Fiesta Favors: Tasty Chili Peppers

Our little muchacha is turning 2 this weekend! In celebration we are having a Cinco de Mayo themed party of course! Needless to say this week is going to be bananas (nevermind the fact that I thought it would be an excellent idea to begin painting this kitchen this week as well)! One of the weekend tasks was to make cupcake toppers. A friend of mine sent me an idea for chili peppers and I was sold. They are so easy and turned out adorable...I have to make yellow and orange peppers later this week too. So here is how you make them:

YOU WILL NEED:

Tootsie Roll midgees, pretzel rods, candy melts in green and red (or more colors if you want other peppers), wax paper, sprinkles (Optional)

First step, take your pretzel rods and break them in half (this may not be needed, but my rods seemed extra long???). Then, heat up the Tootsie Rolls in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Lesson learned: Any longer makes a VERY big chocaltey mess

The rolls will be smooshy

Take the smooshy Tootsies and push the pretzel through them

Once on the rod, smooth the roll around a bit to make the pepper shape:

 I am using very technical language for this. Work with me. They also do not look all that adorable at this point. Have faith!

Let those cool off and harden. Then you will take your candy melts and follow the instructions on the bag to melt them.

 Melt the color of the pepper first (the green is for the stem and you are not ready for that step yet)...Dip the pretzels in the candy and place on wax paper like this:

                                                        I made green peppers too:

 When they cool and harden (you will be able to touch and pick them up without squishing the candy...they will be hard)...you melt your green and dip the tips. For the green ones, after I dipped them in the green, I sprinkled green sugar sprinkles on the ends to make them darker green.

 Once you have done that, you end up with this:

Ta da! You can remove them from the wax paper once they are dry. These will go on cookies and cupcakes for the party in various colors. The green ones are pretty snazzy with the sprinkles but I didn't get a picture of them. I will share when they are on the cupcakes!

I also made marshmallow Mexican flags that I will share later!

Whew only 900 other things to nail down this week!!