Last week I made a dairy-free version of Buttercream Couture’s delicious caramel candy, and I had great success!

But when I got ahead of myself and attempted to create a cheater-version of her impressive chocolate-dipped marshmallow caramel escargot, I had what I like to call a ‘snail fail’. Big time:

If only I had followed her instructions the FIRST time, this wouldn’t have happened. (But it was worth it for the pic right?)

Anyways, like I promised, I gave it another shot!! Don’t be intimidated by the fact that you need to make your own homemade marshmallow for this recipe- it is SOOOO easy!!

I’ve only ever used Martha Stewart’s recipe but Melissa’s tutorial is a lot more clear (and entertaining!) than Ms. S’s is.

The first time I made my own marshmallows was a couple of years ago when a friend’s kiddo was having a Birthday party at a campsite. He loved firetrucks and campfires, so I thought the perfect present would be some marshmallow firetrucks to roast over the fire! Check out these cute marshmallows:

Pardon the horrible photo that was taken with a laptop webcam. I am so happy I finally own a camera!

SO! I got to work on my second attempt at caramel escargot.

I followed her directions EXACTLY… I even did this:

I’m good at following rules when I want to, which is rare.

My 4 year old son, Spiderman, even got in on the snaily action!

They were gross-tasting but super cute anyways.

Oh good, he color-coded them:

Well, enough stalling, are you ready to see my finished product?!?!

Here is the beginning of my delectable army of mollusks:

I’d say that would be a snail success!

I can’t believe how many snails this made! Here is just 1/4 of the ones I did (and I halved the recipe!)

But the REAL question is: Do babies like them?

Actually, that’s the dumbest question ever, but I just want an excuse to show off a pic of my toddler eating one:

“Tastes nothing like the usual garden snails I enjoy on my morning walks!”

Baby-approved.

Thanks again to Buttercream Couture for her amazing tutorial and all her other inspiring ideas! She makes impressive sweets attainable to even non-bakers like me! She takes out all the pretentious language and isn’t trying to make herself feel important by sounding fancy shmancy.

Well, I have a few kiddos I need to stop neglecting, so I should escar go.

Have fun arming your own mollusk military!

~Dot