Chocolate Decorations
It’s become somewhat of a tradition that I make cupcakes for family member’s birthdays. So this week it was time to bake something special to celebrate my son’s 27th birthday. Yes…I know cupcakes may seem a bit juvenile, but as you have seen on food tv and in food magazines, individual gourmet cupcakes can be very special.
I chose my basic chocolate mayonnaise cake recipe for the cakes and my traditional butter and cream cheese frosting. However, I wanted to do something a little different this time. I spent much of the winter binge-watching the Netflix series called, The Great British Baking Show. Those amazing bakers really know how to create beautiful decorations in chocolate.
So I figured I’d take a crack at learning how to temper chocolate so I could create some decorations to top my cupcakes. I did a little online research and found two videos that were exceptionally helpful. The videos explain the science behind working with chocolate. I found the instructions to be straight forward and simple.
I had some good quality chocolate chips in the cupboard. So rather than use a large bar of chocolate, which requires grating before melting…I stuck with a simple chocolate chip version.
The videos will show decorative templates that you can use as a guide when piping the chocolate designs. I created one of my own on a piece of paper…drawing some ducks. But once I got into piping the melted chocolate on the parchment, I ended up doing a bunch of designs free-hand. Since my son is an avid outdoorsman I chose ducks, trees and cactus as the primary design.
Next time I would let the melted chocolate cool a bit more before I started piping it on the parchment. As it cools it begins to firm up. When I first started piping, it was a bit runny and difficult to control. But pretty soon I got the hang of it. Except for piping the ducks, it wasn’t really about being precise. Making mistakes or “fails” provides some delicious treats for later. Although this was my very first attempt at tempering chocolate…it will not be my last. So fun and festive.
