Friday 19 August 2011

Chocolate & Sugar Mice Recipes (& a giveaway too !)


Aren't these chocolate mice ADORABLE ? I had such good fun making them. These are dark chocolate and filled with hazelnut ganache.

 I made a load of traditional sugar mice too, with traditional cotton tails..... just because... ! The chocolate ones in the hand made box above are in the post to my mum. Hopefully they will have arrived today. 

The sugar mice went to nursery (after Oliver scoffed a couple). He kept telling me "They're just so cute Mummy !". I must admit - I had fun photographing those.... with their cheeky little noses poking out the bag !


Incase you haven't already guessed, this is another brand new silicone mould in our chocolate collection series. You can find it here. Oven safe up to +260deg C - so you could also make some little mice Madeleines. If you do - I'd love to see those !


If you look closely at the mould, you will see that the three mice on the left have tails, whilst the three on the right do not. This is no accident ! Traditional sugar mice have cotton tails inserted into them, whilst I thought chocolate mice would look better with their tails curled up their backs. Having some with and some without felt like the right thing to do - so you have both options in just one mould

Chocolate Mice with Hazlenut Ganache

melt some good quality chocolate 
(I like to use Callebaut - which comes in milk, dark and white)

Put about a heaped teaspoon or so (until well covered) in each mould. Use the back of the teaspoon to coat the inside of each cell. Pay particular attention to the ears and tails to make sure there are no air bubbles in there !


Once this is done, pop the mould in the fridge for 5 mins or so until the chocolate hardens.

Meantime, make some ganache as a filling.

350g of good quality chocolate (dark, milk or plain)
1 cup of double cream
2 tablespoons of butter
* small amount of your favourite alchohol - can be ommitted

I additionally added approx 2 tablespoons of chopped, roasted hazelnuts.

Put the cream in a pan and bring to the boil. Immediately, remove from the heat and our straight on to the chocolate. Keep stirring the chocolate and cream until all melted and combined. Stir in the butter until combined. If adding alcohol - you can add up to about 50ml now and stir to combine.



Whilst the ganache is pouring consistency (but cool) you can pour into the chocolate mice shells. There will be enouh ganache to make about 40 mice ! Remaining ganache can be chilled in the fridge. You can spoon this into more mice later - or hand roll to make truffles


Top each mouse cell with some more melted chocolate to seal. Chill again in the fridge to harden before releasing from the moulds.

Warning - these "beg" to be eaten..... and make delightful gifts. I've already promised Oliver we'll make a load for his friends when it's his birthday !

SUGAR MICE RECIPE
(makes approx 7)

200g sugarpaste / rolling type fondant icing
tiny little bit of water
flavouring extract
food colouring
cotton string - for tails !

Sugar mice are made from little except sugar and glucose.
The easiest way to make them is by traditional methods and I made a few batches of these to get them just right and write a recipe.

The sugarpaste / rolling icing is the stuff you can buy in premade blocks in the supermarkets, suitable for rolling out to cover cakes.... same as they have used to make every factory produced sugar mouse

Cut the string to make tails - about 3" long. Put a tail into each cell. This needs done now, as the mixture starts to set the second you pour it and the tails would not stick hen I tried to place them on top immediately after pouring.

Chop up 200g and place in a small saucepan. Add a tablespoon of water (be aware you may need to add a little more), a tiny bit of food colouring and a capful of flavouring extract. We used mint, orange and strawberry (made 3 batches). Turn on the heat and bring up to just below boiling point, until the icing is melted and thick, but pourable. You may need to add a little more water. The icing will crust in the pan and start setting even on the heat. Give it a good stir and pour into each cell.

On pouring each one, Pull the cotton tail (covered in sugar mix) back out and pop it on the top (to become the base)


Leave the mice to harden for approx 30mins until cool and then they'll practically fall out the mould. The mould needs no preparation for sugar or chocolate mice - but will require greasing and flouring if you want to make little mice cakes.

Leave to harden for a couple of days before using food colouring pens (or a brush) to put on the eyes and noses. I did mine straight away, and the colour bled a little as the mice hadn't matured. Saying that - they didn't last long enough to mature !

And a GIVEAWAY......It's been a while since we did one of these !

To enter, you need to be a blog follower and leave a comment below..... 
Oliver will draw one winner out a hat next Friday :-)

The prize is going to be a set of 4 silicone chocolate moulds (buttons, mice, handbags & shoes, plus another new one I've not taken photos of yet), plus a digital thermometer (suitable for chocolate, making sweets, jam etc). I've also got a little chocolate melting pot (240v) if the winner is in the UK. If the winner is overseas, I'll substitute it with a cupcake book - Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (the chocolate cupcakes in second last post was a recipe adapted from that book)

Good Luck !



Sarah-Jane Nash, August 11 - www.siliconemoulds.com

34 comments:

  1. I love reading your Blog, you have got me thinking about making Soap for Christmas presents and i LOVE reading about you baking! Oliver - Pick this one!! =)

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  2. Those mice look so cute. I hope that Oliver will draw my comment, because I enjoy making praline with silicone moulds.

