# Chocolate for enrobing cakes



## w.debord (Mar 6, 2001)

I keep seeing cakes that are wrapped in either white or dark chocolate (online, from cake decorators) and they also have loose fluidly shaped bows, even flowers. Look here- http://www.cakework.com/holiday.html (hope that link worked).

I'm just blown away by this (it's incredible)! I've worked with rolling fondant, chocolate plastics and gum paste and I can't for the life of me figure out how they are doing this work. Is anyone familar with the technique or what their using??????

If my link worked and your looking at their holiday page....my best guess is their using silk screens to get the pattern on their rolled fondant? Using what though as the ink....you'd have to mix your food pastes with something with a little body to silk screen it so it wouldn't bleed, right? Otherwise you'd have to let the fondant sit for a bit to dry before you could handle it and wrap your cake....but even so I just don't get it. Plus could this be refridgerated?

Any ideas?

P.S. Could this be a purchased item? Like I understand they now have chocolate rolling fondant, is this it? But then could they really say "wrapped in chocolate"?


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

I have heard of that chocolate fondant (chocopan?), and maybe that's what they're using. Maybe they're just painting on top of it.


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

Looks like Chocolate plastique to me!
I have had great success rolling thin and forming into shapes as it hardens when not manipulated.


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

What Beautiful work.

It's amazing what you pastry chefs can do.

When I see what you folks can produce ,I am in awe.

I have never seen cakes like that before.

I wish you guys would start a thread on how to do rolled fondent and your spectacular garnishes. I would love to bring some of these technques to work.
cc


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## pjm333 (Nov 6, 2001)

W.Debored
Im preety sure that is chocolate platic..i use it at work often..here is the recipe i use.
8 OUNCES CORN SRYUP
13-16 OUNCES BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE-chopped
Boil corn syrup & add choc..and stire to melt choc.. every so often give it a good stire ..eventually you want it to cool down and start to come together...this may take a couple of hours..keep mixing it until it is almost to hard to mix..place mixture in plastic wrap & flatten as thin as possible..let sit 24 hr + till it is very hard..Depending on the shape you want. you may have to use more choc. ?? the next day you will have to pound it with a rolling pin to be able to work with it..and you may also have to roll it over itself until you get a smooth surface...roll as thin as possible ..shape and let sit at room temp untill it gets hard..Hope this helps..Here is a picture of a choc & espresso tart with choc plastic

patrick


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## pjm333 (Nov 6, 2001)

one more time


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## w.debord (Mar 6, 2001)

I've never used the product from chocopan, but I've heard about it (does it come in white and dark?). That's a chocolate flavored fondant and I could understand how that might be what I'm looking for because it should be quite flexiable like other fondants.

BUT...(I'm sure I must try your recipe pjm333) I'm still a bit confused, because the chocolate PLASTIC's I've used are much like you describe pjm333 you have to hit the right temp. while working, to get your flexablity to drape. And they do set hard. Too hard to wrap a cake (you couldn't slice thru it easily, you'd have to heat the chocolate plastic to get a knive thru it?). Plus I can't believe you can paint on it, the surface won't absord color!

(((((Just a side step herethe subject of Chocolate plastic). I've seen a recipe in Wilton that seems to be very similar to what you've posted pjm333 (except they use 'candy melts' and corn syrup, not real chocolate) they call it 'Chocolate Clay'. 

I've bought chocolate plastic from Uster and you really have to work it to warm it up to use it. I can roll it out and make pretty bows and flowers with it, but I certainly can't enrobe a whole cake with it (it physically won't work), it's rather tricky to roll.

To complicate things further I melt chocolate and corn syrup together, spread thin on wax paper and use that when I need to wrap a large item in chocolate. But it can't be rolled, it's in place of using straight chocolate and lifting it up with a spatula and setting on cakes. So this isn't it. But it's like what your doing pjm33 with less corn syrup.))))))

So here's what someone told me on another chat site (cake decorators site)....they told me to take wiltons chocolate clay and mix it with regular rolling fondant to enrobe a cake. Then for ribbons (like in the site )I posted, you should mix the chocolate clay with gum paste and that will hold. Actually, I think this makes sense in my head to work. How about you, does it make sense?

But taking that one step further....if you mix the chocolate clay with the rolling fondant I can't imagine you'd get any thing darker than a light chocolate color. PLUS< PLUS, I think it's crossing the line to call your cake wrapped in chocolate if your doing that. The site that I posted says their cakes are wraped in chocolate and I sort of believe their not a shotty place (everything looks too good not to believe they know the difference) SO what's your opinion?

P.S. I can't seem to figure out who CK products are? That's not sounding familar right this second. Could you post who they are, please?


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## indigo chaos (Dec 10, 2001)

Hi My name is michael,

I am a pastry Chef and I work with Cape Chef.

I beleive that the presents are chocolate Plastic. You really can't fold fondant like that. The folding is just to crisp.


