Holiday Workshops: Chocolate Bark Creations

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Homemade chocolate bark is always a favorite gift! Perfect for my very first festive workshop with Minis! A gift that’s not only beautiful and delicious but can also be decorated creatively by the little ones—and best of all, it’s quick to make!

Festive Baking Workshops for Kids

This Advent brought me an exciting premiere! I was invited to host two Backen mit Minis workshops in the new event rooms of our local children’s and youth library in Lüneburg.

Baking & decorating with Minis is definitely my thing… Very quickly, I found myself right in my element: collecting “delicious” donations for the colorful workshops, planning tasty ideas that work with children but without an oven, digging through Christmas music, and raiding our kitchen cupboards.

The result: two colorful festive workshops— “Chocolatey Christmas Gifts – Chocolate Bark” for the little ones, and “Festive Cookie Pops” for the slightly older Minis.

Homemade Chocolate Bark as a Christmas Gift

I quickly realized that the preschool Minis would have so much fun making chocolate bark. Since I’ve often made chocolate bark at home with my own kids—and they always loved it—I was sure the workshop kids would be just as excited to decorate and sprinkle.

And I was right! The children were thrilled to create their own colorful chocolate. They scattered stars, marshmallows, pretzels, marzipan carrots, chocolate lentils, and more onto dark and white chocolate. Some worked with intense concentration, placing each sprinkle carefully, while others heaped spoonfuls of treats onto their chocolate puddles. And then there were those for whom only every fifth candy made it onto the chocolate—the rest went straight into little mouths. What fun!

After an hour, I was surrounded by chocolate-smeared, rosy-cheeked Minis proudly presenting their edible works of art to their parents.

Delicious Cookie Pops for Schoolchildren

While chocolate bark is quite simple to make, the theme of the second workshop required a bit more skill—on my part, too. Fixing cookies onto cake pop sticks without breaking them isn’t easy. Luckily, sandwich cookies with extra cream and melted chocolate came to the rescue! Of course, the older Minis also had heaps of decorations to work with. But before decorating began, the most important question had to be settled: “Are we allowed to taste them?” Once the “snacking permit” was granted, the nibbling and decorating began.

To inspire the kids, I had prepared three examples the night before: a snowman, Santa Claus, and my favorite, “Rudolph the Reindeer.” But as soon as I started tinting white icing red for Santa, one child asked shyly if they could have blue icing… And in that moment, I knew my evening prep work had been in vain! Soon we had icing in every color of the rainbow, and the creative magic began.

The Minis’ creativity never disappoints!

From Elsa crystals to Christmas monsters, tiny trees, and snowflakes—fantastic cookie pops appeared in every shape and color.

DIY Chocolate Bark – Make It Yourself

If this has made your mouth water, and you’re still looking for a quick last-minute Christmas gift, here’s how to make your own chocolate bark:

Take a 200g bar of chocolate (milk, dark, or white—or use up leftover bits), melt it gently at 45–50°C in the oven or a water bath, and decorate as you wish.

Your creativity knows no bounds! Use toppings like:

• Sugar sprinkles
• Chopped nuts
• Dried fruit (raspberries, strawberries…)
• Pretzels
• Marshmallows
• Edible gold leaf*
• …and many more!

For themed figures, you’ll need:

• Santa: 2 candy eyes, dried strawberry* as a hat, a Smartie for the nose, and popcorn, mini marshmallows, or coconut flakes for the beard and pom-pom
• Reindeer: 2 mini pretzels, 2 candy eyes, a red Smartie, and maybe a small round cookie for nose & mouth
• Snowman: 2 candy eyes, a marzipan carrot* *, and 5 colorful Smarties (or use brittle or chocolate pearls as an alternative)

(*The links marked with an asterisk (*) are affiliate links. I can recommend suitable products that do not cost you more and I receive a small commission that helps me finance my blog. Thank you!)

The great thing is, this amazing, homemade Christmas gift is perfect for creating with your little ones. You can sprinkle the treats over the chocolate or arrange them into figures and shapes. The result will look fantastic either way!

Once decorated, let the chocolate set, then cut it into generous chunks with a big knife—or simply break it apart to stay true to its name, “bark.”

A wonderful Christmas gift for young and old—and the Minis are so proud when they present their handmade creations at Christmas!

I wish you lots of fun decorating!

Yours, Lia

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Have you baked the recipe?

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A colorful thank you

A colorful thank you goes out to „Alnatura“and „Handelshof Lüneburg“ for the delicious food donations, without which the Christmas workshop would not have been possible. Thank you so much! The minis really enjoyed it!

Another colorful “thank you” goes to the employees of the children's and youth library for the uncomplicated and pleasant collaboration. Thank you!

Do you still need Christmas presents? Then I now have a few ideas for you!

I put together a small list of (Christmas) gifts for baking fans! You're sure to find a nice little something to give away! Have fun strolling through my ideas.