I was so excited to start my seashells today. Silly me. I thought you could color almond bark. I guess not. It seized. I really wanted to marble the shells. Is there any way I can get the marble effect without seizing the chocolate? Like, maybe...is there something I can do to the chocolate to make it be able to handle the color?

What about painting color on? If I just do white shells, is there a way to paint on a little bit of variation with some ivory gel color? Its the exact color I need so I really hope there is a way to do this.

I tried painting straight color on the inside of the mold, then pouring in the chocolate...which actually looked ok for the striped look of the clam shells (only it was a bit darker than I wanted), but I cant get the marble effect that way.

Ive already bought this chocolate, I dont want it to go to waste. Help me make it work, please?

Well..once you get the chocolate melted it is very easy...Try melting in a double boiler...Sometimes a microwave can be too hot.I pour a bit into a small bowl and add the chocolate a drop or two and take a toothpick and swirl it..then pour into the mold.

What type of coloring did you use? You can't just use gel paste colors. There are special candy colors.

I know this seems silly to ask, but are you using candy colors or the regular gel coloring? If you use the regular gel coloring for icing it causes the chocolate to seize up. The candy colors are oil based and they don't cause the seizing up. Hope that helps.

I was using gel. I thought you could use any coloring with almond bark, I thought it was just regular chocolate that you couldnt use it with. I guess I was just mistaken. I know Ive colored chocolate before. Actually I colored ghiradelli white chocolate with blue cheapo liquid color from the grocery store. It didnt seize.

Ok now I feel dumb. I guess I just was confused. Im really new to chocolate...and obviously not that good at it. So are there any options for me so that I dont have to buy more chocolate and start over? I hate to waste $7.00 in chocolate.

I think you can add a little bit of crisco to it. I believe there is a thread about it somewhere. Just add a little bit at a time. It's worth a shot if it will work. It might be that you have to do it the same as you add the coloring. Sorry I am not much help. Hopefully someone has a clearer answer.

Gia,

I did a search using "chocolate and seizing" together and several forum posts came up about it. A few said that once the chocolate has seized there isn't any recovery from it. The others said that you can use the gel coloring, but you have to add crisco or oil at that time. They said they mixed the oil and coloring together. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Janette

I have an Americolor product which you add in with regular gel colors to make them into candy colors. I am not sure exactly what is in there but it just looks like oil. I would do as PPS have suggested and try and add a little melted crisco to the gel color before adding it to the chocolate. I would try it on a small amount of chocolate though in case it does not work so you don't waste too much chocolate.

Hi....I melted dark and milk at the same time and then I used a brush to paint the dark and milk before pouring in the white...they were fabulous!
Once they were set....I brushed them with pearl and a little pink luster.

Hope this helps you.
Laura

If all you have is gel colors (which are water based and will cause seizing), use flo-coat and you won't have any problems with seizure.

I agree with jlsheik. I did the same thing. Just melted some butterscotch pieces and "painted" the inside of the shell mold in a few places, then poured in the white chocolate. They turned out great.

Oh butterscotch would have given me the color I wanted. Thats a great idea. Next time I think Ill do it that way. I ended up using the dark chocolate that I had on hand. They turned out beautiful, but not really the color I wanted. Its still going to be beautiful on the cake though. Im glad you mentioned the butterscotch. I probably wouldnt have thought of that. lol.