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## anna w. (Nov 27, 2001)

Hi W! Saw you on both boards. I think it is chocolate plastic or candy clay. I haven't been really able to work with the stuff because my hands are so hot that the stuff just disintegrates. They may be using a technique (that I have never tried) where you line everything up and roll out as one sheet. Ex: stripes- red and white adjacent and then cutting out stars with a cutter and putting a different color in. This is just a theory.

I use Choco-pan almost exclusively as my fondant of choice and I don't think there is a better tasting one out there. They have four flavors- Blanc (the best tasting but much stretchier), Wedding White (which is the easiest to work with), Noir (Dark chocolate and extremely tasty), and caramel (which I have never tried). You can use it to make decorative elements but when making bows and ribbons I stiffen with powdered sugar and when making flowers I add gum trag. They do have a teaching video but I have never seen it so they may have a better way of doing it (and I just don't know about it). You can check them out at www.choco-pan.com. Hope that helps.

www.elegantcheesecakes.com also uses this to cover thier cakes and they have a recipe posted in one of the articles on thier site.


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## w.debord (Mar 6, 2001)

First (by the way) I'm really delighted to see Anna visiting here. I should maybe introduce her.... I met her thru a cake decorating site and she was kind enough to e-mail me the answer to my question. I told her about this site and asked her to check us out. It would be great if more decorators would visit, hint, hint. 

Also I'm happy to see Cape Chefs pastry chef come and visit!!! If either of you are familar with "The Bakers Dozen" a new cookbook (and another thread going here), you'll understand why I'm excited to see more and more people contribute. Personally I've learned ALOT online from other people, and learned things I would have NEVER found in a book. I hope you'll both find this helpful too?.





Ha, Elegant Cheesecakes is another of my favorite sites....I missed their recipes. Thanks I'll definately go back and search for that! AND they also describe their cakes as wrapped in chocolate SOOOOOOOOO this all makes sense Anna. (Since I haven't tasted it) Still, you think it's o.k. to call them 'wrapped in chocolate'? The flavor reads chocolate enough to sell it as such?

I can't believe their rolling different colors together (I can't pull that off) their too perfect (the stripes are perfectly straight and even width) if you look at their photos. The candy cane cake looks like the stripes are painted on, but the other ones....I sure don't think so. Even if you examine the 3d shaped candy cane placed ontop of the candy cane cake you'll notice it's almost crude/basic compared to rest....doesn't show the same skill level to my eye. Don't you agree? 

Plus they have to be able to produce this in mass. I'm still leaning toward silk screening it. But with the flag since it's two colors plus white they'd have to screen it twice....it's not always easy for people to line up the registration marks. Plus if they rolled it out they'd have ALOT more waste, then what happens it your a hair short in size you can't add easily. Although....I've never worked with a sheeter, will it work?

What do you think about the combo chocolate clay and fondant or gum paste as suggested by someone else Anna? Have you ever done that?


THEN THE TWO COLORED BOW WITH GOLD.....I'm going crazy here. It's just too much work (the techniques I'm familar with)! No way it's gum paste (it looks better than Colletes work). Is it the choco-pan too, really?????and it dries hard too (wow that's incredible).

So even if everything is based from the choco-pan how about the coloring on the bows? Can it be colored that easily Anna?

P.S. I'm certain that actually hot hands would help with the purchased chocolate plastic I buy. I have cool hands (very) and I have to microwave it before I can kneed it. The stuff I've used is rather hard, you might like it Anna.


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

You can add paste colours to the white chocolate plastique for the most faboo colours!

I roll the choc plastic on a pasta machine, trim and enrobe. 

you can fold fondant like that if you cut in pastillage and work it with a bit of corn starch/10x sugar.

to get a shine on plastique after it has set, paint with cocoa butter or spray with food shalack. 

Cutting the plastique is like cutting into very thin tootsie roll. all you need to cut is a clean serrated knife always angle tip down into cake. Warm knife doesn't hurt.....

Hope this helps~:roll:


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## w.debord (Mar 6, 2001)

Back to figuring this out:

Anna, I couldn't find any recipe posted at elegant cheesecakes. Could you tell me where you saw it? Also I couldn't figure out where they tell you they use choco-pan either?? P.S. I just bought it on line....shouldn't have/but did buy their video. I ordered their dark and blanc flavors. How did you discover to add gum t. etc.... just thru playing.....or is this covered online somewhere and I missed that too? Thanks a bunch!!!

MBrown, which chocolate plastic do you like? Are you making yours or buying? Like I said the brand I purchased thru Uster wasn't exactly great eating. I'm thinking I should make both the Wilton way with candy melts and corn syrup and pjm333's way using real choc. and corn syrup to compare them. Are you doing something different?

Also MBrown what percentage of added gum paste do you use in your rolling fondant so it sets?

Thanks!


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## anna w. (Nov 27, 2001)

The recipe from Elegant Cheesecakes is here:
http://www.elegantcheesecakes.com/ar...w/article.html
It is at the very bottom of the page.

As far as the choco-pan goes, I didn't say they used it(Did I?)- I do. Let me know how that video is. I have been debating about it for a while.(Especially now that I only own a DVD player)

Someone had suggested that I use the gum trag on the other board. It works great. I add about a teaspoon to every cup. It really strenghthens it. I found that you need more than in regular gumpaste- I suspect because of the cocoa butter.

