Hi. I just took a Wilton candy making class and the only centers that were presented were peanut butter and caramel (using store bought caramel and shaping to fit in the mold before covering with chocolate).

I'd like to know recipes for other fillings, truffle (ganache?), fruit, coconut, etc. Also, can you just use sleeve filling and cover with chocolate, or can you thicken the sleeve filling with something? I've purchased the Wilton 4 pack of candy flavors, and have Lorann pineapple, coconut, and raspberry on order from Cakes by Sam. I also have some Lorann paraffin wax coming.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

(I posted this earlier with another title that didn't make sense, so I've reposted with a new title)

Wilton used to have other candy filling recipes on their website.

Theresa

Just google "chocolate truffle recipe" and you will get tons to get you started. You cannot just stiffen up the fillings in sleeves and dip them. Do the research on google - there are plenty that are just variations on the basic chocolate canache (heavy cream/chocolate). Have fun.

Thanks Spuddysmom. I'll do that. I usually get most of my info by googling, but didn't have a lot of success with anything other than chocolate ganache type fillings. I have since found out that candy supply places also sell a candy version of sleeve fillings that are designed to be used as filling.

My cake supply shop also sells a soft fondant sold in jars in different flavours. Its not like rolled fondant, its like a soft centre filling. Comes in all flavours. You need to use plastic chocolate mould to make these though, making the top and sides first, then filling the centre, then adding the chocolate 'base'.

Evoir, I just looked at your cake photos. Gorgeous work.

May I ask you to send the "how to" on the white fantasy flower cake topper if you still have the instructions?

No, Apti - I haven't got around to trying them as yet - but they are professional soft fillings for chocolates (my cake dec shop sells hundreds of chocolate moulds and supplies as well as cake gear). They come in an 8 oz. jar (approx). I am sure you can find them online. The owners of 'my' shop say you can add them to nutty fillings as well. The othger option you could try is making your own nougat (which you can make in any flavour, really!) Depending on how far you let your sugar go when cooking, will determine how hard your centre will become. I think a ganache centre would be nice too - with or without crushed nuts. I would make a PB textured ganache (like you make for under fondant on a cake), then mix in whatever flavours or textures. You could start with either milk, or dark or even white chocolate. In Australia we don't use candy melts, so we use powdered colours to colour white chocolate. For example you could colour white mouldable ganache pink, and add in strawberry oil/flavouring. Voila - you have a strawberry ganache filling! Oh - and what is also awesom are those dehydrated strawberries and raspberries etc you can buy. Those are divine coasted in chocolate, and you could also just plop them into a mould.

Ooops - we cross-posted!

Thanks for the kind feedback. I have been wanting to experiment more with handmade chocolates myself...its just a matter of finding the time!

I am thinking of maybe doing a how-to tutorial on the fantasy flower...do you think CC in general would be interested?

Just quickly though - you start by making the little bulb things, which are on 24 gauge wire - they are like inverted droplets. You need to make around 5 - 7 for the inside and 5-7 times 2 for each side (depending on how big you are going). The rest of the flower is made by using three different rose petal cutters. They are each wired, and balled and lightly frilled on the top third of each petal. Leave petals to dry in a gently shaped moulding surface (I use the apple trays you can get from your grocer for nix). When they are dry you assemble the flower. Start by tying the centre stamen bits together tightly, then add the smallest petals, overlapping edges, until the first row is complete. From there its just adding in more petals, getting larger the further you go out. When complete you add the side bits. Dust with lustre powder if desired (you can also do that when the petals are unassembled). THEN, position the petals in an attractive open formation.

These flowers look beautiful on their own on top of a special cake.

Hope this helps - I think a pictorial tute would work well for this!!

Evoir, went out today and bought some dried cherries, so I'll try those and then branch out to raspberries, strawberries, oooh, sounds yummy!

As to whether or not a pictorial tutorial on the fantasy flower is a good idea for CC?
YES, YES, YES!!!! I suggest you contact a forum moderator and ask about the best way to post a tutorial. A recent poster had her's removed for some reason.

