Hi!
I have to make 700 odd cake pops for a baby announcement this month. these are going to be placed in a gift hamper by the customer and then delivered to her friends and family. The problem is that i live in New Delhi, India and the temperature in May can go as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 F).. Since we dont really get candy melts here, im going to be using white and milk chocolate. im extremely worried that the chocolate will start melting off the pops while my customer delivers them... i am not familiar with chocolate, though iv seen a million videos on tempering chocolate. My question is: will the chocolate actually melt off the pops if not tempered.. or am i just being paranoid? Second, if tempering is necessary, is it for certain that the chocolate wont melt?
Any help will be appreciated!

Thank you

If you can't get candy melts, then tempering is your only option. If I were you, I'd practice before doing the project. You can reuse (and re-temper) your practice chocolate, provided you don't contaminate it. You'll know if it's tempered properly if it stays shiny, doesn't melt below 80 degrees F and has a nice 'snap'.

I also recommend getting a chocolate thermometer, if possible.

Chocolate will melt at warm temps regardless of whether or not it's tempered. Can your customer put the cake pops in a cooler while she's delivering them?

Thank you so much for taking out time to reply! She is going to be putting the pops in huge hampers so she wont be able to put them in a cooler or fridge. my only concern is that they will be out in the open while shes packing the hampers and then of course while delivering them. I did pops once with white chocolate without tempering it, and they came out nice shiny n smooth.. so if the tempering process is not going to help with delaying the melting time, then i dont know if i should go through the trouble.. coz i know its going to eat up a lot of time.. what do u think?

Yeah, if the chocolate is going to be exposed to 100+ temps, no amount of tempering is going to prevent melting.

If you've had good luck with untempered white chocolate, then go ahead and use that.

The milk chocolate may look dull if it's not tempered.

Why not try a few to see how they look and hold up before committing to a big order?

I admire your wanting to take on this project, but I just don't see it coming out well at all. It seems like so much work to do just to get a complaint.

If these pops can't be kept at 80F, or lower, they'll be a mess in no time. It's the nature of the beast. And un-tempered/improperly tempered chocolate gets messy (melted, bloomed, spotted) much more quickly.

With outside temps like that, even a car air conditioner will have trouble keeping the interior temp at 80F. If, somehow, the pops make it OK into the hampers, but the hampers aren't kept refrigerated/in air conditioning as soon as received, the pops will be globs when removed.

I'd want an awful lot of written guarantees saying that no matter what happened, there would be no requests for returned monies, no complaints, no bad reviews or comments, etc. This one would be at the customer's risk, ONLY....and I'd be paid extremely well to work with such expensive ingredients under less than ideal conditions.

Sorry to be such a downer, but it's my honest opinion.

Rae

I have many products that require refrigeration and cool environments. I understand that your client wants this project her way, but it simply will not work. You need to tell her this.

At the very least, she needs a good cooler with fake ice. The amount of packs will determine the interior temp.

If I have a client that wants something that will not work, I will refuse the project before I allow her to spend money on a project that I know will be ruined. It will still be your reputation hurt for the failure.

Please insist that she transport and store these correctly or decline the order.

Thank you for the replies! iv sent my customer a message saying that the cake pops melting is inevitable (which i told her when she placed the order).. and that im not willing to take such a big risk (its going to be me slogging away in the kitchen).. i might as well lose the order rather than have a million complaints later in the day. oh well.. more free time for me.. i might as well take that vacation iv been planning
Happy Caking!

I'm SO glad that you've decided to save yourself this headache.

It can be difficult getting people to understand the properties of the things we use.

Some things just have to be labeled "seasonal" for our own safety.

Enjoy your vacation!
Rae

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Thank you Rae!