Choc Art Sydney Evening Class - 7 March 2008

Arriving

Well talk about a tiny world, who knew when Kerry from Choc Art was booking the room that it would turn out to be with Parramatta Council in the building next door to the library where I started my new job!

It was a large room, and Kerry had it set out in three basic areas, the decorating table near the fridge and microwave at the front of the room, moulds and books set up in a display in the middle, and the chocolate crockpot with enough spoons for everyone set towards the back.

Introductions

Kerry had been clever, seeing she was coming all the way from SA and dragging the kids and hubby along, she made a trip of it, which meant they’d been checking out Sydney and Parramatta and even had a trip to the zoo planned. 

I arrived to find Kerry chatting with another lady who turned out to be Faccina, known as Elka (I hope I’m spelling it right), obviously I love meeting members from the forum and I’d already spoken to Kerry on the phone so it was great to put faces to names!

We chatted briefly while we waited for the third member to arrive.  Surprisingly the evening class only attracted the three of us, while the morning and afternoon classes attracted many more people.  I expected as I think Kerry did that it would be the other way around.  I wonder if it is because it was marketed as an intermediate class?  Even though I’ve fiddled around at home had I not started a new job I would have taken time off work to attend a beginner’s class, as I’ve never taken a chocolate class.  The Intermediate class was fine though and of course I’m happy that it was the class I ended up in. 

Jodie (again please contact me if the spelling is wrong!) arrived 15 minutes late just as we started, it wasn’t her fault though, she couldn’t find parking and had to park half way across Parramatta and then ran all the way to the class.   (Jodie I hope you find your way to our forum!)

Being a smaller class we chatted a lot off topic, and spent a lot of time giggling, I hope that it wasn’t too off putting for Kerry I believe our chatting threw her schedule out but I speak on behalf of all of us, we had a ball and still learnt loads! 

Fillings

We started with fillings, it wasn’t till we got to colours that I garnered the inspiration and asked permission to take photos while we were working.  Specific request was made to not include faces, but it was about the chocolate after all.

We chose a mould and headed to the crockpot.  We started by filling the cavity about a third and then using a paint brush to paint the chocolate round the sides.  I’m not always the most patient person and tend to at that point stick it in the fridge, but if you spend a few minutes as the chocolate starts to set a little you keep working it round the sides with the paint brush you get a much better and thicker shell to fill and less chance of the filling leaking.  We didn’t really need to put them in the fridge by this time the chocolate was set enough, although if you wanted to chuck them in the fridge I’m sure it would be fine.

We then each picked a flavour.  I tried lemon, one I didn’t have at home, the other girls had strawberry and apricot.  We then spooned in some filling and then again used the paint brush to ease it into the chocolate cavity and smooth it out, again not something I would usually take the time with but I saw the merit in getting the filling throughout more of the chocolate rather than just where you plopped it!

Then back to the crockpot to top up, tap and off to the fridge.

Colours

While the filled chocolates set in the fridge we each went back to the decorating table and chose another mould, we all decided to go with an Easter theme as it’s nearly that time of year! 

TOP TIP ONE of the evening was to use a mini muffin tin (and I can see that this could have multiple uses in cake decorating especially if you needed a variety of royal icing colours in small amounts).  Fill a bowl of water with boiling water and sit the tin on top (make sure the tin will sit and balance on the edges of the bowl).  This will help keep the chocolate melted.  Pour in some white chocolate then add your colours.  We used powdered colours and the tip there was to sift the powder to get a smoother colour (we didn’t have time, but both Jodie and Kerry mentioned that they do sift).  Use toothpics to stir.  It’s hard to get very bright colours but it is suggested you add the powder modestly and add more as you need it, much the same as adding colour to fondant or buttercream, the results I get the impression are much the same as those you get with buttercream, more pastelly than anything else.

Make sure you rotate the mini muffin tin, or only do a few colours at a time and stick to the holes over the bowl.  Remember because it is a smaller amount of exposed chocolate it will set quicker.

