Brownie Graduation Hats

This is another dessert I made for the graduation party. I think they are pretty cute, and they were not very difficult to make either! They are simply brownies made to look like graduation caps. A few years back, I made something similar to these, except they were cupcakes. I turned the cupcakes upside-down, placed a chocolate-dipped graham cracker on top, and used fruit leather to make the tassels. They were also quite cute, but it was hard to get the cupcakes and crackers to match. They were also slightly difficult to eat, and the graham cracker became soggy, so they didn't store well. I also knew I was making a cake already for the party, so I didn't want to have both cake and cupcakes, I wanted a different dessert.

This year a quick internet search produced this idea. These are cute little brownie graduation hats. They are fairly simple to make, the most difficult part being the tassels. As I mentioned before, I used candy clay tinted royal blue to make these. The base is simply what is referred to as a "two-bite" brownie, a small round brownie. Yes I used store-bought, but for a few good reasons. #1 I can't make brownies that uniformly shaped like a hat, #2 I needed to make several other dishes and this would save me time and work, #3 I needed to prepare them in advance, #4 Two-Bite brownies are also sold in gluten-free packages, so I was able to have one dessert for a guest who can't have gluten.
I simply attached a square of dark chocolate to the brownie with a small dab of extra candy clay. I tried to choose a square that matched the brownie color as closely as possible, and ended up going with 70% cocoa content. Then I stuck the tassel on top and attached it with a candy-coated chocolate piece, I sorted through the bag and used only the brown and blue ones, to match the hats.

The original recipe called for coated the brownies first, either in a chocolate ganache or a chocolate candy coating. I was planning on doing this, but when testing it out, discovered that they looked really good without it, and it would just end up being more of a hassle and difficult to store. I think they may even look better without, and are less messy and just as tasty! However, if you want, you can coat the brownies with ganache if you want the brownies and chocolate to match in color exactly, or want a more "polished" look to the brownies. Finally, you can use any color candy clay you want, as long as you have food coloring, to match the colors of the actual graduation caps or school colors.