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Use oiled hands to roll pieces of fondant into 1½-inch balls, oiling hands between rolling as needed. Keep the fondant covered with the plastic wrap as you work, as it dries out quickly. Place the balls on a sheet of parchment paper and leave room for spreading — they will flatten as they cool further. Set aside the cream centers for a few hours to harden.

Melt the chocolate. Using two forks, or your hands if you don't mind getting them dirty, dip the cream centers into the chocolate, turn to coat, lift out, and let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Set the candies back onto the parchment paper to harden. Once the chocolate is set, store the peppermint creams in a single layer between sheets of parchment in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.

Makes about 2 pounds (30 pieces)

For easier peppermint creams, use the easy fondant recipe from the Sugar Mice recipe, substituting ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract for the vanilla. Form the fondant into 1½-inch balls and flatten them before placing them on the parch-ment. You can dip the creams in the melted chocolate right away rather than letting them harden first.

Levitating sherbet balls! Wow, that would be some treat. In England, balls made of rice paper are filled with a sherbet powder (a sweet powder that fizzes in your mouth). In the Harry Potter books, the fizz is strong enough to lift you off of the ground. Unfortunately, when you make them at home you'll have to imagine you're levitating.

Fizzy Sherbet Pouches

½ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon citric acid (see note)

1½ teaspoons baking powder

Rice or wafer paper, cut into 2 dozen 2-inch squares, for making the pouches

Combine the sugar, citric acid, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor. Process until combined and the sugar forms finer grains, about 1 minute.

Set out 12 of the rice or wafer paper squares. Place a small amount (about 1/8 teaspoon) of the sugar mixture into the middle of each square. Moisten the remaining squares around the edges with water (don't get them too wet, or they will disintegrate) and carefully attach them to the squares that are topped with the sugar. Pinch the edges to seal and lay them out on a sheet of parchment paper to dry. Reserve the remaining powder for another use, such as for dipping lollipops. Or cut out more squares and make more pouches — you can make up to 200 of them with this amount of sugar mixture.

Makes 1 dozen pouches

Citric acid is available in fairly small quantities on the Internet.

To represent the chocolates at Honeydukes, two basic truffle recipes are provided. For most people, the black truffle, a type of mushroom, is too expensive and rare to eat — it has been a delicacy since Roman times. So, toward the end of the 1800s, the chocolate truffle was invented. The classic method for making truffles includes rolling them in cocoa powder so they resemble freshly dug truffles. They look very pretty, but not everyone likes the bitter taste of the cocoa powder, which is why it's an optional ingredient.

Dark Chocolate Truffles

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

¾ cup heavy cream

10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

Unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting, optional

Place the chopped chocolate and heavy cream in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 2 minutes, stopping to stir every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth.

Cool the chocolate mixture at room temperature until it stiffens. Pinch off pieces and roll them into 1½-inch balls. Lay the balls on a piece of parchment paper. This is messy work; you may want to stop and rinse your hands from time to time, as the melted chocolate on your palms will make it difficult to roll the balls.

Make sure the balls are very stiff before dipping them. You can place the balls in the refrigerator to speed things up. Using two forks, lift the balls one at a time, dip into the melted chocolate, roll to coat, lift out, and allow the excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl before laying the balls back on