Did I forget anything?


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## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)

In my experience I have found that for one, you can't get white from plastic chocolate as the cocoa butter in chocolate is naturally yellow. I have made my own and bought it as well. If I want a white I have many times used marzipan with Wiltons white color in it which does a pretty fair job. Also Massa Ticino is great for enrobing and ribbons. A little soft but definitely doable. Right now for anything with a tint to it I use Cocoa Barrys Ivorie Decor. It has oil of bitter almond in it so it has a light marzipan taste to it which is nice. It holds colors beautifully, bearing in mind of course that it is an Ivory color, not white. As far as the stripes go I use the technique I use for sugar and that is to roll out thin cylinders of the colors that I want to use. Thick, thin etc. lay all these together side by side in the pattern that you want. Roll out lightly with a rolling pin and then run it through a pasta cutter. If you want straight lines which is a lot more difficult you can roll them out first and cut them and then roll gently. Most of the rest looks like a thin coat of edible lacquer and gold and silver powders with lacquer painted on with stencils. Gold and Silver leaf is also used though it's a bit more pricy than powder (which is also real gold and silver cut with aluminum) Another trick for the poinsettias is to roll out red colored plastic chocolate and cut out smaller flowers with a cutter, place on your base chocolate color and run that through the pasta sheeter. It will press them in and make them bigger and irregular. As a side note to the straightness of the ribbons if you are practiced and you use the pulled sugar technique you can make surprisingly straight ribbons. See any of Ewald Notters work. Lastly my roses in the linked picture are made with the Cocoa Barry Ivory Decor.

http://www.cheftalkcafe.com/forums/s...t=thanks+nicko


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

I've gotten straight lines that way too. I had to do a cake that looked like a striped gift box. I rolled out the strips almost to the thickness I needed, then cut them perfectly straight, before placing them side by side. A couple of rolls with the pin adhered them together, then I just wrapped the whole deal over a rolling pin and draped it over the cake. It came out perfect.

I was the one who mentioned choco-pan, but I've never used it myself. What's it like?


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## w.debord (Mar 6, 2001)

Masso Ticino is my prefered rolling fondant. But I haven't ever made bows using it....it's so soft I find that a hassle to postion and let set. Instead I've always used purchased chocolate plastic or real chocolate where you can finish it imediately and get it on your cake.

I did look at your roses before Chrose (THEY ARE WONDERFUL!) you have a very very nice techinque and a great eye for coloring (which pulls the whole thing off)! Yesterday I made Wiltons chocolate plastic using their candy melts. I haven't played with it yet but it appears to be rather nice. Have you ever used white bark with it's real bright white color? Granted real chocolate would taste best.....but only a child would eat these..... Chrose have you ever atempted to paint directly onto chocolate plastic?

I've rolled out cookie dough like that to strip but It seems like she'd be charging alot more for that particular cake. She's not shy about pricing, at ALL! Actually, it makes more sense to use the chocolate plastic in that application then fondant (which would be too soft to keep your lines so straight). She'd have to be using Wiltons candy melts to get such bright and deep colors. don't you think?

Thanks for the post Anna! I printed it out and will try it. Well it seems everyone is right! She is using chocolate plastic. The only thing I can see off hand is she is using more cornsyrup (wilton recipe is 14 oz. melts to 1/3 c. corn syrup her's is 16 oz. to 1/2 c.) that must give her the flexiblity that everyone wondered about, cause reg. plastic will crack at those tight folds. (P.S. she does belong in the group with Torres and Burnbaum)

I just bought the choco-pan yesterday on line. Can't wait to try it!

Oh, speaking of Rose...I read her cake bible on the plane and was wondering if anyone's ever made her chocolate rolling fondant? If so how was it?


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

I used Massa Ticino many years ago, and I find it much harder to work with than the Pettinice Icing. If you haven't tried it, you may find it easier to manipulate.


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## chrose (Nov 20, 2000)

I have painted on the plastic but I'm not a big fan of it. Using straight paste colors thinly applied isn't too bad but it leaves the chocolate a little on the soft side. It isn't wet but it never reallly seems quite dry. Powder colors wet with alcohol like Amaretto or a similar liquer isn't too bad. Overall though it seems that mixing in the colors works better than painting.


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## mudbug (Dec 30, 1999)

[No message]


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## anna w. (Nov 27, 2001)

Never used Beranbaum's chocolate fondant but have a friend who has and she had no complaints. I have to say, I have never had a problem with any of the recipes in the Cake Bible, she is very accurate and scientific about the whole thing.


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

Check out the white chocolate colors from Confectionery Arts International. I haven't tried them, but it looks great for coloring white modeling chocolate.

http://www.confectioneryarts.com/hotnew.html

Go to the bottom of the page.


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## kw5and1 (Jul 3, 2014)

I think its just chocolate enrobing. If you google that process Im sure you will get all you need. We are currently working on that in school.

I hope this helps.


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