My daughter is a genius!

Correction – My OLDEST daughter is a genius!  (She wanted me to let you know this was her idea.)

At least in my eyes she’s a genius because I have very few original ideas of my own.  I borrow ideas very well but original ideas are few and far in between.  She can think outside of the box whereas I’m the type of person who thinks outside of the box only if there is a hole in it that I can see through. 

She’s always been our creative one.  When she was young, she had two imaginary friends, Conan (pronounced Con nan) and Tanan (Tae nan).  I didn’t mind her imaginary friends because for the most part, they behaved.  If she wanted to argue with someone, she’d argue with them.  It took a load off of me having those two around.  I rarely got to/had to play with her.  I don’t think I was creative enough for her in our make believe play so she opted to make up more interesting friends than her mamma.  I don’t hold that against her.  She’s a good girl!

So when I want a unique idea, I call upon her to come up with one and she didn’t fail me.  The bunny and duck pretzels have taken Pinterest by storm in the past 2 weeks.  I found them somewhere on the internet last year and I have no clue where I first saw them.  If you see this post and came up with the idea, please let me know so I can give you proper credit.  I have had them posted on my Sugar Buzz Pantry website since last spring and now have had over 76,000 people repin the photo. Yes 76,000!   

That’s when I called upon Super Girl to come up with an awesome pretzel idea.  I sat her down at the counter and said “You are not allowed to have any fun until you come up with a great idea!”  Good parenting – huh?  So she took the pretzels, moved them around a bit and within 10 – 15 minutes came up with the ladybug and the Pacman crew and a few other ideas that I shot down because they would have been too hard to make.  Guess she had more fun things to do than hang out with her old mom. 

These are easy to make.  You just need –

• Twist pretzels – you can use the small or the large size or mix it up and use both.
• Candy melts in different colors depending on the design.  

And some accents. 

• Black pearls for the ladybug spots but mini chocolate chips would work as well.
• Brown M&Ms – bonus is you can eat the other colors by the handful. 
• Royal icing eyes – if you can’t find these you can also use a little bit of white chocolate and a black edible marker to make them.  I have seen the eyes in craft stores in the cake decorating aisle. 
• Orange colored chocolate covered sunflower seeds.  I’ve only found these online and at Michaels and they come in many different colors.  They are not cheap so an orange Tic Tac would work as well.
• Americolor Edible Markers – There are lots of edible marker brands out there but I have found that the Americolor brand works best on chocolate because of the oil in the chocolate.  Other brands are more water based and don’t work as well.

Many of these items can be found in my Amazon Store right here.  Just go up to “Shop” or click here.

Not only are these pretzels some of the cutest things you’ve ever seen but when you mix chocolate and pretzels together – O-M-G!  You’ll think you just tasted a little piece of heaven.

Thank you Super Girl for the genius ideas!

Ladybug, Bunny, Duck and Pacman Pretzels

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 - 30 minutes set time

Total Time: 25 - 40 minutes

This recipe is easy to make and fun for kids of all ages to participate in.

1 pound bag of candy coating will do at least 45 - 50 small twist pretzels. It really depends on how much chocolate you put into the pretzel and the size of your pretzels.

Ingredients:

Items Needed
Nonstick Mat
Twist Pretzels – any size
Candy Coating – either white, yellow, red, blue
Small Spoon
Accents
• M&Ms
• Royal Icing eyes
• Black Pearls or mini chocolate chips
• Orange Chocolate Coated Sunflower Seeds (found at a craft store) or orange Tic Tacs
• Edible Markers – Americolor Edible Markers work best on chocolate
• Large heart s for Ms. Pacman’s bow

Directions:

1. Place pretzels on a Nonstick Mat.
2. Melt candy coating according to package directions.
3. Once candy coating is melted, spoon a small amount inside each pretzel until the holes are filled.
4. For the ladybug – place the eyes on the M&M with a dab of chocolate and let set. While the red chocolate is still wet, place the black pearls or mini chocolate chip spots on the back of the ladybug and then add the M&M head.
5. For the duck – add the orange bill and the black pearl eye before the chocolate sets.
6. For the Pacman crew – place the eyes and bows on the corresponding character before the chocolate sets.
7. For the bunny – let the chocolate set 15 – 30 minutes before you start to draw the face with the edible markers. Wipe the markers off after each use. Sometimes the oils from the chocolate can clog the openings of the marker and they won’t work as well.

Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks – if they last that long.