How to Make Chocolate Cake Decorations
Your mouth is sure to water whenever you see a cake that is decorated with lots of mounds, swirls and curls of delicious tasting chocolate. These cakes are easy to make too since chocolate is able to be molded, curled, folded, piped and swirled into a wide variety of different shapes.
Things You'll Need
- Chocolate melting discs in dark, white and milk chocolate flavors
- A candy thermometer
- Some waxed paper
- Transfer sheets
- A double boiler
- Candy molds
- Food coloring paste
- A pastry bag with piping tips
- A cookie sheet
- A marble slab for tempering the chocolate
- A pastry knife
- Food coloring paste (NOT liquid food coloring)
- Dry paint brushes
- Use a double boiler to melt your chocolate disks (between 118 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit for semi-sweet chocolate and between 116 and 118 degrees Fahrenheit for milk chocolate). Make sure to keep all water out of the chocolate so that it doesn’t turn to the consistency of raw liver. Always work with the lightest colored chocolate first to keep your colors from becoming muddied.
- Put some melted chocolate on your pastry knife. Work it back and forth on your marble slab until it is thin and shiny. Once tempered, pour the chocolate into a pastry bag that has a small piping tip on it. Pipe some chocolate onto a piece of waxed paper on a baking sheet. Allow the chocolate to harden before using it to decorate your cake. Pipe some chocolate directly onto the cake, all the way around the sides then all the way around the top.
- Use a transfer sheet to create white chocolate decorations for on your cake.
- Use molds to create chocolate decorations. Pour melted chocolate into them and allow them to harden before using them to decorate your cake.
- Add some food coloring to the melted with chocolate to create colors that you can paint with. Make sure to use a new, clean, dry brush for painting.
- Grate some semi sweet chocolate over the top of your cake.