I am trying a new skill: working with white chocolate "clay" for some 3-D flowers. Will this medium dry hard? How long will it take? I want the flowers to be able to be shipped (so drying quite firm is desireable), and to be edible (they are going on cookies), so I don't think gum paste is quite what I want. Anyone have any experience with this? Any suggestions to get me going? Thanks one and all!

Hi,
Based on my experince when I make chocolate clay/leather/plastic, I use Vanila Candy Melts. There is something weird about White chocolate
when making Chocolate clay AND Ganache.. they just don't come out the way you want them..I'm always successful with Vanilla Candy Melts. The measurements are the same. Have you tried Fondant for flowers on your cookie ? I ice and decorate my cookies w/ Fondant ..I find them very convenient, quick and easy.

I only use Marshmallow, because the plain fondant does not taste good. Chocolate clay flowers do not get hard like gum paste because it has corn syrup. They will stay sturdy enough if they are in the fridge or at room temp that is not hot. 80 degrees and below is good.

I have only made roses with the white and dark chocolate candy clay..........and they got pretty firm........they were more firm than MMF gets!! I think you should be fine shipping them......obviously you're going to need to package them carefully and probably put lots of tissue around them but I think the candy claywill work well and it tastes wonderful!!!! I would say leaving them overnight would be MORE than enough time.......you'll notice them starting to firm up in an hr. or less.......obviously the longer they sit the stiffer they get and popping them in the fridge speeds that along too!

If you're shipping them - have you looked into shipping in refrigerated trucks? You'll need to do that at least in hte summer months - or don't ship at all - or sometimes you can get away w/ shipping overnight in summer...... in winter you're probably safer... why are you shipping them? Are you selling them? I have no real clue about shipping anything - I just know that chocolate melts easily in hot months! Good luck with this! I'm interested in candy clay too - I bought some from Wilton once and it was a mess - it was so hard you would break your teeth trying to eat it - and even putting it in the microwave for a few sec. and molding it w/ my hands for awhile - did nothing! I took it back to the store - it had to be old or something but it was so strange - there's like 5 colors and 2 of them were find - soft and pliable - and the rest were all rocks. So warning - don't go for Wilton's candy clay!!

I've done thick flowers (calla lily) and thin flowers (roses & buds) in chocolate clay. They did dry to about the consistency of dry fondant in about the same time--3 days for the thick flower, 2 days for the thinner. Obviously, they are somewhat fragile.....

I brought home the items shown below having "padded" them with parchment paper. They were fine after a 9 hr. drive in an air conditioned car.

Rae

Okay, so I have made my White Chocolate "Plastique" -- I didn't use the recipe here at CC, I had too many questions about how it was to be put together ... do you add 110 degree chocolate to boiling syrup? When do you add the powd. sugar?, etc. Instead, I researched some more through my cake library and found a recipe in a DeDe Wilson book that only used chocolate and corn syrup. Tonight I try to shape my calla lillies and let them dry. Wish me luck!