Looking for edible babies (read on, read on)
December 9, 2014 1:04 PM Subscribe
My favorite hobby is making homemade ice cream. Next year for Mardi Gras, I'd like to do King Cake ice cream (cake flavored, with ripples of frosting). Traditionally, King Cake has a small plastic baby hidden in the cake, which is supposed to bring luck and prosperity to whomever winds up with the baby in their slice. Yeah, it's weird.
Anyway, I want to hide a baby in my ice cream, but I'd rather not use plastic. I'm hoping to use candy instead. Where can I find a small piece of candy in the shape of a baby?
My searches are bringing up "Sugar Babies" and "Baby Ruth," neither of which is shaped like a baby. I'm aware of "Chocolate Babies," but would prefer not to use these due to their troubling history (in short, they were originally called "N***** Babies").
Anyway, I want to hide a baby in my ice cream, but I'd rather not use plastic. I'm hoping to use candy instead. Where can I find a small piece of candy in the shape of a baby?
My searches are bringing up "Sugar Babies" and "Baby Ruth," neither of which is shaped like a baby. I'm aware of "Chocolate Babies," but would prefer not to use these due to their troubling history (in short, they were originally called "N***** Babies").
Here's a shop on Etsy that sells edible baby cake toppers -- although she cautions that they're not ACTUALLY meant to be eaten (?)
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 1:09 PM on December 9, 2014
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 1:09 PM on December 9, 2014
Many types of candy are going to at least partially dissolve in the ice cream mix, so even if it goes in looking like a baby, it may not come out that way. It also might get cut in half by the scoop unless it's really solid.
I think the best thing might be to drop a single round nut into the mix, maybe a hazelnut. Or perhaps a peanut M&M (since it's larger than a regular one). It'll be really easy to notice but not until after you've scooped the ice cream out.
If you were feeling truly ambitious, you could carve a large Brazil nut into the rough shape of a baby.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:12 PM on December 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
I think the best thing might be to drop a single round nut into the mix, maybe a hazelnut. Or perhaps a peanut M&M (since it's larger than a regular one). It'll be really easy to notice but not until after you've scooped the ice cream out.
If you were feeling truly ambitious, you could carve a large Brazil nut into the rough shape of a baby.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:12 PM on December 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: showbiz_liz, in my experience, if I chill the candy first, and add it to the mixture at the end of the process (while the ice cream is at "soft serve" consistency), there's no loss of structural integrity. Though you make a good point about getting cut in half--size matters here, as well as solidity.
posted by duffell at 1:14 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by duffell at 1:14 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Are you up for making the candy too?
posted by craven_morhead at 1:21 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by craven_morhead at 1:21 PM on December 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
How about a silicone or plastic baby molds that you could use to make one out of marzipan, fondant, etc.?
posted by sevenless at 1:23 PM on December 9, 2014
posted by sevenless at 1:23 PM on December 9, 2014
Seconding Liz, especially since the early versions of King Cake did use a nut.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:27 PM on December 9, 2014
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:27 PM on December 9, 2014
Sour Patch Kids? They're only humanoid if you kind of squint at them, though.
Other than that, there are some molded Baby Shower favors.
You might be better off just sculpting a baby out of marzipan. To riff on the nut idea, form the baby shape around the nut, and in case it doesn't work and the arms and legs fall off and your baby turns to a pile of sugar, you'll at least have the core nut as the remaining identifier. You could use one of those sugar BBs (that are barely edible but could survive a bombing) instead of a nut, it's more compact and impossible to break with an ice cream scoop.
Or form it around a gummy bear, those things look about as much like babies as they do like bears.
posted by aimedwander at 1:44 PM on December 9, 2014
Other than that, there are some molded Baby Shower favors.
You might be better off just sculpting a baby out of marzipan. To riff on the nut idea, form the baby shape around the nut, and in case it doesn't work and the arms and legs fall off and your baby turns to a pile of sugar, you'll at least have the core nut as the remaining identifier. You could use one of those sugar BBs (that are barely edible but could survive a bombing) instead of a nut, it's more compact and impossible to break with an ice cream scoop.
Or form it around a gummy bear, those things look about as much like babies as they do like bears.
posted by aimedwander at 1:44 PM on December 9, 2014
If the cake has frosting, you could just cut out a "plug of cake," insert the (candy) baby, then add the plug back (minus whatever the baby has displaced). Then the frosting would obscure the mess and no one would be the wiser about baby's hidey-hole! You could also address the "baby cut in half" fear by making indents into the frosting to show where slices ought to be cut.
posted by cranberrymonger at 2:10 PM on December 9, 2014
posted by cranberrymonger at 2:10 PM on December 9, 2014
Best answer: If you can find a candy mold of a baby, it'd be pretty easy to make one with chocolate (or white chocolate if you want to use food coloring to get a specific color). I haven't found anything smaller than the mold in craven_morhead's link in my brief search, but if gingerbread man molds are close enough for you there are plenty of those.
posted by Aleyn at 2:27 PM on December 9, 2014
posted by Aleyn at 2:27 PM on December 9, 2014
Best answer: cranberrymonger: note that the OP is trying to make a cake-flavored ice cream. So the advice to cut a hole and plug the hole with frosting may not fit (also, king cakes don't have frosting as such).
