Chocolate Leaves? Can Anyone Help Me?
Decorating By Jules14 Updated 10 Apr 2007 , 1:33am by southrnhearts
I am trying to make a simple wedding-style cake for my SIL's bridal shower in 2 weeks. I have the cake taken care of but she requested chocolate leaves and showed me a picture of what she wants. It looks like the chocolate was painted on actual leaves and then peeled off after the chocolate hardened. I attempted this myslef with some rose leaves and chocolate but it didn't work at all. I painted the chocoate onto the back of the leaf and then froze the leaves to set the chocolate but when I went to peel the chocolate from the leaf it just cracked and wouldn't peel. On top of that the chocolate melted very quickly onto my fingers.
Can anyone help me? Is there a particular type of chocolate I should be using? I used 60% cocoa chocolate. I also tried to keep the layer of chocolate fairly thin so the leaf would have a delicate appearance. Should I make the chocolate a certain depth?
I should also add that I know next to nothing about working with chocolate, so if you know how to do this and think it's too difficult for a beginner, just let me know.
Any help would be appreciated, thank you so much.
Jules
It depends on what type of leaf you use too. You want something pretty stable, like a lemon, orange, Gardenia or Camellia leaf. They are waxy and fairly strong. If you use a soft leaf like a Cyclamen or Begonia they are not strong enough to support the chocolate and it is also difficult to peel them away. You don't have to use tempered chocolate but it couldn't hurt. If you use chocolate chips or chunk choclate, add a little vegetable oil or melted cocoa butter to give the chocolate (about 1 teaspoon to a 12 oz. bag of chocolate chips) some flexibuilty and also some shine. Paint it onto the back of the leaves with a dry paint or pastry brush. If any chocolate gets around the sides onto the green area, wipe it off or it makes it difficult to peel the leaf off the set chocolate. Apply thick enough that no green shows through, but not so thick that it weighs the leave down or looks thick and gloppy. Try and make the depth of chocolate the same thickness as the leaf itself. Lay the coated leaves green side down on a cookie sheet or even a plate. Refrigerate till set, don't freeze them. Then, peel the green away from the chocolate, don't try and peel the chocolate away from the leaf, it will snap and break every time. Set the molded leaves back in the fridge till you are ready to assemble your cake or dessert. Handle them as little as possible to prevent fingermarks or melting.
this video at Kraftfoods might help.
http://kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?s=cookingschool&m=cookingschool/video_display&vid=21
this is super simple
get yourself some lemon or orange leaves...if you dont know someone with a tree in their yard, call a florist and get a branch of them...they are
fairly inexpensive...
you wash them and dry well
use melted WILTONS candy melts... you can get milk chocolate and light cocoa flavors as well as lots of colors...
then using something (like the back of a plastic spoon) paint the melted
chocolate on the backs of the leaves...
put them onto a tray or paper plates and pop in the freezer.... in LESS than five minutes you can easily peel away the leaves and voila!
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