Then get your paintbrushes and get to painting, you can paint areas and add a different colour on top or you can use enough coloured choc to fill a cavity, you are only restricted by your imagination.  Make sure the painted colours a relatively set before adding chocolate on top or your colour may bleed and/or run.

While those went in the fridge to set, we decided to unmould the fillings and play with some decorating. 

TOP TIP TWO of the evening, you know that flower and leaf glaze you use for making sugar flowers and leaves shiny!  You can also paint it on chocolate to make your chocolate shiny! Again decorating like painting is only restricted by your imagination. 

You can use hundreds and thousands or all those new cool coloured sprinkles you can get these days.  Make a cone and fill it with some chocolate to pipe on initials or smiley faces! (Great way to make a personalized bonbonierre)  Use a little chocolate to stick on a nut, I wouldn’t fit on one, but a pecan did nicely!

TOP TIP THREE of the evening, you know those little nail polish like bottles (with their own brushes) of gold, silver and bronze you also use in cake decorating?  You can also use those to paint accents, designs etc onto your chocolates, check out what the other girls did with their heart choccies!  Looks expensive hey!

Now I always wondered how odd shaped chocolates worked in the little cases.  You can buy round truffle cases and basically you stick the chocolate in there and press around the case kinda moulds itself to the chocolate!

While we were decorating, Kerry also showed us quickly how to mix some marbled chocolate and pour it into the cavity of a seashells mould, people just won’t believe you made them yourself!

Kerry’s method was to take two bowls of chocolate, one white, one milk (remember you can marble different coloured chocolates as well) and then spooned some white into the milk chocolate, used a toothpick to give a brief swirl (the trick here is to not overmix) and then use a spoon to spoon into moulds.

Transfers

Elka asked about the transfer papers which prompted a quick side lesson, one free hand, one in a mould.  For the mould you cut out the paper to the size of the cavity.

Next we had a quick lesson in making little chocolate cups.  We were given two methods.

Method One, you fill the mould to the top, tap, and refrigerate (or leave out to set as I think Jodie’s didn’t make it to the fridge.  It sets around the edges first, when you see a border, take it out and pour the choc in the middle out and you are left with a little cup (as long as you didn’t leave it to set too long!)

Method Two, pour about a third of the cavity worth of choc and tip and swirl the mould (carefully) to coat the sides and create your cup that way, just be careful the sides aren’t too thin or your cup may crack or break on unmoulding.

Of course there are also the one pour moulds which take all the effort out of these methods especially when making the chocolate boxes.

Don’t pay any attention to the little piece that broke off, it really should have been in the fridge a little longer!

3D Egg

Finally we had a lesson on one method used to make a 3D Easter Egg, this method is great if you don’t want to fill the egg with anything for which you would need to use Method One or Two from the cup making and then warm the edges and stick them together.

Take your two piece egg mould and cut each side out.  Fill one cavity to about two-thirds full, place the empty cavity on top and carefully line up, then use bulldog clips around the mould to hold in place.  Then turn and twist to ensure even coverage, keep turning and twisting a bit to stop the chocolate left inside from settling and creating a heavier side to the egg (although when I ate mine that was my favourite bit!).  Refrigerate.  When set, unmould and use a knife to get rid of the small seam.  Or decorate by piping the seam and decorating the egg.

Finished plates

So here are our plates of different items, it’s great that we all experimented with some different ideas, so each plate has a variety of the techniques used in the class.

Extras

Due to a cancelled private class Kerry had an oversupply of some moulds and also let us have some of the items we were using so she didn’t have to cart them back on the plane, we split them between us, so it pays to be in the last class!

I don’t know when Kerry will be back, but we had so much fun, we swapped chocolate and cake decorating tips, I let Kerry know that some of us decorators use the moulds to make fondant/sugarpaste decorations, so she could pass that on to any of her customers that she also knew dabbled in cake decorating.

I highly recommend the class for both the fun factor and because it’s one of those things if you are concerned about trying certain things it really pays to have someone demonstrate it and then to be able to have a go at it.  You find it’s not as difficult as you thought.

A big thanks to Kerry who took the time to fly out from SA, I hope you’ll be back soon.