❦I had hoped to be able to do a BETTER, step by step Valentines Day post/recipe…maybe even feature more than one item. Time eludes me though and I don’t even have time to put together one the way I would like. Maybe next year I’ll re-feature this one step by step, but for now I thought I’d at least share it anyway.
❦CHOCOLATE TOPIARY❦
❦ I did 2 of these for my Valentines Day Wedding in 2004. I put them on our cake table. They were a big hit! Bigger than I expected! I had intended them only as decoration for some silly reason. I was shocked when I walked by the table and saw that people had started to eat it! LOL! ( Of course people were going to eat it!….who isn’t going to eat chocolate put out on a table?)
❦Here’s what they looked like by the end of the wedding! 
❦The “naked” picture here should give you a good idea of how I put this together. I found the 2 tier topiaries to use for the wedding, but these can be done with 1 tier and given as a valentines day gift. You can even make your own topiary form using foam and thick dowels. A 1 tier topiary would be a great Valentines Day gift or a great centerpiece for a small table.
❦Materials:
*Topiary form
*Small paint brush-don’t use a foam brush, the chocolate hardens in it.
*1- 2 bags Chocolate candy melts.
*Toothpicks
*Clay pot painted the best Chocolate brown you can find
* Chocolate candy ( a mix of milk & dark chocolate look best): boxes of assorted chocs, {We got those big huge boxes of Assorted Chocolates that Wal-Mart sells around Christmas and Valentines Day} Any miniature candy (Snickers, Reeses cups, Celebrations,small turtles, small peppermint patties) Since I did mine for Valentines, I was able to get heart shaped candies too. You need all different shapes to make it look best!
❦Instructions:
1. Paint pot ahead of time.
2. Put topiary form in pot.
3. Melt Candy melts in double boiler (or microwave would probably work) you don’t have to melt them all at once, wait and see how much it takes.
4. Using a paintbrush, paint the entire form in chocolate. (the posts too). It won’t look perfectly smooth, but most of it doesn’t need to look perfect.
5. Now you just start arranging the candies. This might take a while. It’s like a puzzle. I found it easiest to put the toothpicks in the topiary where I wanted the candy, and then put the candy on the toothpick. Sometimes I used 2 picks if the candy was wide or heavy. Some toothpicks I broke in half. You may have to rearrange. Put a different shape or color candy in place of another to make it look best.
❦I made my topiaries 2 or 3 days before the wedding. When I was done, I wrapped it up with Saran Wrap to keep the candy from getting dried out and yucky.
These would also make great Christmas gifts. Do a white chocolate one or use a completely different candy. Get creative!
For a kid’s party I did one entirely made from mini tootsie pops with the stick stuck in the foam. It was pretty cute.
If you can find it, I originally saw the idea in the Winter edition of (Woman’s Day Specials) SandraLee Semi-Homemade Holidays magazine. Volume XIII Number 2.
