Hi, all. Need some help with something. I want this chocolate bar effect on a cake I'm doing. I bought dark cocoa candy melts. I've never used candy melts before and wonder how to melt them down and spread it out to cut these chocolate "bars". Please help, ASAP!! Thanks! Tarina

Well I would suspect in this picture the chocolate is real dark chocolate.The bars are made by spreading tempered chocolate out on a large surface and then the bars cut to size.I don't know how it would work with candy melts..I have never tried.The only thing I can say is candy melts are hard to cut perfect after they have set..they tend to crumble if you aren't using a mold or something to pop them out of.Hopefully someone else will have a better solution for you!!

Pour your chocolate on a sheet of plastic, then score with a knife before its hard, then just break apart after it completely sets up.

BTW: i love that picture.

I agree with what the other have said. If it doesn't work for you, you could always do it with chocolate fondant or candy clay. I love the pic... thanks for sharing. It's going into my favorites.

I've never made chocolate fondant, but that seems to be the best answer to this. At least they won't break as easily, right? Can I use the MMF recipe with unsweetened melted chocolate bars? I don't know how to make it? HELP!! This was a last minute thing for my cousin and I don't want it to turn into a nightmare!

This is what Mrs Missey use to do chocolate MMF. This is a quote form her form another post.

For Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant:
Add 1 oz melted chocolate.
1 tbsp cocoa powder to the basis recipe.
Chocolate fondant..........I add good quality chocolate to my marshmallow fondant. I prefer Lindt or Ghirardelli. It just makes it taste better. I want everything to be palate pleasing. You can add candy melts if you so choose. There is nothing wrong with that at all. Just depends on your taste buds.

Where did you find that pic? I'd love to see some more cakes by that person.

Short and sweet lesson on tempering real chocolate.

For dark chocolate....

You need....chocoalte, a thermometer, hot water bath and a "seed".


you will place the amount of chocolate that you need into a bowl and melt over the boiling water bath. (double boiler)....the termomether should read...118 degrees F.

Making sure that none of the steam hits your chocolate, you remove from the double boiler when the termometer reaches 118 degrees F.

Have the solid chunk of chocolate ready to put into the hot chocolate. Stir it until the chocolate reaches 89 degrees F.

Remove the chunk...chocolate is tempered and ready to use.

you can spread it onto parchment paper that you place between 2 rulers and as soon as it's dry to the touch...but still flexible...you can cut.

Let dry completely and it's ready to use.

The cake in this post is from Jacques pasteries. Here is the link http://www.jacquespastries.com. Check out his all occasion cakes. All of his work is absolutely amazing!

Yep, that would be the site! Thanks, Peachez. You know, you guys are making this really difficult on me!!

I don't know anything about tempering chocolate. I don't care if it tastes good...it's for my cousin and it is going to be taken off the cake before cutting anyway! I'm sorry, that sounded rude. I do care what it tastes like but if it doesn't taste like gourmet chocolate, that is fine. She said she doesn't mind at all.

Someone mentioned candy clay...I think. Anyway, I am not sure if my Wilton instructor was being ugly when she said this, it was via email, but she said, [and I quote] "You think soft candy clay will make hard candy bars?" Ummmm, yeah, I guess I did. How do I know?! I'm the one asking questions here because I've never used or made candy clay before!! Dang it! Need help not criticism!!

what great cakes on this site. I love like 10 of them!!

How are those cakes -- specifically the dog ones and the carousel horse -- being done? Anybody have any ideas?

Fytar - I would use candy clay. Just follow the recipe, then once it has sat, roll it out on something nonstick and cut it, then just leave it to dry. It doesn't dry *hard* but it will definitely be firm enough to hold its shape as long as it's not hot.

thanks everyone. i'm heading home to work on this.

Ummm just a word of caution. I would be very careful about reposting pics from that site. That lady has pretty much everything on the site under copyright protection.

Linking is frowned upon because too much traffic can create bandwith problems. But it would be much safer than posting the pics from her site to another site unless you have her permission. I suspect the answer for reposting would be A resounding no.... LOL... Just be careful even The buttons on the site may possibly be under copyright.


Princess

Um maybe your wilton instructor should look at the wilton books. In the 2003 book they use candy clay to make strips to go around the sides of a cake. Here's a link to the directions http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/wedding/chocolatemasterpiece.cfm
The chocolate is done with candy melts. The white stripes are candy clay.

Thanks for that, Peacockplace. I didn't attempt the candy clay. I just said, "Here goes!", and melted the chocolate in the microwave and stirred it till I couldn't see any lumps and then poured it in a waxed paper lined pan. I put it in the fridge for 8 minutes and then took it out and went to work! It probably could've stood a minute or two less in the fridge, but it still cut just fine and then I turned the pan over and they came apart just perfectly. The only thing I had problems with was handling them. I only had some of those thin cafeteria like gloves. Gotta figure a way to handle them without them leaving fingerprints. Anybody got any suggestions for that?

Just grab them carefully from the sides. That's how I did the attached cake.

boonenati, I have to put this cake together tomorrow. how did you get your pieces to stand up around the cake? Did you use melted chocolate to hold them together? What did you use between the icing on the cake and the pieces of chocolate?

I used chocolate ganache to cover the cake and this is very sticky and so the chocolate pieces stuck to it.
My chocolate ganache recipe is
600gms of chocolate buttons (white or dark)
250mls of cream
heat cream in a heavy based pan, and then add choc buttons. Do not allow to boil, mix in until all dissolved. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes and then frost cake with it.
Good luck!!

thanks!