But they also come in handy when I want to make a custom chocolate garnish.

They just takes a few minutes to make and they make your dessert personalized and extra thoughtful.

You just need to melt your chocolate in a bowl.  Put it in the microwave for 30 second intervals on medium power, stir and repeat until you can stir it smooth.  (Don’t over do it!  It will burn or get white and streaky.)  Then you pour it into your squeezie bottle. Now, you don’t have very long until it will start to harden.  I don’t like to microwave it once it’s in the bottle, so I work fast.  You can put your squeezie in a bowl of hot water to prolong the melted chocolate, but make sure no water gets in the bottle.  It will ruin the chocolate completely.  You can use this little bottle of chocolate to drizzle on your chocolate strawberries, cake pops and other desserts.

But when I’m making a custom garnish, it is as simple as this:  Print out a simple image or word on computer as many times as fit on your paper.  Set the paper on a pan or plate then cut a piece of parchment paper just as big.  {You should actually do this before you melt your chocolate.}

When your squeezie is ready, just trace right over it.  When you’re done, put the pan in the freezer for 5 minutes.  And that’s it!

This particular dessert was for a baby shower.  The chocolate wafer was made out of 20 grasshopper or thin mint cookies, put in a food processor with one tablespoon melted butter.  It was formed into a round with a metal cookie cutter, then baked at 350 for 6 minutes.  The ice cream layer was made by mixing a half gallon of vanilla ice cream with 1/4 tsp peppermint extract, pink food coloring and 8 oz whip cream.  Then it was frozen into rounds and set on top.  Thank-you to my friend Michiko who helped me brainstorm this dessert and also helped me pull it off!

And check out the fancy squeezie I used to garnish the plate!  It’s one of my prize possessions.  I got it as a gift, so I can’t tell you for sure where to get one.

But with the help of my squeezie bottles, this dessert is garnished with thoughtfulness and love!  🙂

I’m actually pretty obsessed with making personal-sized desserts.  I posted about “pizzokie love” but I made a mini one using the same concept as the baby shower dessert.

And of course I have to garnish it if I’m making it for someone I love.
My husband appreciates a good presentation.  🙂

So if you haven’t invested in a few squeezies, it’s time to give them a try!  They cost between $1-4.
That’s an inexpensive way to customize your edible masterpieces!