frozen Troll Truffles 

A rolling Troll gathers moss and knows a lot about love! Take your

-themed birthday party from cool to chocolaty with these Troll truffle treats. Your enthusiastic little helpers won’t want to stop baking.

Black chocolate “dipping wafers” or “candy melts”

Green Easter basket candy “grass” or green licorice pieces

Individual paper or foil candy cups (optional)

For slightly sweeter truffles, substitute cream-cheese icing for the softened cream cheese.

Stir a small portion of your crumbs into the grey dipping chocolate, if you wish, to give the trolls a suitably “pebbled” complexion.

As an alternative to cake crumbs, you can make cookie crumbs by pulsing chocolate wafer cookies or sandwich cookies in your food processor.

Prepare your favorite chocolate cake, either mix or scratch-baked, ahead of time in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan. Once it has cooled, break it into pieces and then crumble the pieces into a mixing bowl to make fine crumbs. This is a very kid-friendly step, if you\'re focused more on fun than time-efficiency.

Soften a cup of cream cheese in your microwave, until it\'s easily spreadable but not melted. Spoon it into the bowl of cake crumbs, and combine them thoroughly. A stand mixer with a paddle attachment will do this in mere moments. Small helpers can do it by hand in 15 to 20 minutes, and enjoy it immensely. The finished mixture should feel like soft dough, and hold together when you shape it into a ball.

Scoop the mixture into rough balls about the size of a golf ball, then roll the balls between your palms to shape them into spheres. Use your fingers to shape the sphere into a pear shape, to mimic the top of the trolls’ cone-shaped head. You should have 15 to 20 cake truffles, depending on their size. Arrange the cake balls on a parchment-lined sheet pan and refrigerate for about 2 hours until chilled.

Unwrap several chocolate chewy candies, and warm them for a few seconds in your microwave to soften them slightly. Use a small, sharp knife to cut slices from the candies. Squeeze these flat and shape them in to the trolls’ slightly pointed ears. Knead additional pieces of candy into small pear shapes to make troll noses. Set aside.

Fill a heatproof bowl or measuring cup with white chocolate melting wafers or finely chopped regular white chocolate. Microwave it in 15-second increments, stirring every time, until it\'s mostly melted. Take it out of the microwave, and add several black-tinted melting wafers – available at craft stores, or the baking section of many supermarkets – and stir it until it melts. This should give you a pale troll-grey chocolate for dipping. If necessary, add more of the black-tinted chocolate, a half-wafer at a time, and stir until it\'s well mixed. You might need to warm the white chocolate again in your microwave.

Tip: If the melted chocolate begins to separate, stir in a teaspoon of vegetable shortening to smooth it out.

Take the candy ears and noses you made previously, and dip each one into the grey chocolate, stick a toothpick into the back of each piece to make dipping easier. Lay dipped pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill for a few minutes until set.

Take your chilled truffles out of the fridge. Gently lower the first into your bowl of grey chocolate, on the tines of a fork. Once it\'s completely covered, lift the truffle from the chocolate and hold it in place a moment so the excess can drip off. Gently draw the bottom of the fork across the edge of your bowl to remove a bit more chocolate.

When the grey chocolate has slightly hardened, but still soft, attach ears and a nose to each one. Press a smaller pinch of green grass or candy between the ears, for troll hair. An adult should do the dipping, but kids can take charge of placing the candy grass.

Optional: Place a pinch of green Easter-basket grass candy on the baking sheet, to make a troll collar, and set the still-wet truffle on top of it.

Return the truffles to your refrigerator for another 30 minutes, until the chocolate coating has set and is firm to the touch.

Optional: You can also roll a truffle ball in ½ inch pieces of edible grass for a more textured look, to mimic their compact shape when the trolls get rolling around.

Melt a small quantity of dark chocolate, or chocolate chips, in your microwave. Pour it into a sandwich bag, and cut a tiny hole in one corner of the bag. Pipe chocolate through the hole to make dots on each truffle, for the eyes. Place each individual troll in its own candy-paper cup, if you wish, or simply serve them on a platter.

Optional: Skip the chocolate and attach little candy eyes to each truffle.

Tagged as: Desserts, Frozen Birthday Party, Frozen, Parties

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