War-zone chocolate brownies (edible decor)

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I have been tasked with creating war-zone brownies: should contain visual cues that the brownie is a conflict zone and have edible props.

My progress has been very slow. After a few days, I'm still at the drawing board. I've only ordered some cheap toothpick props to stick in to cultivate the war-zone atmosphere: ak 47s, flags, ect. The trouble is these are not edible and betray the spirit of the project. In other words, I will still need some edible things too.

My online queries found no shortage of fairy-dust, unicorns and a slew of other goody-two-shoes edible confectionery decorations, but virtually nothing in terms of the macho-man, war-zone edibles I'm after, leading me to conclude that a store-bought solution is unlikely. That leaves me with improvising edible props.

To keep things simple, and to keep this question within a reasonable scope, I'll simply limit the universe of answers to help find edible solutions to my checklist, which is short:

  • Guns / gun-looking things (best I could do was pocky)
  • Bullets
  • Debris

Question

Given my needs and approximate aesthetic as described above, what edible solutions can I improvise to decorate my war-zone chocolate brownies? (note: answers should ideally pair well with the flavor chocolate).

Best Answer

First, pick a scale and more detailed theme:

  • I'd go for battlefield scale, so a person would be an inch or two high (3-5cm). This means you can cast moulds from toys. A few soldiers might need to be made, not easy but they don't have to be great.
  • Otherwise go for life size. Make each brownie the right proportions and shape, helped by fondant, for a rifle magazine, accompany with cast bullets. Or a cake shaped like a military helmet.
  • I've assumed something like WW1 below, but much of it would hold for older battles (cannon would be simpler than some of what I've suggested, but horses would be too hard)

Then you can choose whether to present a full scene, or just individual servings with a suitable decoration.

Military Hardware

Chocolate tools (and other models made of chocolate) have become quite common recently. The link is to a video, but it's adequately summarised in text. Their method starts with taking a cast of real tools. If you can buy miniature weapons you can start from those, or full size (model or used) bullets. Note that the things you cast need to be fairly flat. Making moulds of toy tanks etc. should work, though the main gun would need to be added after casting (cylinders are fairly easy. Even failed attempts can be made into military debris.

Flags, maps etc.

You can get printed edible rice paper cake toppers. For common national flags you can probably buy it pre-printed, anything else might be a custom order. I had a couple of pages of my thesis printed like this for a cake to celebrate. Edible flagpoles can be made using sugarwork techniques. A little white food colouring powder will make them opaque.

Scenery and other fiddly things

Here are a few ideas:

  • Marzipan or fondant (or modelling chocolate, but that tends to be brown or creamy white and doesn't take colour as well as the others) for:
    • Sandbags, perhaps making trenches (at your cut lines).
    • Troops (lying prone perhaps, or leaning against a trench wall)
    • Coloured grey or brick-red, hard fortifications (pillboxes)
  • Dig out shell craters from the brownie itself
  • Sugarwork with powder food colouring again for fences/barbed wire.
  • Food colouring dust and lustre powder can give surface colour or a metallic sheen
  • You can paint with concentrated food colouring. I'd start with the paste type, mixing with a bit of icing sugar and water as they'll be too strong to start with. There's also edible food paint.
  • Chocolate suggests mud, fitting with my European theme. Desert scenery could be made from marzipan or coloured fondant, while lush greenery would need lots of coloured fondant
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