Okay, so I am making 3 dozen cakeballs for delivery tomorrw and Ihave them all coated in milk chocolate - no problem. Next step is to drizzle colored chocolate over the milk chocolate - problem.

Ihave one of those plastic botttles with the tiny tip on it that is supposed to be good for this type of thing. Well, it is great for the first 2 or so balls. After that it starts to get clogged. I have to tap it down, stick a tooth pick in the top and pray that it will work for another couple.

Does any one have a clue as to what is going wrong. I use the chocolate melts and put a little crisco to thin it out. I love the way it works WHEN IT WORKS.

Does anyone have a suggestion on a better method. I have tried the baggie method and this does not give me a crisp enough line. I need a crisp line because I make different designed to determine what type of cake is inside.

Thanks for any suggestions.

I HATE when that happens. I'll tell you what I've done and it helps. I plug in a heating pad (the kind for backaches, etc.) and I work with 2 bottles/bags of melted chocolate at a time. When one starts to harden I lay it on the heating pad to soften it up and use the other bag, then I keep switching it off.

HTH

chocolate is cooling and hardening.

short (5sec or so -- do in short burst until thin enough) spin through micro to remelt

Thanks, I think I will try that when I don't have a paid order. I knew if i came to my CC friends, I would get helpd. Love you guys.

I prefer to use parchment bags for drizzling chocolate. It's the only thing I like to use parchment for. I fill several bags so that while I'm using one, the others are lying in my electric skillet on "warm". Tip clogs, toss it in the pan, grab another bag.

I use the disposable icing bags and just snip the end off. Since we are on the subject of cake balls, the last few times I have made them the coating cracks. I dont know why it is all of a sudden doing this . Any suggestions?
Thanks

Barb1959- Sounds like what everyone else said, the chocolate is cooling and clogging the tip.
I like to use the disposable bags and snip the tip, if you cut it small enough you can get really thin clean lines/drizzles.
As far as keeping them warm and melted the heating pad is a really good idea like dkelly suggested.
I learned that trick from Alton and it works great.


Kerrym- are you dipping cold cake balls in the melted chocolate?
If the balls are too cold it will crack the chocolate. I let mine sit out a few minutes to let some of the chill off of them, it does'nt take long because they are so small. This should help with the cracking.

Kerrym. I agaree with Cakemommy. I have been doing a lot of cake balls over the last couple of months and I know let them go from freezer ( I usually have them freezing for a while because I make them ahead of time and pull them out when I need them) to sitting on my counter for at least 15 to 30 min. Last night I did a great batch. I had to coat 3 dozen for a delivery today. I actually did something different (for me) that worked great. I usually always melt the chocolate in the microwave ( and have to add crisco to thin). This time I used a double boiler. It worked great because the chocolate never got hard. I worked with it over the water. To my surprise I was able to coat 36 balls with only 1 lb of chocolate melts.

Good luck

How much shortening do you put in the choc. when melting? I like the idea of the double boiler.

Note - I only used the shortening when I used the microwave. About 1 Tbls to 1/2 lb give or take. I found I did not need it with the double boiler. Try first without

I too have better luck melting in the "double boiler" method.

I fill my electric skillet about 1/3 way full of water and place small pyrex bowls in the skillet....I can usually fit about 4 bowls.

I place the chocolate in the bowls and let it melt. I turn the skillet down to warm and it's the perfect temp to keep the chocolate melted to a good dipping consistency. I too don't need to add shortening when I use this method.

It's great because you can have 4 different types of chocolate melting at the same time.

I find the micro can seize the chocolate real fast if you're not careful.