrap each in cellophane tied with string and write a tag to read: ‘Simply stir into hot milk.’