This post contains affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, I’ll earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

I’m SUPER excited for Baby Bird to start coloring. I can’t wait to hang her abstract works of art on my fridge. I know my mom will want a few for her office, and I’ll make Mr. T plaster them all over his desk at work.

The problem is Baby Bird.

She’s nearly 1 (OMG!), but she’s still putting everything in her mouth. Last week she tried to eat lint, cat food, and a piece of pancake she’d chewed, spit out, and shoved into a corner of her high chair.

Understandably, I don’t think I can trust her with crayons.

Crayola makes these adorable egg-shaped ones that are supposedly made for little hands and strengthen motor skills. I was going to take a chance on them — the packaging says they’re non-toxic — but I just don’t want Baby Bird eating a crayon.

So, I shifted to Plan B: Make crayons that won’t hurt her if she gnaws on them.

Plan B died on the vine pretty quickly.

Based on the blog posts I read, the process doesn’t seem difficult. The problem is that I don’t have any carnauba or beeswax wax lying around.

Plan C: Make edible crayons using something I can easily access.

Inspired by Crayola’s palm-grip crayons, I came up with these:

Chocolate crayons made using leftover plastic Easter eggs and Wilton Candy Melts. Easy to make, very durable, and very yummy.

1. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler (or a heat-safe bowl over a pot of boiling water). You need two-thirds of a cup of candy pieces to fill an average-sized Easter egg. The chocolate won’t become liquidy, and that’s fine.
2. Fill both sides of the egg, then tap/shake out any air. Doing this helps the chocolate settle into any open spaces, so you don’t end up with a crayon that looks like this. It works, but it looks creepy. (Don’t have or want to use Easter eggs? These narrow ice stick trays work, too. You’ll end up with something like a jumbo crayon and will need to tape a strip of paper around it to keep Little One’s hands clean. If you use an egg, keep half the shell on and your baby can hold onto that.)
3. Close the egg. Chocolate might squish out. Take one for the team — just eat it (hence the sugar rush). Don’t click the egg shut because it’ll be tough to reopen. Instead, close it as much as possible, then apply a piece (or two) of tape to hold the top and bottom together.
4. Plop the molds into an ice tray or shot glasses — to keep them upright as they set — and freeze or refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, you should have chocolate crayons that are usable, chewable, and smell great when Little One uses them. They don’t require much pressure to write, which I’m told is what you want for a kid.

Bonus: When you’re done making crayons, you’ll have a few bags of chocolate to snack on during art class.