Chocolate Substitute Ideas, Please!

[Anonymous]

Hello!

My husband is currently deployed overseas, and the kids and I are thinking of projects to send to him. One idea we've come up with is to make plaster cast molds of our hands, fill them with melted chocolate, and them let them harden. The only problem is that by the time our edible hands reach the desert they'll be a melted mess! What could we use as a substitute? Something we can melt and pour, but something that won't melt TOO easily. Any ideas would be HUGELY appreciated!

Thank you!

Julianna

[Norma]

If you're wanting to make it an "edible" creation, you could use a hard candy mixture, like that used for lollipops.
Here's a basic recipe from an old Betty Crocker Cookbook. I would think a buttered mold could be used, in place of the instructions for making the lollipops.

1/4 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. light corn syrup
3/4 c. sugar
few drops food color

Lightly butter baking sheet, 15-1/2"x12". Arrange sticks on sheet. Combine butter, syrup, and sugar in heavy 1 qt. pan. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stir occasionally. Reduce heat to medium. Continue cooking, stir frequently, to 270 degrees on candy thermometer (or until a few drops of syrup dropped into very cold water separate into threads which are hard but not brittle.).
Drop by tablespoonfuls over end of each lollipop stick. If desired, while hot, press on candy decorations. Cool throughly and remove. If desired, to decorate after cooling, brush underside of candy decorations with corn syrup and press onto lollipops.

[Anonymous]

THANK YOU! What a great idea!

[kitchenelf]

Kewl idea Norma!!!! I was sitting here with no clue while I was reading this Guest!

If you wear your ring while you are making the plaster mold you can take some paint used by bakers and color your band/diamond.