This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Hershey Company for IZEA Worldwide. All opinions are 100% mine.
Show of hands: Who loves getting festive with the family during the holiday season, but totally lacks the patience and space for full on bake-offs? Don't get me wrong, I love baking cookies and building gingerbread houses with the boys, but too many cooks in the kitchen becomes more work than fun for everyone involved. Let's be real: they want instant gratification and none of the above are instant. At all.
So this year, we switched things up a little bit with some help from HERSHEY'S. First and foremost it was probably the easiest holiday family activity we've tackled, like ever. At first, I was a little intimidated after looking at the pictures and instructions, but I was quickly feeling confident as each piece went together. Guys, it was SO EASY. AND it held up extremely well from the beginning steps all the way up to de-construction the next day.
As far creative holiday family activities go, It's the perfect craft/recipe for those winter days cooped up indoors with a toasty cup of cider or cocoa. We spent the better part of a rainy Sunday afternoon building our candy structure with some of my favorite candy brands. I'm a HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate and REESE'S girl all the way, so I'll take any excuse to surround myself with that chocolatey and peanut buttery goodness. Of course I had to share with the boys but it was well deserved after all of their hard work...
One of my favorite parts about the process was that it was made with ingredients that were easy to find. I can't tell you how much I loathe going to half a dozen stores collecting crazy ingredients for recipes. Mama doesn't have time for that. You can find HERSHEY'S and the rest of the gang figuratively everywhere! Gifting Tip: I love the XL bars because they are the PERFECT size for stocking stuffers and they're always a win come Christmas morning.
As for the Candy Cabin, I highly recommend you give it a shot. It was so much fun to watch it grow from a couple of chocolate bars to a full on house. Have fun with it, get creative and treat yourself to a little candy a long the way...
What You Need:
1 KIT KAT® XL Bar
5 HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate XL Bar
1 Bag Holiday HERSHEY Milk Chocolate Kisses
1 Christmas Candy Cane of HERSHEY'S Hershey-ets candies
1 Bag REESE'S Miniatures
TWIZZLERS
JOLLY RANCHERS
HERSHEY Candy Canes
Pre-Made Frosting in Piping Bag (I used this one)
KELLOGG'S Rice Krispie Treats (box of 8)
Optional:
Powdered Sugar for dusting.
Let's Get Started
1. Remove wrapper from KIT KAT® XL Bar (4.5 oz) and place onto a cake plate.
(Optional: secure with frosting)
2. Remove wrappers from 4-5 HERSHEY'S® XL Bar. With frosting, pipe the bottom of the bar and attached to the KIT KAT® XL Bar base. I ended up adjusting to three sections instead of four for a better fit. Don't fret about creating perfect seams with the frosting, It's going to be covered up with candy and more frosting!
3. For the sides: I cut an XL HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate in half and piped frosting on edges and bottom of the bars and secured to KIT KAT® XL Bar base.
4. Secure final wall with frosting. Let harden for a few minutes.
5. For the roof, I cut 3 bricks of 4 and 'pasted' them to create a base for the Rice Krispie roof.
6. Now the KELLOGG'S Rice Krispies roof! You're going to need 6 unwrapped pre-made Krispie treats for the roof. I started by piping the frosting to edges of the 'chocolate roof base' and placed the treats at an angle to create a truss-like structure. I secured each Krispie Treat in at the point with additional frosting. Let dry.
7. Now let's decorate! For my roof, I opted for scalloped piping but you can frost it however you please. Have fun with it and be creative!
8. Next, I added Red and Green Hershey-ets and Milk Chocolate HERSHEY'S Kisses to the roof.
9. As I finished decorating the roof, I took a spare section from the HERSHEY'S XL block and created a small deck/entrance on the cake plate.
10. The finish the structure I piped pearl-like beads along the seams, walkway and doorway. I created a window with a window box and adorned with JOLLY RANCHERS. Adding TWIZZLERS and Candy Canes for decor and added support.
11. Finish your house with decorations of choice, I made Miniature REESE'S Trees in front of my little house because let's be real, no project is complete without REESE'S. They're super easy to make, just pipe some frosting on top of a Miniature REESE'S, stack, repeat and add a Milk Chocolate HERSHEY'S Kiss top.
12. Finish with a dust of powdered sugar snow and voila! Your very own Chocolate Cabin.
Store in a cool dry place.
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