Pimp That Snack

Maxi Babybel

by Mich 9 photos Rated 86% 1,000 votes when voting closed

The idea for this pimp came this morning when my partner-in-pimping James decided

(a) we needed to go to Costco, and
(b) we needed some cheese

Following this simple formula

Cheese x Costco = Industrial quantities of cheese = Pimp!

I have created the Maxi Babybel. The Laughing Cow will be laughing on the other side of her udders when she sees this monster.

You will need:

– 36 Mini Babybels
– some kind of grease
– micropore tape
– bowl
– bain-marie (posh name for saucepan and bowl of water) to melt wax
– microwave to melt cheese

Two mesh value packs of mini Babybel cheeses in their red wax on a worktop

The Maxi is made in 2 halves which are then brought together in the style of a solid cheesy easter egg.

First I had to shell the cheeses. I was going to squash up the wax and roll it out with a rolling pin, but it was far to sticky and lumpy. I decided to melt the wax instead. Here we can see the melting in progress.

Red Babybel wax softening in a bowl of water over a pan, unwrapped cheeses beside

Now I greased up the bowl and poured in the molten wax, tilting it to get a good even coating. It started to set pretty quickly, but impatient pimpette that I am, I put it in the freezer for a few minutes. A bit of teasing with a knife and it popped out of the bowl. Repeat to make the second half.

A bowl of molten red wax with a spoon, stacks of naked cheese discs behind

The magic pull-string is an important feature of the Babybel. I recreated it using micropore tape, which has just the right is-it-paper-or-is-it-fabric? properties.

A box and roll of Boots Micropore surgical tape, ready to form the pull-tab

Two bowl-shaped shells of set red wax joined by a taped strip forming the pull-tab

Now, the cheese. Obviously it had to be melted, but if I poured hot cheese into the wax shell, the wax would melt and I’d be left with a big sticky mess. The solution – melt the cheese in the same bowl as used to form the wax, so when it cooled it would be just the right shape. Sorted! The cooled cheese and wax were easily assembled.

The two red wax shells filled level with pale cheese, resting on kitchen paper

The two halves were carefully brought together and the whole thing left in the fridge for a hour to firm up. I used some left-over wax to fill the gaps around the join, and gave the whole thing a polish with kitchen roll. It’s just so shiny!

Here we see the Maxi Babybel next to its smaller brother the Mini (red), and cousins Mini Bonbel (orange) and Cheddar Babybel (purple). In a fit of uber-pimpage, I sacrificed them to add some bling to the Maxi.

The finished giant red wax cheese beside three normal mini Babybels for scale

The giant cheese lettered PIMP in orange wax with a purple star, normal Babybel alongside

And finally, the all important money-shot…

A hand pulling the tab strip to peel the wax open across the giant cheese

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