does anybody have any experience covering cakes with modeling chocolate? I had thought I'd have enough Choco-pan leftover from a wedding cake to use on my daughter's b'day cake, but it turns out I didnt. I didn't want to bother with ordering more, so I decided to try making modeling chocolate and using that instead. I used 24 oz semi-sweet chocolate and 1/2 corn syrup. The clay was too hard to work with, so I microwaved it a few seconds at a time until it was pliable.

I got it to work, sort of, but ran into the following problems:

(1) Even though it was pliable, it wasn't sticky enough (to itself). It woudln't stick together in a nice ball, but always had cracks running thru it.

(2) I had to be really careful not to microwave it too much, just a few seconds too many and it would get grainy and oily.

(3) I could not get it to smooth down over the sides of the cake at all. The top was fine, but I could not get it smoothed down to the sides and is ended up with pleats all around the bottom. This was the biggest problem I ran into, and the most frustrating! Thank goodness it's just for my daughter, and I put ribbon borders around the bottom that sort of camoflages the pleats, but she has been around cakes all her life (13 years) and has quite the critical eye!

Any tips for making the work? I'll probably stick with Choco-pan, but I would like to have another option when in a pinch. I did try mixing a little fondant in it to make it more like choco-pan, but I didn't have very much on hand.

Oh, I forgot big problem (4)! How do you keep from eating it? I love Tootsie Rolls, and it smells just like them. I just can't stop nibbling, LOL!

I switched to Michele Foster's recipe on here (I weigh 8 ounces of chocolate and measure one cup of marshmallow creme) and have never looked back. I've covered even sculpted cakes with it with good success.

Next time, if you have a little fondant or ChocoPan left over, mix it in with your mod choc to give it more stretch and body.

HTH,
Deanna

I too have used michelle fosters recipe and love it. I use ghiardelli compoundin chocolate (sold in sams this time of year) and the flavor is FABULOUS. I mix it with a bit of fondant (not even half and half) and it works great. mixing with the fondant seems to take care of any excess oils in the modeling chocolate and make it a dream to work with. I also made wooden "planks" for a barrel tub baby cake and got rave reviews. People wanted to know how I rolled out tootsie rolls LOL (your not the only one who cant stop nibbling )