I would use a good quality chocolate such as Gibraltor. I have made ruffles and curls with tempered chocolate, but they can be made with untempered as well. I add about 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil to 1 lb. melted chcolate. You can use melted cocoa butter but it is expensive and not always available locally. I warm a cookie sheet pan in the oven at about 200 degrees. You only want it warm enough that you can touch it without burning yourself. Turn the pan upside down and spread melted chocolate on the bottom, you want it smooth and not terribly thick, like about 1/8" thick. Refrigerate till the chocolate chills enough that you can touch it without leaving a fingermark, but it still has a little give to it. If it is too cold the ruffles or curls will shatter and splinter, if too warm they will just puddle up. It takes testing a few times to get it right. You may have to rewarm in the oven if it gets too cold. I use a bench scraper with the edge just under the chocolate, push away from yourself and the chocolate should curl. Cut off the curls with the scraper blade when they are the size you want. lay them on a waxed paper or parchment paper lined pan and refrigerate as you go. Continue till you have enough to do your dessert or cake top.
Well said, ShirleyW. I'm keeping this post in my archives, as I often get asked the very same question.
Theresa
I am putting this in the archive too. I know I will need it one of these times. I have tried it in the past and not been very successful. So glad to have this thanks!!!
The first ones just look like random scrapes of chocolate that have been folded over while still pliable. The side chocolate panels are melted chocolate spread out on a cookie sheet or acetate paper, chilled till just set and then cut into strips or rectangles that are measured to the height of your cake and cut with a bench scraper, chilled till firm and then attached to an iced cake with a dab of melted chocolate. On the bottom curls, white and dark. If you slide the bench scraper just barely under the chocolate and just let it curl slightly, push straight away from yourself to begin the curl and then push at an angle to the left or right rather than straight it will curl like this.
For the chocolate ruffles I did on this cake, I froze a gumpaste cel board in the freezer, took it out and spread it with tempered chocolate, it sets up almost immediately so you have to work fast. But you slide a scraper under the length of the chocolate and you can lift it right off the board, accordian pleat it from the narrow sides with both hands, fold in half and pinch the bottom to make a fan shape, Then open up the top ruffles a bit. The sides of this cake are a chocolate wrap.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&pos=-81868
Can you use the candy coating chocolate to make the curls? You know, the little buttons you melt, like Merkins?
Yes, you can. In fact, Merckens is about the only one of those type of melts that I would use. I stay away from the other brands, mostly because of taste. I find other brands to be bitter by comparison. And since we all know that at least one person is going to munch on the ribbon, it's probably best to use a better quality melt.
Theresa
Thank you. My brother is the biggest chocolate lover and I would love to make a cake like these just to see his face as I hand it to him.
I'm going to have to practic making curls.
This is an interesting thread...thanks Shirley
But can I ask...how do you "save to archives"? I would like to be able to refer to this thread should I ever want to try this.
Thanks
I have found that using a vegetable peeler, the one that is shaped like a "Y" is best. I use candy melts and pour them in a block, refridgerate and it gives great results. There's a grooms cake in my photo's w/ curls all on the top, you can check it out.
You know another hint I just thought of and forgot to mention in the earlier posts. Save your shattered or broken pieces of chocolate curls and add them to your cake top first, then cover those with your nicest curls. It helps fill in the area and you don't have to have as many perfect curls and you aren't wasting the ones that broke along the way.
Well I have tried these curls but I'm afraid they have more wrinkles than me and that's saying something.
I added veg oil to the white chocolate melts 1tlbspn to 6oz melts after I had melted then at med power. I put the mixture on the back of a stainless steel cooking tray (didn't warm it) and waited for it to set. The edges set before the inside. I used first a spakle knife and did manage to get some big curls but they are so wrinkly and just break. Just hit and miss if I get the right size. I have a month to get this right and ShirleyW can you or someone help please!
I also have made up a small batch of the White Chocolate Paste a recipe I got off here by Sweetart and thought I might be able to use this instead to mould shapes but it is curing.
I did some curls or my wedding cake by melting semi-sweet choc chips, then smearing it on the back of a glass pyrex that had been in the freezer. It sets up very quickly, but i used a metal spatula to score the chocolate into ribbons, then run the spatula under the choc guiding it into curls as i went. Probably not the best way, but it did work for me.
Warming the cookie sheet before spreading the melted chocolate is important, then chilling in the refrigerator. It just takes learning the timing of when the chocolate is just perfect to work with, lots of practice.
You can certainly make ruffles with fondant, just roll the paste a bit thicker than for flower petals. Or you can run the paste through your pasta maker. Cut rectangular strips about 6" long by 3" wide. Pick the piece up in both hands and accordian pleat the strip from the narrow side, then form a U and bring the two ends up so they are laying side by side, pinch at the bottom and flare out the top edge to a fan shape. Apply to the iced cake just as you would the chocolate ruffles. Here is a picture of some fondant ruffles I made for a wedding cake.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=allby&uname=ShirleyW&cat=0&pos=169
Great information. Thanks for sharing! I look forward to working with chocolate one day soon.
Great info. I'm anywhere close to trying this, but hopefully will some day. Um I have the same question taigen had. How do you put this in your archives? Does just posting here do it? Are archives just my posts?
Thanks a lot ShirleyW
Jamie
Your welcome. Sorry, I don't know how to save posts or threads. Anyone else know?
A bench scraper or pastry scraper is a tool used by bakers to cut sections of dough and to scrape off the work counter. Here is a link to a picture.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004OCNJ/?tag=cakecentral-20
To save, click "watch this topic" under the page selection at the bottom. You can keep lots of posts in watched topics, then refer to them as necessary.
I have a bunch of yours saved! Mostly chocolate work.
Oh that's called a bench scraper. I used to have one when I made alot of homemade bread in college and I think it got left in the house that I lived in .
This thread is definitely going in watched topics. thanks zmama.
Thanks for the info. zmama. Are you speaking of saving my posts on chocolate? I didn't think I had done much in the way of chocolate. Just love eating it, and love your quote at the end of your posts too.
I thought if you clicked "Watch this topic" it meant you would get an email everytime someone posted to the thread so have never clicked on it.
Shirley,
yes, you will get an email, but just delete it, and when they stop posting on the topic (a couple of days usually) it will simply be "saved"
Of course, it would be nice to have a "Favorite Topics" next to the Favorite Photos link, wouldn't it??
Ah, I see. I joined a British cake forum years ago and you got an email on every post of every thread, 24-7, drove me crazy.
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