I need to make some wh choc shells for a cake coming up soon and have never tired these before. Does anyone have a few quick tips and what's the best mold to use (silicone?). How do I add color/shimmer to make them look more natural? Should I dust with a dry brush or do the paint method and mix with liquid. I'm such a newbie any help would be fantastic.
TIA

get candy molds....sea shells of course...craftstore will have them...place a pan of water simmering beneath another pan, and melt chocolate wafers....I add a bit of crisco for shine and to thin the chocolate....when its completely meleted and smooth put into molds....refrigerate until set and then turn over and tap and they come right out...you can paint with luster dust, I use a dab of vanilla on paint brush also to paint the shells

I swirled the bases with colored chocolates using a toothpick and paintbrush to make interesting patterns, then filled in the rest with white chocolate, tapped for air bubbles, refrigerated as required and after popping them out dusted them with luster dust...no extract necessary...
check out my photos for basket of seashells, it's in there someplace

its not necessary to use extract to paint, but I like to blend the painting to look like the random design you can find on sea shells.

I use both candy molds and silicone molds. If I'm using candy melts, I use white and paint with lustre dust dry. (I fill the molds and pop in the freezer for a few mins & pop out) I generally use fondant for the silicone molds; you get better detail and starfish can dry in more natural shapes.

You can get silicone molds at firstimpressionmolds.com. Globalsugarart carries their molds also. Or you can make your own from food-grade silicone. I'm by the beach, so I wanted to have molds of local shells; it was easy & fun!

Wow, thanks for all the tips and I like the idea of swirling diff colors then adding the wh choc. I will definatley try that! Thanks again to everyone

when you're "swirling" colors, are you talking about gel colors or different colored chocolate, or something else?