Just got back in from Florida today at 9am.
Happy Easter everyone.
I'll catch up later.

Thanks to everyone for tips on the cherries. They turned out pretty good I thought. My only issue was that they would start to leak. As soon as the chocolate had set their would be just a pin head size of juice sitting on them taunting me. It drove me crazy the first night, I spent part of the night "touching" up the bottoms so that they wouldn't completely leak out by the end of the two weeks. I have a feeling that it was the invertase that did it.

I think the next time I make them, I might make cherry cups instead. Coat a #4 cup with chocolate and then put the coated cherry in and seal the top.

All right you wonderful group of chocolate makers, I need your help.
I'm thinking about entering in the county fair for chocolate making. It needs to be a 1/2 pound box. I want to spray some of the molds to have colored designs in cocoa butter.

What all kinds of chocolates do you suggest?
Right now I'm thinking of an oreo truffle, caramel-bourbon-pecan, triple-sec, choc. dipped cherry, and some kind of a white chocolate.

I need more ideas though since that's not enough to make 1/2 #.

I'm always a fan of homeade marshmallow, if you wanted to play up the white chocolate you could do chocolate marshmallow and call it an inside-out truffle.

Maybe something with a flavored chocolate and just a nut inside? Like a raspberry or coffee flavored chocolate with an almond inside?

Hum... thats just off the top of my head, I'll let you know if I have any more ideas

I love coconut filling in chocolates, and the chocolate truffles, and the orange creams!

What about a maple cream ?

Oh! It might be nice to do a worldly chocolate with a little bit of chile, showcase the latin side of cocoa.

Jana's right, I remember a chocolate cake recipe on another site that had chipolte (sp?) chilies simmered into the chocolate for a "smoky" flavor. I've never tried it but that cake was very well received.

My computer is really acting up...it's taking forever. My computer tech DH is so busy with work he can't get to it, so if you all don't hear from me for a little bit, that's why.

I like chili with chocolate, so I'll for sure use that one!

I like so many things with chocolate it's going to be hard to narrow it down soon. mmmm...maple cream with chocolate. I absolutely love coconut so I might have to do that one too.

I have hazelnuts so I'm thinking of a hazelnut-toffee crunch. Does that sound good?

LOL! To me anything with toffee is delicious!

hazelnut-toffee crunch sounds AWESOME. If you make it, I want to know how

I haven't made the hazelnut-toffee crunch yet, but I'll tell you how it goes when I do. I decided not to do the fair after all. I might be taking a cake class those days, if it's not booked up already.

I just got a job doing pastries for a nursing/care center on a college campus. It's about an 80 bed unit. I want to try to come up with some pretty cool ideas for them and do some basic chocolates also (plus tortes, cheesecakes and such....but this is the choc. thread so I'll try sticking with talking about choc.)

Aw, that is such an awesome reason to bake or chocolatize (uh...it's a verb now. shh!), Mkolmar!

Of course it's a verb now Jana. Let's all chocolatize the world! Then again if I ever want to fit back into my jeans........but I digress.

I've given up on shopping for summer. i tried on three pairs of shorts yesterday and about ran out of the fitting room. lol. Can you tell I've been chocolatizing?

I made a chocolate peanutbutter cake the other day, using equal parts frostin pride and peanut butter to make the filling. It was awesome. I'm thinking the extra filling is going to find it's way into some chocolate shells. It's fine at room temp, too.

Just checking to see if anyone has made any cool chocolate creations lately!

Just checking to see if anyone has made any cool chocolate creations lately!

Not lately. The humidity has been a little rough for chocolate making. I do have to make up 40 boxes of chocolates in a few weeks though for my cousins baby shower. My aunt is picking up the boxes and I'm praying that they are small boxes.

No chocolates for me for a long while. AZ is HOT and 100+ degree weather just isn't ideal for chocolate making.

Me too -- too hot and humid around here. BUT I'm using a lot of melted white chocolate in my fondant these days, but alas, it's not the same...

I know what you mean. I made some white chocolate ganache to cover a cake with - yum by the way - and wanted so, so badly to have some leftover to roll into some truffles. Of course I didn't. Scraped every bit out of the bowl to cover the cake.

I made truffles about two weeks ago for my son's K4 teachers for graduation. That was the last time I made chocolate. I've been working on vegan rhubarb cupcakes lately so that's taking up my kitchen space.

I did make the truffles with vanilla soy milk rather than cream though, and they turned out very tasty.

Well while we're all on hiatus in the sunshine, can anyone tell me how these chocolate shoes were colored gold and silver? I know you cannot airbrush chocolate and they don't look luster dusted. Any ideas??

Hi there - just chiming in here, but it looks like there are brush strokes on the gold one???

Hey Lou! Actually I looked at my version of that pix and there are no brush strokes -- it just didn't transfer to CC very well. In the original it's very smooth.

What's the original website on those shoes?

Theresa

It's Gayles chocolates: http://gayleschocolates.com/subcategory.php?cid=2&sid=69

I just noticed she says they are dusted. Huh! How come my chocolates never look that good??

I knew it wasn't gold leaf, because it isn't shiny enough. I have painted veins on chocolate leaves with gold dust, but it was a long and tedious process. You had to have just the right combination of alcohol/dust. Too thick or too thin, and it beads up.

As smooth as it is, it looks like it's airbrushed. Maybe the pre-packed stuff in the can?

Theresa

They actually have a type of spray that is on the market for chocolate. This may be that product although it is covered extremely well I'm not 100% sure. I know they also have a spray to make a velvety look on chocolate also, but you have to spray and pretty much not touch it because it will come off.