Rainbow Fudge: A Sweet Solution for a Dull Summer Day

The next time you’re looking for a way to keep your little ones occupied, get out the cookbooks!

I keep a small selection of kids’ cookbooks on a kitchen shelf that’s in easy reach of both my children, and I’m amazed by how often they will take out a book, gaze longingly at its photos of smoothies and chocolate cake and spaghetti and meatballs, and talk about what they want to cook or bake next.

 

The kids even have their own aprons, chef’s hats and cooking tools (being a toy reviewer comes in handy!), and when we bake together, one or both of them are generally in uniform for the job, with their utensils at the ready.

Our latest cooking endeavor?

 

Rainbow Fish Fudge, from the new Mermaid Cookbook, a beautiful, kid-friendly book full of recipes you and your little ones can make together.

I was glad that Punky chose to make fudge, because it’s a remarkably simple recipe and there’s a good chance you already have everything you need in your kitchen — We did!

 

I started by letting Punky measure out the ingredients by herself. SECRET MATH LESSON, FTW!

Meanwhile, Bruiser stirred together the dry ingredients- salt, marshmallows, and chocolate chips.

Once I added the hot milk and sugar to the chips and marshmallows, Punky stirred until it was all smooth.

I poured the mixture into a glass dish, put it in the refrigerator, and let it harden for two hours.

You might think the kids were impatient, waiting for their fudge to harden.

Fortunately, they found a way to stay occupied!

Once the fudge had hardened, I took it out of the dish and placed it on a cutting board. The recipe called for the fudge to be cut into fish shapes with a cookie cutter. We didn’t have a fish-shaped cookie cutter, so we got out our bag of cookie cutters and the kids chose a bunny instead. Any cookie cutter will do, as long as its not too intricate (our flower cookie cutter, for example, TOTALLY did not work!) The kids enjoyed cutting the shapes themselves.

The kids decorated their masterpieces with star sprinkles…

And we ended up with a plateful of star-studded bunny fudge! YAY.

Want to make your own fudge creations? Here, with permisison, is the recipe from Mermaid Cookbook:

Rainbow Fish Fudge

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup evaporated milk
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles or mini rainbow chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

-Lightly spray a 9-inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

-Combine evaporated milk with sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; simmer for 5 minutes.

-Remove from heat and stir in salt, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and vanilla. Stir until marshmallows have melted. Carefully pour mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle top of fudge evenly with sprinkles or rainbow chips. Chill in refrigerator for at least two hours before cutting.

-Cut into fish shapes (or any other shape you want) with 2-inch cookie cutter and store covered in refrigerator until ready to serve.

 

 

Disclosure: Mermaid Cookbook was sent to me for review by the publisher.