In the early 80's I married an Aussie and moved to Bondi and we lived there for two years. I worked for Johnson&Johnson's medical division and went out as far as Dubbo and nearly up to Cairns. Looooonnnnnngggggg drives, but very pretty. Saw some fabulous things that a lot of Aussies have never seen. We had some problems, so after we tried living in the States for an additional year, we called it quits and divorced. I did make two wonderful, very close friends however, who currently live in Kurrajong. Wish I'd been into cakes while I was there--I LOVE the Oz decorating techniques (however, like most Yanks, HATE fruitcake, yecch....) Now that I own a stand mixer, do you have any pavlova recipes?

Are you in NSW? Or do you live where the rivers flow upside down?

Wow! You have a real connection to Down Under then I'm sorry to hear the marriage did not last, but at least you have made good friends and spent significant time in another country!

I live in NSW, north of Sydney more or less. I'm still working on seeing all this country has to offer, so far my favourite time and place has been sailing (bareboating) around the Whitsunday Islands with my husband for 2 weeks. Just amazing. We've been saying we've got to do it again very soon...for the last 12 years, LOL, but you know how it goes - jobs, kids, health issues. One day though we will!

I'm happy to hear you'd like a tutorial with piccies. I believe that we can learn a lot from people in other countries with different techniques - I have learnt SO much about buttercream cakes and techniques from y'all in the USA! I will have to slate that in when I get over the spring wedding season. I do many classes for lots of different gumpaste flowers, so if the powers that be at CC are keen I can certainly put a tute together! There is a great deal of stuff already on YouTube, so I'd have to pick something a bit 'different'

Glad you found yummy fruit for your 'choccies'. I recently found an online supplier in Oz of dried organic dark cherries. OMG - are they good or what!?!! We don't have those readily available so I am stoked to find a supplier to get my fix!

hi all

Apti i have used this stuff for making soft centre chocolates
http://www.robertsconfectionery.com.au/categories/Flavours%2C-Colours-and-Fillings/Fondant-Creme/?sort=newest
It isn't runny more firm, i have the plain one and just added flavour and colour. It wasn't too bad. you can buy this stuff on that site called invertase that breaks the fondant down to make it runny. i haven't tried it though

i did a search on fondant cream and found a few links. maybe some of them will help. also searched for fondant candy centers

http://www.baking911.com/candy/fondant.htm
http://www.wrenscottage.com/kitchen/recipes/candy/creamfondant.php
http://candy.about.com/od/fondantcreamfillings/r/creamfondant.htm

there is a few links for a few recipes here
http://www.chocart.com.au/pages/recipes/cold-fondant-cream.php

i don't have a pav recipe (OH doesn't like it ) but there is one at the bottom of this page
http://www.oldaussierecipes.com/oldaussiefavourites.htm

this one sounds good too!! i think i will give this one a go one day
http://www.abc.net.au/wa/stories/s1420364.htm
hope it helps

Evoir, one of my favorite memories was when I was advised to stop and eat my bagged lunch in Bell Bird Canyon (heading up the coast past Newcastle). There were cascades of Bell Bird "song", but I was only able to catch a glimpse of two of the Bell Birds. I can still close my eyes and be there again.
If you ever need info on American BC or cakes, just give me a holler.

melave--thanks SO much for all the links! The oldaussierecipe link is wonderful! I might have to try all of those, not just the pavlova. The "rolled" pavlova is something I'd never heard of--I always saw them presented like a cake with fruit on top.

Apti - re: pavlovas - I will copy out my go-to for you and pm it. Its crispy on the outside and marshmallowy on the inside. I've never messed around with the roulade type because I enjoy the crunch factor too much on the traditional style!

No one in my family has ever tasted a pavlova and I want to make one for our Thanksgiving Day feast in addition to a cake. We usually have between 12-20 people. I know Aussie's don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so here's a little history on the holiday.
The initial "Thanksgiving" feast, held in 1621, was really a traditional English harvest celebration. The Pilgrims shared it with the Native Americans because they had taught the colonists to plants crops and hunt wild game. Without the Native Americans, the Pilgrims may not have survived the harsh winter and been able to celebrate their first harvest of plentiful crops in the New World.