Make Life Lovely: Chocolate Coconut Nests Recipe for Easter

I was experimenting in the kitchen a few days ago with some chocolate, and suddenly had the urge to try and make some cute little spring nests out of chocolate and coconut. I could have gone with the more realistic chocolate brown color to make these nests, but decided that I wanted them to be lighter, a pretty blue pastel color perfect for spring!

These little nests were a breeze to make, take almost no time at all to make, and are perfect for kids to help with. You can use them as Easter or spring treats, or even as place settings for an Easter brunch. They are just so irresistibly cute…

Ingredients:

Chocolate Melts (I used Wilton's)- in any color you like
Shredded Coconut

To create the nests, you can either shape them yourself, or use some kind of mold. I used an egg holder that I just bought from World Market, and it worked perfectly. I also tried to make a nest with the smaller half of a plastic egg, and that also worked. You could even use an egg carton as a mold to make these nests…. be creative!

Directions:

1. Spray whatever mold you are using with a cooking spray so that you can easily remove the nests. Don't go skimpy on the cooking spray, or your nests can break when you are trying to remove them!

2. Melt the chocolate melts according to the directions on the package. I have a small Wilton chocolate melting pot that I use and it works well to keep the chocolate warm so that I don't have to keep reheating the chocolate in the microwave. Either way works!

3. Place some coconut in a small bowl, and add some melted chocolate to it. Mix thoroughly, then drop by spoonfuls into the molds that you are using. I wanted to be sure that the chocolate didn't harden too quickly while I was working with it, so I did this in small batches to make about three nests each time. After dropping a spoonful or two of the mixture in my mold, I would use a spoon to push the mixture up the sides of my mold and hollow out a space in the middle so it looked like a real nest.

4. Let cool, and then use a butter knife to trace around the chocolate nests before carefully popping then out of the mold. If you used enough cooking spray and enough chocolate, they should come out fairly easily. Fill with robin egg candy, jelly beans, or any other egg-shaped candy that you'd like!