Candy Graduation Caps

My brother just graduated, and my mom and I had been working together to make some food and decorations for his joint graduation party.  As you can tell from the title, this recipe is for candy graduation caps, which turned out very nicely.  My mom had the recipe, which we then adapted to be peanut free, as one of the graduates has a peanut allergy.


Below is my picture guide of the process and at the end of this post is the full recipe.  My brother's school's colors were royal blue and white, so we found the closest thing we could to royal blue for the buttons and tassels.  And since I am at home and was working with other people, we used more tools than absolutely necessary.  That said, these could still be somewhat difficult to make in a dorm due to the lack of counter space and lack of fridge/freezer space.

Step 1: Unwrapping the Rolos.

Step 3: Cutting the Hersey's bars. 

Step 4: Flattening and cutting the airhead into tassels.

Our first attempt at holding the Rolos.  Over time they started tilting more and more.  Therefore, we gave up this failed method and instead placed them upside down on a plate.

Steps 5 and 6: Making the bases of the caps and preparing them to be cooled.

 

Step 7 with the results of Step 2 in the background.  And yes, we may have accidentally dropped some of the toothpicks into the melted chocolate.  It happens.

Step 8: Assembling the mortar boards.

Cooling the mortar boards in the fridge or freezer.

 Step 9:  Putting all of the pieces together.

Final result.  Somehow I didn't get a picture of the better looking ones or how I arranged them in the storage containers.  We served these in a small decorative pails to match the theme of the party.

Candy Graduation Caps

Ingredients:
1 bag of Rolos (original recipe: 1 bag mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups)
1 bag mini M&Ms (containing the correct color of M&Ms for your hats)
1 or 2 Airheads of the correct color
1 bag lollipop sticks (about 50 sticks)
~8 bars of Hershey's chocolate

Tools:
rolling pin
knife
storage containers
plates
bowl
toothpicks

Instructions:
1.  Unwrap as many Rolos as you have lollipop sticks.
2.  If the mini M&Ms came in a bag with multiple colors, sort out the ones that you need into another container.
3.  Cut the chocolate bar into squares about 1.5 widths of a rectangle or a little less than 1 length of a rectangle long and wide.  (You know, make it square.  And the appropriate size for your Rolos or Reese's Cups.)  Set aside any scraps to melt later.
4.  Unwrap an airhead and use the rolling pin to flatten it more.  The goal is for it to be as wide as the tassels need to be long.  Next cut the airhead into thin strips.  You can also make indentations in one half to make it look more like a tassel.  Set these aside and make sure they are not touching each other.  (We had placed some on top of each other in our warm kitchen, and they melted together slightly and were very hard to separate.)
5.  Stick one lollipop stick into each Rolo through the larger circle.  Do not press too hard, or the stick will come out the top of the Rolo.  (In our kitchen, if that happens and you have enough Rolos, that is one that needs to be eaten immediately.)
6.  Place the Rolos with the stick pointing up on a plate.  After the plate is filled, put it in the refrigerator.  This step may not be necessary if it is not too warm in your house or kitchen.  For me, the caramel filling of the Rolos became soft enough that the Rolos would start tilting to the side in the glass that we had stuck them in and would fall off if the additional weight of the other parts of the cap were added.
7.  Melt the chocolate scraps in a bowl in the microwave for about 10 seconds at a time, stirring occasionally.  This will become your "glue".
8.  Use a toothpick dipped in the melted chocolate to brush chocolate onto the top of the mortar board (the fancy name for the flat square part of the cap) in the center and where the tassel will go.  Apply an M&M to the center and a strip of airhead on top of the melted chocolate as the tassel.  Fill a plate with these and then place it in the fridge to accelerate the cooling process.
9.  After the Rolos and mortar boards are cooled, take them out of the fridge.  Flip over all of the mortar boards.  Dip the top of a Rolo in the melted chocolate and then place it on the mortar board.  If it looks like it is slipping, hold it in place by holding the lollipop stick for about 30 seconds.  Repeat for the remaining caps.  If you run out of melted chocolate or it starts to get too thick, add some more chocolate to the bowl and microwave it for a few seconds.
10.  After you have done a plateful of caps, place them in the fridge to harden.  After 5-10 minutes, they will be set firmly enough to be transfered to the containers in which you will store them.  Store in a cool place or in the fridge.  Repeat this process until you have made all of the caps.  The more fridge (or freezer) space you have, the more you will be able to make in each iteration.


Notes:
+ If you have a group of people preparing these, steps 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 can be done simultaneously or before people come to help "glue" the different parts together.
+ If your candies aren't melting, you could possibly skip some or all of the refrigerating steps.  I suspect that Reese's would pose less of a melting problem.
+ We stored our caps in the refrigerator overnight before the party and that worked well for us.  It is possible that this was unnecessary, but after our initial failures, we didn't want to take any chances.
+ We had the tassels hang off of the corners because that looked good, but in reality tassels hang off the sides.  Feel free to do whatever looks best and works most easily for you.
+ You could also make different colored tassels and buttons by using a variety of airheads and M&M colors.
+ If you want the cap and mortar board to be white, use white chocolate Reese's and a bar of white chocolate.