shirley, i did two of them last night. i think i did everything you said NOT to do! lol, it was a learning experience, and i am determined to do it again, and to get it right. one of my issues is that the store was out of mylar, so the plastic i got was too thin. secondly, the chocolate on one of them bloomed...(i havent much experience with tempering chocolate) and i tried to peel half of it off and replace it and so it waved...i suppose it wasnt smart to do it for the first time on such a huge cake (12"). the five inch cake was faster, but still, i moved my hands over it-oops! and got the waves again, but this one didnt bloom. i am determined to get it because at least even though i saw soooooooooo many flaws in it, everyone at the party was very impressed . i personally am impessed with the concept...but not so much with my work on this cake. oh well...try and try again huh?

It is one of those "If at first you don't succeed" kind of things. The thickness of the Mylar is important. The bloom may have been because your chocolate got too hot when melting. Melt it slowly and take it off the heat when there are still a few pieces of unmelted chocolate in the bottom, stir until those melt and it should be ready.

I don't know why instinct tells us to smooth that wrap with our hands, it just seems the natural thing to do. But it will leave waves in the finished wrap every time. Starting on such a large cake would be difficult too until you learn how quickly you need to work and how to get it around smoothly the first try.

yeah, talk about how quick you need to work it. i picked it up, and nearly dropped it because it was so heavy. i put it down and it was already dry!!! i told my husband to go and grab the blow dryer- whew! glad you had mentioned that too!!!

i think i am used to using my hands to smooth fondant and i just have to remember that this is different.

i think you are right about the heat of the chocolate, because it was very hot. the second one still had chunks so i stirred and it was hardly warm, and that one didnt bloom.

i feel like trying again soon, but i'll make sure to have mylar next time for sure.

Ooooo! Something new to try! Thanks for sharing.

I have made cakes at home with homemade buttercream or the usual store bought frostings, but after reading all of your experiences, I want to learn more..Is there somewhere I can learn about cake decorating. I mean anything that could come close to these cakes that I've seen.
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Coffelady-
I sent you an e-mail, but this link might be helpful.

http://www.wilton.com/classes/classlocator.cfm

Coffeelady - I swear that by just hanging around here, you'll get more of an education than you ever thought possible! I agree that the Wilton classes are a great base but I think I've learned more here than anywhere else!

Carol

thanks , can t wait to try it

Thanks!

shirley, i finally did one that i am pleased with. (5th try) . i think my new favorite thing will be WHITE chocolate wraps! thanks for introducing me to the concept-

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=474003

Carol, I think you are right this is the "hang out". I'm going to try a fondant this week. any suggestions for a starter cake? I've been watching the cake decorating on tv with the pastry chefs. I do believe some of you ladies should be there. Well here goes with the fondant.

I like it Melysa. One suggestion and I should have mentioned this months ago. See the rough surface on the inside at the back of the cake? You can take a single edged razors blade and slice that rough area right off and leave a smooth surface. Just be very careful that you have control of the blade and not cut yourself.

You can even do the razor blade trick on the top edge. Sometimes, and I'm not sure why, the top doesn't come out exactly level, you can hold the blade flat and shave off the higher area.

How odd, the original links I posted to chocolate wrapped cakes suddenly say the photo doesn't exist. Let's try this again.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=81868

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=69881

Shirley, can this be done using acetate?

Two thoughts on that. One, the acetate would need to be food grade and secondly thick enough to hold up under the weight of the melted chocolate. That is kind of tricky, if it is too thin it will droop and have waves in the set chocolate. If it is too rhick and rigid it will want to pop away from the sides of the cake where the strip meets in the back. I look at the Mylar or acetate and hold one edge on each side in both hands, then move my hands up and down in diffferent directions to get a feel for the flexibility or rigidness of the plastic.

You can buy clear acetate dessert or cake collars that work great for wraps, just make sure they are at least 4" wide to fit a 4" tall cake.
Scroll down and check out 559715
http://www.cakedeco.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?p_catid=173

By the way, thank you for sharing this info with us Shirley!!

Thanks Shirley!

Your quite welcome. From all the posts in this thread I know it is a subject of interest. I just want to assure people that it is much easier to do then it sounds. It is just a matter of getting the right weight paper and then getting the feel for how quickly you need to work with it once it is spread on the wrap. It can make a very simple little cake look quite elegant and people are almost always impressed and think you have spent hours making it. This time of the year they are very pretty wrapped in either white or semi sweet chocolate and then filled with dipped strawberries in either white or semi sweet.

shirley, this may sound dumb, BUT, when I cut a wrapped cake for serving will the outside layer crumble or cause the rest of the outside to break off. Never doing this I don't kow what to expect. Thanks

coffeelady...when you cut the cake, just have a sharp serrated knife and a tall glass of hot water and cloth ...dip the knife and dry it off and cut, the warm knife will cut through pretty easily, just use the cloth to wipe it clean as you need to. it doesnt usually fall until the last few pieces, sometimes it wont at all if you do it carefully.

i did another one last night for my good friends birthday. this time i did it on a two tiered mini cake, it came out pretty cute!

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=520913

I am so glad that I found this website! Nevermind I am so glad that there are people like you guys are on it! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!

Ah, I misunderstood your question. I thought you were asking if the chocolate wrap would cause the sides of the cake to collapse. On cutting through the set chocolate, yes, Melysa's suggestion is how I do it as well. It wouldn't cause the sides of the cake to collapse, but the chocolate will shatter and break into large sections unless the knife is warmed.

Well here is my attempted. Or I guess you could say second attempted since I pealed the first off and redid it. I have room for improvement. After the first attempt I meant to cut my acetate shorter, but forgot so I tried to cut the chocolate down after the second and broke it in two places.

They can only get easier right?

Yes, they do get easier. and this looks pretty cute with the bright little flowers attached to the wrap.

Thank you! I wanted to try chocolate transfers and add a little color to it all.