I am getting ready to make a centerpiece cake for Thanksgiving and I have seen leaves made out of chocolate and some from fondant and some from gumpaste. I have never worked with chocolate before and didn't know if anyone had any tips or recipes on how to make realistic leaves and how to color them also?????

here are some cupcakes I made with chocolate fall leaves on them

all I did was paint the different colors of chocolate on a real leaf (some I did on a silk leaf, but the real leaf ones turned out nicer IMO) and then popped them in the freezer unti they were hard and then peeled the leaf off! Couln't be simpler!!

here are my leaves. I used them for a fall themed wedding cake. I make candy clay (1 bag of melts +1/3 cup corn syrup) in yellow, orange, red and green. I took a little of each color and ripped of little pieces and piled them into one big pile. I gently kneaded them together and then rolled them out and cut them with leaf cutters. I veined them with my wilton veining tool and dried them in flower formers.

I make mine out of MMF use cookie cutters. Mix the different colored fondant together and roll, then cut out . I also paint them to make them more realistic. I dry them over papertowel rolls or anything round, so they look real. I also dust them with copper and gold luster dust.

Choco leaves can be tricky. You must be sure not to get any slopover onto the back of the leaf or it will not come off. Also they melt quickly just from handling The also break easily......
Candy clay; fondant or a combination of those two would be best.

You all are sooo awesome! Thank you soooo much!!!! I will probably try these ideas before doing the cake to see which one I am better at but you all have helped so much, thank you!

I use clean real leaves. Just paint it on w/ your melted chocolate, pop it in the freezer for a few min., and it peels right off. Be sure not to paint all the way to the edges or the real leaf will get stuck to it! Here are some directions:

http://gskck.tripod.com/themepartiesnmoregalagarnishes/id19.html

HTH,
Mel Mc.

Mel Mc, that did help so much. I am a better direction person so the link will come in quite handy. Thanks!

Mel Mc What kind of chocolate do you use???

I'm glad that helped! I usually use Merkens chocolate buttons. It doesn't need to be tempered and it tastes great. I've also used the Ghiradeli choc. coating you can get in a box at Sams. It tastes very good, too.

Mel Mc.

Mel Mc, Can you color that chocolate or will your leaves always be brown from the color of the choc?

What leaves are food safe? With my luck, I'll go out and pick poison ivy leaves because they're pretty and shiny.

I bought lemon leaves from my florest, washed and dried them. I then melted baking chocolate and brushed them on the underside of the leaves. I left them to dry, and then carefully peeled them off.

If someone were to use just chocolate chips to make the leaves, would you just melt those down? Do you need to add anything to the chocolate chips so they do not dry out when you melt them?

I used plain baking chocolate, so I don't see why plain chocolate chips wouldn't work??

Can you change the color of the chocolate? or does the chocolate come in different colors? How would I get red or yellow or green chocolate leaves?