I will be making a birthday cake in September, and have been planning it in my mind. I'm hoping to make a realistic (as much as I can) looking mouse, and a little 'mouse house' made out of chocolate. I understand I need to melt the chocolate on a flat sheet, and then cut out the pieces of the mouse house from that. (Similar to gingerbread houses I've made). Will any chocolate work? I'm guessing I just don't make the chocolate real thin, so the pieces are stronger. I just don't know if ANY chocolate will work.

If you use real chocolate, you will have to temper it or it will not work well and might bloom. If you buy candy coating/candy melts you do not have to temper. Just gently melt and use.

Sugarshack, is that true even if i microwave the real chocolate for it? I thought I saw an episode where Ina Garten said if you microwave the chocolate, you never have to temper it. Is that wrong?

KayMc, yes, Sharon is right. You would have to temper real chocolate. As of the microwave thing, there is a microwave method to temper chocolate but it is more than just microwaving.

I am far from an expert on chocolate. I really don't know about the micro thing. I use candy melts for evrything cuz i am lazy! HA!

Well, bummer. I know (I think ) that Ina said she always nukes her chocolate, because there is no tempering required that way, and she was too lazy to temper the chocolate. Maybe I'll use choc chips for this mouse house.

I'm pretty sure if you keep it under a certain temp (somewhere in the 90s I think) then you don't have to temper it???

I'm remembering an Alton Brow show where he made truffles. He melted the coating chocolate in a bowl surrounded by a heating pad set on low so it didn't get too hot.

Found the ep on youtube. He starts talking about it about 2 min into the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSZjQi85awg&feature=related