Sweets for my sweet: Easy sweeties for Brownies

This is the third in my series of Activity Plans - this was put together with Brownies in mind. But, with a little adaptation would be suitable for Guides or even Rainbows, with the right ratios. 


For us, this is no cook as at Brownies we don't have access to a cooker. But it makes it even easier. 

<!--[endif]-->	For reference, Brownies are aged 7 - 10 Break the girls up into sixes/ small groups of 6-8
No-cook sweets
Equipment: Clean hands Petit four cases (like baby fairy cake cases) Toothpicks Clean tables/ placemats Plastic beakers

Ingredients: 1 large packet fondant icing Peppermint flavouring/ essence Green food colouring (optional) Glace cherries Dark/ milk chocolate Dates Marzipan 250g sweetened condensed milk 250g icing sugar , sifted, plus extra for dusting 200g dessicated coconut Pink food colouring , optional This easily makes 2 of each sweet for 12 ish girls	We did this activity for Mothering Sunday and used cheap boxes that the girls decorated to put their sweets in. It would be ideal if you're trying to get ready for a fundraiser in meetings.
Peppermint cream Instructions: Split the block of fondant icing into 24 pieces (you can easily be more thrifty for a larger group – to be fair we could have easily halved the amount the girls get) Give each girl 2 pieces of fondant, and get the girls to knead their pieces so that they get soft – try to stop them before they get too sticky! Using their thumbs, make a dint in each piece of fondant Either get the girls to add a drop or two of peppermint essence (not too much or it smells of mouthwash) and knead it in. Or if you’ve got smaller girls you can do this. Now, we gave our girls the option of adding green food colouring, which most chose. Again this just needs a drop, which the girls knead in. Shape the sweets, roll them in icing sugar, and put them in petit four cases. Choco-cherries Give each girl two glace cherries and two toothpicks. Put enough plastic beakers or mugs (not disposable cups) in a roasting tray or washing up bowl that has recently boiled water in it. Add 3 – 4 squares of chocolate to each cup and get the girls to stir their chocolate until it melts. This is basically a super safe bain-marie Now with a cherry on each toothpick, stir the cherry around in the melted chocolate until it’s all covered. Once the girls have done both their cherries, put them in the petit-four cases. Marzipan dates Using a safe knife, supervise the girls splitting each date in half lengthwise Add a small slice of marzipan into the cut Put in petit-four cases Coconut Ice We did this with our sixers, as there’s a bit more work involved in this sweet. In a bowl, mix the condensed milk and sugar together until it starts to get really hard. Now add the dessicated coconut. Knead this in with your hands and make it into a big square Split the square into two, and (if you want) colour one half with the pink food colouring. Now cut each half into twelve pieces (again this quantity would easily double that) The girls can either stick the pink and white pieces together or keep them separate.	Check your joining notes for allergies – between the coconut ice and the marzipan you need to be careful with girls who have food allergies. All cutting must be supervised. With melting the chocolate, again close supervision is required With older girls I would print out the instructions for each sweet and get each Patrol to make up a batch of one type. They could easily microwave the chocolate, and you could add to this with chocolate truffles (another activity plan I promise) Usual kitchen safety rules/ washing up apply.
Pricing – to help you budget <!--[endif]--> I couldn’t find green food colouring on Sainsbury’s but the other colours were all 79p each.