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  3. Oh my Oliver and his platinum hair! I have a four year old son who could be his twin :)
    This is a fantastic giveaway and I hope that I am lucky enough for Oliver to pick me.
    I just want to add as a side note that your creativity and photography are wonderful and truly make reading your blog so enjoyable.

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  4. Love these fab mice, they look good enough to eat LOL. Thanks for the chance of winning the fab giveaway. Got my button mould yesterday thanks, just need the time to play with it. Fingers crossed that Oliver picks me!!! Hugs Jillx

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  5. What adorable mice Sarah! :P I bet Oliver enjoyed them so much....Yummy too esp the chocolate ones.

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  6. How adorable are these little mice! It would be hard to devour them, they are so cute. Thanks for sharing these chocolatey critters!

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  7. WOW, what an amazing giveaway, Please could I join in. I only found your blog the other day, when I was on ebay :) I love it :) It's so nice that you go to the trouble of giving us the recipes to go with the moulds as well :)
    Sue Xxx

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  8. This looks too cute to eat! How adorable! =]

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  9. I am a blog follower! I love these, they are so cute!

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  10. The mice are adorable! Reminds me so much of my childhood, I haven't had one for years. I'm not surprised Oliver enjoyed them so much!

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  11. These are so cute on one hand, but on the other they kind of scare me, lol. I live next to a field and have seem far too many of the real ones. I have to say the sugar ones are my favorite! Hope you have a lovely weekend.
    -Gina-

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  12. How adorable are those chocolate and sugar mice, and of course, Oliver? Thanks for running this fab giveaway, I've never won anything but one can only hope ;-). Oh btw, I've been a follower of this blog for a while, I'm addicted to your moulds!

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  13. I'm a follower....and the mice are absolutely adorable!

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  14. Your son is so cute! I love the creative pics you took of the mice too.

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  15. I live in the U.S. and have been searching for sugar mice moulds. I haven't found any here. They all seem to be in the U.K. I'll cross my fingers that I might win the drawing! :) They are adorable!

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  16. Suc a cutie! ANd he is helping you with the chocolate mice.

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  17. The mice looks so cute and adorable.

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  18. Ooh, thanks for this opportunity - how lovely! I'm really enjoying looking through your blog, having only just discovered you while looking for soap moulds. I do, however, love creating most things, so the chocolate and sugar mice look very appealing to me. Could do with some spiders, lol, for friends of mine who are terrified of them, he, he! Inspirational blog. Thank you!

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  19. Eek! So cute - haven't seen these in years - perfect for Christmas pressies.

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  20. These are cute and they look really appealing to me. This is my first visit to your blog, so I took sometime to browse through your earlier entries. I'm so glad I did that. You've created a great place for your readers to visit and I really enjoyed the time I spent here. I'll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  21. I remember seeing them in FB...they are just too adorable Sarah specially sugar ones with tails...i can imagine oliver's reaction :)

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  22. I love all your things you create and you make me spend my money lol It would be nice to win the giveaway as I want all those moulds anyway.

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  23. I love all your things you create and you make me spend my money lol Good job we live not far away.
    It would be nice to win the giveaway as I want all those moulds anyway.

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  24. I love all your things you create and you make me spend my money lol Good job we live not far away.
    It would be nice to win the giveaway as I want all those moulds anyway.

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  25. GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED. WINNER IS : Gina - http://www.spcookiequeen.com/

    Gina, I fly up to Scotland in 5 hours (and have not yet gone to bed !) Email me your address and I'll get your goodies off to you when I return in a week.

    Thanks to everyone else for all your comments.

    Have a great weekend x

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  26. just made some sugar mice !! I used leftover fondant from a recent cake that had gone hard and would have been thrown away - just to try? and it worked perfectly !!bonus - recycled sugar mice x

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  27. brilliant! having just purchased the mould for the cute little mice, me and my children harvey,3 and maisie 9 are going to be making sugar mice for ourselves this afternoon! we are using edible glitter too,violet flavouring and different colours! we are making our strings longer to have the mas edible xmas decorations for our xmas tree!Thankyou! Gemma Thompson, mum of 3!!!

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  28. sounds lovely as a Christmas tree decoration. Bet the kids have load of fun making them. Do let us see your results... they sound such fun !

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  29. So excited after seeing all your moulds for great ideas. My grandaughter is 11 and has asked for cake/sweet equipment on her Xmas list. Do so hope Oliver picks me as I would like to give her any prize to build up her cookery collection. I think it is great that she is so interested in cookery - who knows she may end up being a cookery teacher!

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  30. Thanks for the comment Barbara

    you are too late though - the giveaway was won by Gina back in August !

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  31. Bought this mould a couple of weeks ago and tried out your recipe for the sugar mice - they were brilliant and lasted one day in our house!
    Going to try the chocolate ganache mice next as a christmas gift for family - they may not make it that far!

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  32. Louise Welenkamp5 November 2012 at 13:37

    Although I've had the moulds for a while, I've only just got around to using them. I followed the fondant instructions above and now have a wonderful set of six pink but lemon tasting mice with string tails. These should go down well in the 'bake' sale for Children in Need day next week :-)

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  33. Thanks for recipe. Couple things I learnt from making the sugar version, wash mould between uses as otherwise they stick and easier to add tails after filling and use tip of sharp knife to poke them in.

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