Chocolate Roses For Cakes

Chocolate roses must be the ultimate in decadent cake decorations.

Roses have long been a traditional decoration for cakes, but are usually made out of sugar paste which is not to everyone's taste, or flower paste which is not pleasant to eat ~ so the advent of cake decorations made from modelling chocolate has been a real boost for cake decorators.

Chocolate roses are made out either modelling chocolate (also known as chocolate plastic, chocolate plastique or chocolate clay) or of a modelling chocolate  / fondant icing mix.

Modelling chocolate is made from a mix of chocolate (white, milk or dark) and corn syrup (which in the uk can be substituted by either golden syrup or liquid glucose).

 Chocolate roses are becoming more widely available both from professional cake decorating shops and cake decorators and from private individuals selling on sites such as eBay. That is not to say that there are not some very talented people selling through sites such as eBay - there are, but buyer beware - if you're buying chocolate roses for your wedding cake make sure you you do your homework and buy from a quality supplier.

If you are looking to make them yourself but have never used modelling chocolate before then make sure you allow a lot of time for practice ~ as chcolate plasric is not the easiest medium to use It melts easily so can be hard to handle and it takes time to get really excellent results. So often the decision on whether to buy your roses or make them yourself will come down to time and patience ~ the method for making chocolate roses is the same as for sugar paste, it just tends to take longer as the chocolate needs to be kept cool at all times.

 Once you're used to using chocolate plastic it can become a very useful addition to your cake decorating reportoire of matertials.

It can be used in place of icing to cover cakes ~ or if you don't want a completely chocolate cake covering it can be mixed half and half with sugar-paste (including coloured sugar paste) to make an easy to use chocolate flavoured cake cover.

White chocolate plastic can be coloured with food colourings or powders to give coloured modelling chocolate. If you do want to colour your chocolate it is best to do it at the time of making rather than trying to mix colours into pre-made chocolate paste.

Chocolate plastic holds it shape well so it great for making ribbons or other intricate cake decorations with ~ or other flowers such as the lilies below made from a mix of white and dark modelling chocolate.