Chocolate Experts - Please Help!!
Decorating By scgriffiths Updated 19 May 2009 , 12:15am by scgriffiths
I have a 4-tier wedding cake to do for Saturday. I haven't done much work with chocolate, so I'm a bit nervous. I haven't been able to work out how to scan the picture to show you, so I'll have to explain -
They are square cakes, with a chocolate wall stuck on each side, chocolate scrolls piped onto these walls, and chocolate shavings inside the walls.
So my questions are: What do I make the walls on? Do I cut out a piece of plastic to the right size, or maybe parchment paper??
How do I get the chocolate to stay runny while piping?
And how do I make the nicely rounded chocolate shavings? I've only ever managed the long ones.
Any other help and advice would be great!! Thanks 
Hi there, I'm no chocolate expert, but have done few chocolate collars. What you can do is, use buttercream to ice the cakes. Then do a chocolate wrap/collar around each cake. You can use plastic or parchment to the size you want, maybe a bit taller than the actual cake, so when you put choc shavings, it won't fall. Here is a tutorial how you do that, (but in this tutorial she uses the plastic same hight as the cake).
http://www.ladycakes.com/chocolate_wrap.htm
And here is another tutorial on how you can make the choc shavings.
http://candy.about.com/od/workingwithchocolate/tp/Chocolate-Curls.htm
Sorry I'm not sure how you can keep the choc runny while you pipe the scrolls.
Make the walls on acetate...you can get it from your cake supply shop, OR just use overhead projector transparencies - same stuff.
You need to work with small quantities of chocolate to pipe, use parchment bags with no piping tip - just snip a tiny bit off the end of your bag. So keep your bowl of choc over your saucepan of hot water (not boiling), fill a small bag 2/3 maximum full, fold top over carefully. When that one is empty chuck it out and grab a new one to continue, filling it just before use.
Big round choc shavings I do on a marble slab - thick layer of chocolate spread over a platter sized area, wait till it solidifies but before it sets hard, and use a dessertspoon to curl big round shavings (is that what you mean?)
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