If you liked playing with play doh as a child, you’re going to love this easy Modeling Chocolate Recipe!
When I was 23 years old, I wanted to take a cake decorating class. The only thing that stopped me was that I was 9 months pregnant. I always intended to take the class after my daughter, Sarah was born, but I just never got around to it. Fast forward approximately 27 years, and I finally took that class….with Sarah.
The latest Daring Kitchen project was hosted by Shillpa Bhaambri from Cakeline the Journey, a Baker and Cake designer living in Mumbai, India. She challenged us to design a cake using homemade decorating clay. Decorating clay could be either fondant, Gum paste or modeling chocolate. I’ve used fondant and gum paste before, but I’ve never made my own. Being the chocolate nut that I am, I decided to give that recipe a try.
Modeling chocolate can be used to cover cakes, make flowers, figures, stripes, polka dots or whatever your creative mind comes up with. Best of all, it tastes so much better than fondant or gum paste and doesn’t dry out as quickly. I read several other methods for making modeling chocolate, and one of the biggest cautions that I read was to not over mix it. If you do, there is no bringing it back. It becomes grainy and unusable. So, I followed the instructions step by step. My final product was a perfect modeling chocolate.
This is fun fun stuff folks, and it’s not hard to make. I used dark chocolate, but you could use white chocolate and color it with gel food coloring too. I really have to apologize for these photos. The lighting in my work space wasn’t the best.
To make my cake decorations, I had two sizes of the same flower cookie cutter, and different leaf cutters. Dust working surface with corn starch, and dust your rolling pin. Pinch off a portion of your modeling chocolate and roll it thin. Dip cutter into corn starch and press into the dough. Continue until you have enough to decorate your cake. I also rolled some small balls and flattened them into disks as my flower center. This paste is sticky. I know it looks pretty tough, but it cleans up well.
The glue that I used to put the flowers together, and to adhere them to the cake, is chocolate that I melted in the microwave. I just used chocolate chips for this. Place a small amount of this chocolate in the center of the larger flower and adhere the smaller flower onto the center of the larger flower. Put a little bit of chocolate onto the center disk and dip it into decorative sugar. Adhere the other side of the disk onto the center of the flower with more chocolate. Curl the petals slightly. Clean the corn starch off using vodka and a small paint brush. The alcohol will evaporate. Have fun!
It’s amazing what a little modeling chocolate can do, especially on top of this Black Russian Cake!
White Chocolate Irish Cream Cupcakes
Thursday 10th of March 2016
[…] you remember my modeling chocolate post? I used dark chocolate modeling chocolate for the Black Russian cake that I made. That was […]
Margherita
Sunday 7th of February 2016
It seems that you had an amazing experience Julie, I'm glad you finally took this class, and with your daughter! These flowers are simply amazing... thanks a lot for sharing this "knowledge" with us... your instructions are very clear and easy to follow!
Julie Menghini
Monday 8th of February 2016
Thank you! I'm just a home cook that loves to learn and try new things. I had so much fun with Sarah. I'm very glad that the instructions are clear too. I had some great instructions which really helped me figure this technique out. Enjoy your day!
indusinternationalkitchen
Friday 5th of February 2016
Spectacular Julie! Heavens, I would not be able to eat it! :)
Julie Menghini
Friday 5th of February 2016
Thank you Indu!
Suchitra
Friday 5th of February 2016
This looks oh so delicious! You make it sound so easy Julie! I am sure it was a lot of work!! Congratulations on being featured. You so deserve it! Happy FF!
Julie Menghini
Friday 5th of February 2016
It was fun! It did take a bit of time but I like to tinker so it was perfect for me. Thank you Suchitra!
kunstkitchen
Friday 5th of February 2016
This is so fun! It's something I think I could try. Although my chocolate experiment in the past wound up splashed on the ceiling. Dropped a spoon into melted chocolate and kaflooie! Ha. Thanks!
Julie Menghini
Friday 5th of February 2016
Ha! It sounds like you would have a heck of a lot of fun!