On the show "Sugar Rush" Episode "Jazzed Up Classics", the pastry chef Alain Roby, from the Hyatt in Chicago, made a massive 3ft Strawberry Shortcake with a sugar blown huge strawberry on top. In this cake, he used chocolate dowels as support. They looked to be about the thickness of regular dowels (1/4 inch).

Has anyone made and used them? How would you make them?

TIA

Mirjana

i would think to make them you would just suck up the melted chocolate into straws then when they are hard you blow them back out again. (we did this for a class one time for a different type of project) But i don't know if i would trust them to hold up a cake.

I wondered about strength and stability too. But I thought it would be a great alternative to wood dowels. The chef who used them made a strawberry shortcake that, I think they said, weighed over 25 lbs. I can't be sure now, but that's quite heavy. I'd try it for just a two-tier cake

I'll give it a shot and see what happens A little experimenting never hurts, especially if you get to eat the mistakes

Thanks!
Mirjana

One trick that's used sometimes, but may not be THE way it was done, is clear plastic tubing. Filling the tube up, then when it's set, cut the tubing off the chocolate. Not sure if I still have this episode, and I don't remember if they even showed the supports being made.