My girls turned 7 and 5 this month, and for their birthday celebration, I decided to have something other than cake (see their past birthday cakes: Butterfly cakes, Fish cakes, Mermaid cakes, Aloha cakes).
The dessert was a surprise up until the moment it was ready, and it was a hit! Can you guess from the picture of my happy 7 year old what it was?
A chocolate fountain! With stuff to dip — all gluten-free and free of the top 8 allergens.
I purchased a mini chocolate fountain on Amazon for $28. It worked great, but I think in the future I would rather have the larger size. For the chocolate I used Enjoy Life Mega Chunks with organic canola oil (you have to add oil to the chocolate to thin it for the fountain). The chocolate flowed perfectly and was delicious. People couldn’t believe it was dairy-free.
For the dipping I used marshmallows, pineapple (canned), strawberries, mandarin oranges (canned), Glutino pretzel sticks, Kinnikinnick animal cookies, vanilla cake cut into chunks, and more marshmallows (the most popular item), which I also put candles in for my girls to blow out during the Happy Birthday song.
For dipping and eating, I had skewers, plates, and NAPKINS! And a hose. 🙂 Yes, it was messy, but the smiles were worth it. I recommend doing it outside (even though the instructions say not to), and getting a plastic tablecloth.
The chocolate fountain may just become their birthday tradition!
gabrielle says
love it – i may just steal this idea for bella’s birthday next month.
and how awesome are those megachunks?!?! when i got our sample bag from EL we almost polished off the bag before we even baked with them LOL 🙂
Alison says
The Mega Chunks are great. I still love the mini chips too. They are so cute. 🙂
Katie@Gluten-Free Food Storage says
What a great idea! We may do this in the future.
Charmaine says
Thank you so much for the great birthday idea! I always thought those fountains came with their own special chocolate, and I just assumed it had milk in it. My daughter is going through a phase where she thinks ANYTHING with chocolate on it is dessert…tonight she covered ice cubes with chocolate syrup ans was happy. This is perfect!
Alison says
Charmaine,
Everyone loves a chocolate fountain! 🙂 I checked out your blog — it looks great!
sarah says
LOVE this!!! Thank you for such a creative idea!