Thursday 28 May 2009

Far and Away

Over the lovely Bank Holiday weekend, we went to Norfolk, to stay with our friends, who live in the countryside. A nice change from our City life.

They have 2 daughters, similar ages to our sons, which makes our get togethers go fantastically well, as they all get on brilliantly.

As a present for them I made some cakes, and decorated some chocolate fairy cakes with chocolate buttercream, and little fancy chocolate decorations made using Chocolate Transfer Sheets.

I give my instructions for them here, I learned how to do these at the Brighton Sugarcraft show, that I went to a few weeks ago, at a demonstration by Julie Orton.

RESOURCES:

This is where I bought mine from: Have Your Cake and Eat It.
You can also try here or here.
Some online Directions:

METHOD:
Using any chocolate you like (I did use a dark Green and Black, but you can go for a cheaper brand, and any type as well, as it's a decoration, so you are not getting a huge taste hit)

All I did was carefully melt my chocolate for 30 seconds at a time in a PLASTIC container in the microwave (takes between (1m - 1:30s )

Get a baking tray, line with greaseproof paper and lay your transfer sheet on it. (You can pre cut it to the size you need - I cut a skinny rectangle) . You need the plastic side down and the grainy side facing up.


With an (offset) spatula, spread your chocolate on, thinly.

If your kitchen is cold, let it set , it should be semi set after a few minutes, if not pop into the fridge for a few minutes. Before it has gone hard, you can get cutters and cut out your shapes (I used hearts and stars, and just cut triangles with a normal sharp knife)

Put back in the fridge to set. Try not to handle too much as the chocolate melts very quickly.

When set, you can remove the plastic peel. Just take a corner and slowly peel off.


It can be tricky removing the hearts and star shapes, I found!

You make them circular, just wrap inside a tube, when it is semi set, to give the circle. You could then fill with mouse and berries!

For a cake:If you want to wrap it around a round cake: Then measure the circumferance of the cake, but cut your rectangle, do as above, when it is semi set you can stick it onto the cake, attaching it with a spot of chocolate. Overlap the 2 ends very slightly. Once set remove the plastic sheet. You can put the sheet out from where it is overlapped, with a sharp tug.

For a square cake, the instructor, cut 4 rectangles, just slightly larger than the cake, and stuck them on. You can easily trim the chocolate with a sharp knife, as it's so thin, to make the sides neat.

Tempering: You need to melt your chocolate bit by bit, no hotter than 34 degrees C. I half melted it, stirred it, and put it back in, if it needed more. Do this is 20 to 30s bursts. If you do it right! The chocolate remains glossy (when it has cooled down) and has a snap to it when you break it!

I would have photos, but they were all eaten before I got a chance! When I do some more, shortly, I will take some pictures and post them up!

1 comment:

Mrspolkadot said...

Hi there

I found your blog looking for a carnation tute and Im hooked.My blog has been deserted because of sick children,sugarcraft school and the guild.Im a region 8 member and desperately looking forward to Brighton this year.Will you be attending? Id love to finally meet you.