I made 2 chocolate transfers on Monday night for cakes due tomorrow. By the next morning they had both started to lift and curl up at the edges. I managed to save one of them (the Harry Potter cupcake cake uploaded today in my photos), but the other just got worse and broke because it didn't have a surrounding plaque - it was just an elephant - any idea why they curled? The chocolate was tempered (the Harry Potter one is really shiny!), I used candy colourings, they were allowed to set up at room temp - I don't get it ! I now have to remake the elephant , but I'm wondering whether to just do a FBCT, I just love the look of the chocolate though - it's so much nicer!

Can anyone help me shed light on the problem to prevent the problem re-occuring? Thanks!

Sorry, I can't answer that. I do have a question about what chocolate to use. Can I use white chocolate chips, almond bark or should I use melt or real chocolate?

I use real chocolate, just looked in the Whimsical Bakehouse book, and they use candy melts, so maybe that's where my problem lies (but I can't get candy melts or something similar here !)

I had the same thing happen to me before. I wonder if it has to do with the surface underneath the wax paper. Maybe it has to be perfectly flat so that the chocolate doesn't curl. I made my transfer over a cookie sheet and thought about using a marble slab next time. Also, maybe cellophane vs. wax paper might work better. Good luck and let me know what you find out so I can learn to!

I use cellophane taped over a ceramic cake divider or glass chopping board (both perfectly flat) - so I don't think it's the surface beneath that's causing the problem. I did read in the WB book that chocolate can warp if it is left to set in a too cool room - mine get left overnight in the living room and the heating gets turned down to 60F overnight from about 70F during the day. WB recommends an ideal temperature of 72F for working with chocolate - so it could be temperature that is my problem! I don't see OH letting me keep the heating on all night just for the sake of a transfer lol (he's much warmer blooded than me anyway - I'm always cold!).

Sounds like a temperature problem. I have done transfers on acetate before and they come out really shiny. How about putting a piece of acetate on each side, to hold it down and keep it from curling up??
Dunno if it's even work, cause if you accidentally pressed it too much you'd probably mess up the design.

hm, this a curly one
Nati