OP: can you clarify why you want to go a candy route, and whether this would be stored before serving, or whether it's the kind of situation where you could just stick the baby in one random bowl as you're dishing it out? That may affect suggestions, as it would let us know whether you need to worry about durability.
Another idea would be to check out a party-supply store and see what they have on hand for baby-shower supplies. Maybe a candy in the shape of a diaper pin or something, to signal "baby"? Or if you're just going to make the ice cream and want to go the "bury something in one of the bowls" approach, you could wrap a piece of chocolate in paper with a picture of a baby on it and deal with it that way.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:48 PM on December 9, 2014
OP: can you clarify why you want to go a candy route, and whether this would be stored before serving, or whether it's the kind of situation where you could just stick the baby in one random bowl as you're dishing it out? That may affect suggestions, as it would let us know whether you need to worry about durability.
Another idea would be to check out a party-supply store and see what they have on hand for baby-shower supplies. Maybe a candy in the shape of a diaper pin or something, to signal "baby"? Or if you're just going to make the ice cream and want to go the "bury something in one of the bowls" approach, you could wrap a piece of chocolate in paper with a picture of a baby on it and deal with it that way.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:48 PM on December 9, 2014
Adding on to sevenless's idea, here is a food-safe silicone mold For a 3D baby that you could use with the fondant or marzipan mentioned above or probably other things. This one may be too big (it's 1" x 2.25") but I didn't stop to look for anything smaller.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:02 PM on December 9, 2014
posted by Room 641-A at 3:02 PM on December 9, 2014
Love the idea! If it goes well you'll have to update us. Man do I love king cake!
I would go with the chocolate babies since chocolate holds up better than gummies in ice cream IMHO (although those jelly babies are too cute!).
posted by radioamy at 3:52 PM on December 9, 2014
I would go with the chocolate babies since chocolate holds up better than gummies in ice cream IMHO (although those jelly babies are too cute!).
posted by radioamy at 3:52 PM on December 9, 2014
Response by poster: EmpressCallipygos: OP: can you clarify why you want to go a candy route, and whether this would be stored before serving, or whether it's the kind of situation where you could just stick the baby in one random bowl as you're dishing it out? That may affect suggestions, as it would let us know whether you need to worry about durability.
As for why, the answer's pretty much "just 'cause." The ice cream would be stored in the freezer before serving, but you've given me an interesting idea: I could serve out the scoops into single-serving containers and store these in the freezer ahead of time. That would make it easier to hide the baby ahead of time.
posted by duffell at 4:12 AM on December 10, 2014
As for why, the answer's pretty much "just 'cause." The ice cream would be stored in the freezer before serving, but you've given me an interesting idea: I could serve out the scoops into single-serving containers and store these in the freezer ahead of time. That would make it easier to hide the baby ahead of time.
posted by duffell at 4:12 AM on December 10, 2014
Gotcha.
I think the danger with candy is that, as others have pointed out, candy may dissolve a bit into the surrounding ice cream if you leave it to sit for a while - at the very least, something that's got a colored candy shell may bleed the color into the ice cream, which would tip people off. I was thinking of something like, you wait until you're scooping the ice cream into the bowls right before serving, and you drop the candy into one of the bowls RIGHT BEFORE serving. Doing it that way, with single-serve things that you then put back into the freezer, and you run into the same problem ("wait, that one cup has a weird red spot in it, something's up with that one").
Plain chocolate may be the most durable, because it doesn't melt in cold (of course). I know that other similar "hide a trinket in food" foodstuffs around the world sometimes wrap them in wax paper or something, so that may be an idea - a Hershey's kiss or something, and you find a way to put a picture of a baby on wax paper and wrap the chocolate with it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:31 AM on December 10, 2014
I think the danger with candy is that, as others have pointed out, candy may dissolve a bit into the surrounding ice cream if you leave it to sit for a while - at the very least, something that's got a colored candy shell may bleed the color into the ice cream, which would tip people off. I was thinking of something like, you wait until you're scooping the ice cream into the bowls right before serving, and you drop the candy into one of the bowls RIGHT BEFORE serving. Doing it that way, with single-serve things that you then put back into the freezer, and you run into the same problem ("wait, that one cup has a weird red spot in it, something's up with that one").
Plain chocolate may be the most durable, because it doesn't melt in cold (of course). I know that other similar "hide a trinket in food" foodstuffs around the world sometimes wrap them in wax paper or something, so that may be an idea - a Hershey's kiss or something, and you find a way to put a picture of a baby on wax paper and wrap the chocolate with it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:31 AM on December 10, 2014
Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I think I'm going to scoop out into individual containers ahead of time, and use the gingerbread man mold Aleyn suggested to make a marzipan or white chocolate baby. (Also, in keeping with EmpressCallipygos's input, I'm going to do a ripple of purple, green, and gold ice cream--traditional king cake colors--to obscure the hidden object!)
This is one of the more ambitious ice cream projects I've tried, but I'm excited!
posted by duffell at 7:28 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
This is one of the more ambitious ice cream projects I've tried, but I'm excited!
posted by duffell at 7:28 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
I could serve out the scoops into single-serving containers and store these in the freezer ahead of time. That would make it easier to hide the baby ahead of time.
And also no chance of the scooping process creating individual servings of candy baby parts.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 7:36 AM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
And also no chance of the scooping process creating individual servings of candy baby parts.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 7:36 AM on December 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
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