Hi all,

I have never tried to mold chocolate, but I got some melts and some molds, and I want to make a police badge with white chocolate and then paint it either silver or gold with luster dust. Is this possible? What about other colors? I know you can put colors in the mold and let them harden and then layer more colors top, but I would like to hand-paint some and I just need to know if this is possible and what I would use to paint it. TIA!

I have used silver shimmer dust that you mix with some sort of alcohol. It worked ok. Good luck. Keli

I painted some choc. molded sea shells with pearl and gold luster dust. It has a great effect. Check out my pics if you want to see it.
By the way I just brushed it on dry.

Thanks to you both for the quick replies. I will go get some silver dust today and try it.

Yes, it will work fine.

Well, I tried shimmer dust because that's all I could find at Michael's, but I couldn't get it to work right. I tried brushing it on dry first and then wet with water and then wet with alcohol. I guess luster dust is what I really need, so I'll have to go to the specialty shop to find some. I was also wanting to do more molds where I just paint part of it with a color, like a white chocolate heart with the lacy details painted pink. Can I paint colors on with the candy colors once it's already molded?

the luster dusts work well. Dry brushing it works the best and gives you the best color. I don't know how to do that if you wanted more than one color on it. I have made things like coins and just dry brushed the whole thing is silver highlighter and it's awesome!

Cakey, I have tried to paint on the molds with more melted candy of a diff color--Didn't turn out to well. I have never tried to paint on the molded choc with just the colors. Usually if I do diff. colors I put them in the mold first. I think you should try a PM to Candyladyhelen. She has alot of experience with these kind of candies and may be the best person to help you with that question.

yes cakey the shimmer dusts are definitely different than the luster dusts.....the shimmer dusts are more like fine sugar granuals and the luster dust is a very fine powder......not granular at all, that's probably why you weren't successfull......I couldn't figure out why the luster dusts were so much more expensive than the craft store shimmers....then I realized the same way I'm sure you did!! LOL

I've made molded chocolate many, many, many times. There are a couple different things you can do. At Christmas time (in my album) I made a white snow cake with molded white chocolate snowflakes. Before I poured the chocolate in the mold I brushed some edible glitter on them (the molds). It worked great -- gave it a pretty irridescent effect. Not sure if you can tell in the pictures. Yesterday I did a cake for 250 people that was done for a 50s event I was coordinating. I haven't posted the pics yet (going to do that this evening). I had molded 50s items all over the cake. I painted the inside of the mold with colored chocolate (pre colored Wilton) and let it harden then poured melted chocolate (again, Wilton melts) on top and let it harden in the freezer. The darker chocolate shown through and I then painted it with more colored chocolate after they had reached room temperature. It is very important to wait for them to reach room temperature before painting more or the paint/chocolate will harden too fast. I always use the Wilton chocolate melts. I have used these for over 10-15 years and have never added anything to them.

I hope this helps. I enjoy working with the chocolate molds and it opens up a whole new way of cake decorating. I've not gotten into the fondant yet for molded items. That's my next step when I have more time.

The best effect for painting chocolates is to paint the mold first, let dry then pour the rest of the choc. into the mold. The only thing I paint after it is molded is eyes. Sometimes they smear if done first. When you paint with colored choc. after the choc. is unmolded, it is not a smooth finish like the molded parts.

Thanks so much everyone for your help!!! I got all the info I needed from all of you and I'm ready to try some more molds! I love coming here for answers because everyone is always right about how to do things.

In addition to what everybody else has said, you can also paint chocolate using a mixture of cocoa butter and powdered color. It doesn't work well with milk or dark chocolate but works very well with white chocolate. Not stuff you can usually find at Michael's, though.