Chocolate Dessert Cups made using Balloons

Who doesn’t love chocolates? For most dessert means chocolate. How cool is the idea of serving your dessert in a chocolate bowl?! I mean all edible dessert bowl! Well it’s not my original idea, I found a number of videos on making chocolate cups/bowls using balloons, silicon cups, aluminium cups, plastic cups, yes the options are numerous!

I am very excited to show you how to make chocolate dessert cups/bowls filled with fresh whipped cream and fresh fruits. Fill the bowls with whipped cream, fresh fruits, ice cream, some chocolate mousse, any thing. These are just too cute to serve at a spring brunch party, kids birthday party.

All you need is chocolate and balloons. It is very easy to make, but there are chances of failures if you do not follow some of the tips and tricks.

First tip, get those tiny plain water balloons. Water balloons are the best for making chocolate cups. Second, do not over heat the chocolate while melting it. You need to just heat it to a point where it melts. Cool the melted chocolate cool before you dip the balloons. Also spraying or brushing balloons with cooking oil helps to remove the balloons easily.

You need to rest the chocolate dipped balloons for minimum 1 hour so the chocolate hardens and it becomes easy to remove the balloons from the hardened chocolate bowls. It is advisable to pop the balloons into the fridge so chocolate hardens well.

Don’t cut too big hole in a balloon as this might cause air inside the balloon to escape too fast and might collapse your chocolate bowl. Instead poke a tiny hole in the balloon near it’s neck and let the air escape slowly!

You can even melt more chocolate and re-dip the balloons. Re-dipping the balloons helped to make the chocolate bowls more sturdy and less likely to break. I ran out of chocolate so that limited my option for second dipping, but I strongly recommend you do try it, to get more evenly coated chocolate cups that are sturdy!

I also noted that if you can pour the chocolate into a bowl that matches the shape of the  balloon, this will  makes the balloons dip through the chocolate perfectly well and you get a evenly coated and neat chocolate bowls. The balloons should fit into the bowl having chocolate perfectly.

Here’s how you make chocolate dessert cups/bowls-

Ingredients:-

Health Warning- Since, balloons are made of latex, wonder if this could be a concern for somebody with a latex allergy which can sometimes be life threatening. In that case PLEASE DO NOT USE BALLOONS to make the chocolate cups, rather use silicon or aluminium cup cake molds to make chocolate bowls.

Dark chocolate – 1 cup
Balloons – few(based on the number of bowls you plan to make and serve)
Parchment paper – to set the balloons

FOr filling-
Whipped cream or ice cream or chocolate mousse
Fresh fruits

Instructions:-

1. Wash the balloons and using a kitchen towel pat them dry. Make sure there is no water on the balloons.

2. Blow the balloons. If you find the balloons having different shapes, bowl them up and slowly squeeze the air out of the balloons to get the desired shape and then tie the top.

3. Roughly chop dark chocolate and melt them in a double boiler. Do not over heat the chocolate, heat them until they are just melted. Mix well and take it off the heat. Cool the melted chocolate. If you dip the balloons while chocolate is still hot, the balloons will pop and it’s really not fun to clean up your kitchen counter and hardened chocolate won’t come off easily.

4. It’s better to have the melted chocolate into a bowl in which the balloons will fit in and dip perfectly. This will give you evenly sized and coated chocolate bowls.

5. Use the back of a spoon to make a small circle of chocolate on the parchment paper on which balloons will be set. This will help form the base of the chocolate bowls.

6. Brush the balloons with cooking oil. Holding the top of the balloon dip it into the melted chocolate and set them on the chocolate circles on the parchment paper.

7. Allow the chocolate to harden. I recommend to pop them into the fridge for about an hour so the chocolate hardens and sets well.

8. At this point you can melt more chocolate cool them and re dip the balloons to get more sturdy bowls. I skipped the step and you can see my chocolate bowls are a bit delicate.

9. Using a needle or pin poke a tiny hole near the knot and let the air out of the balloons slowly. If you pop the balloon too quickly the bowls may break.

10. While the air escapes from the balloons and deflate, carefully pull the balloons away from the chocolate bowls. Once all air escapes remove the balloons from the bowls.

11. Carefully remove the chocolate cups from the parchment paper and place them on serving plates. These chocolate cups are very delicate, and they will tend to loose it’s shape. Pop them into the fridge until you are ready to serve them.

12. Just before serving fill the chocolate cups with any filling of your choice and serve. I serve with whipped cream fresh fruits in one cup and vanilla ice cream and fresh fruits in another. Serve immediately.

These cute dessert bowls are sure to be loved by everyone. A must have for your brunch parties.

Want to know what I did with the rest of the chocolate!? I pipped them and made some patterns that I used on the bowls while serving and the rest was licked off clean by my little taster at home 😀 😛

Disclaimer:

Cooking With Friends: This blog post is part of the monthly “Cooking With Friends” themed blog post challenge. This challenge was started by a bunch of virtual friends united by their love of food, with the aim of tackling a different food related theme each month. If you want to try this month’s theme, please feel free to do so and link your recipe in the comments section. We’d love to check it out. Meanwhile, check out what the others in the group have come up with this month.

Anjana from At the Corner of Happy and Harried, Garima from CafeGarima, Jayashri from My Veg Fare, Dolphia from Storyofcooks, Madhuri from MADaboutkitchen, Subhasmita from The Flavors of Kitchen, and Sujatha from Spice n Treats.

Here is a recap of my previous months’ posts.

Teriyaki Bok-Choy chicken with rice

Toddy Palm Seeds Ice cream

Non Alcoholic Sangria