Chocolate Making, Day 2 - molding

So I wanted to make 3D hollow chocolate eggs for everyone for Easter...so that was 9, in total. Syd has done 3D molding before (it actually isn't that hard) so he helped me. We couldn't get the milk chocolate or white chocolate to temper properly, so it was unfortunately too thick to work for 3D chocolates. So we ended up making dark chocolates, which tempered very well, and most people at Easter probably preferred that anyway!

Basically, you take your chocolate mold, you fill it less than halfway with chocolate, you clip the two halves of your molds together, and then you turn it to evenly coat the inside of the mold. You keep turning it until the chocolate reaches room temperature, then you put it in the freezer until it starts to separate from the mold (it goes kind of white-ish). Then you take it out, unclip the mold, take one side of the mold off (carefully) and then pop it out of the other half (again, carefully) onto waxed paper. If you are confident that it turned out well, you can trim the seam with a razor (but if you hold it too long the chocolate gets soft and you can squish it). Then you wrap it up in chocolate/candy foil..and voila! Pretty 3D hollow eggs. =D

I wanted to try caramel or cadbury-style eggs, as well, but because I only had three eggs molds and on average only two of those actually survived each time, it took us the entire night plus one last batch in the morning to get enough to hand out! It did get easier as we went, and got a better feel for it. I'm going to play with the milk and white chocolate some this week and see if I can't get tempering down, and then when my new molds (we ordered 3D butterfly molds and a 3D shark mold) arrive maybe we can get some colored white chocolate (I have oil coloring) butterflies done and/or some milk chocolates. I also might buy dusting/sparkle powder this week (Hobby Lobby has a 40% off coupon this week) and try dusting the butterfly's wings...). I need a new box for all of my candy and chocolate stuff now...new obsession. And I reaaaaally want that chocolates & confections book.

I wish there was a professional chocolate making class that I could take somewhere in the area. That would be really cool. Oh well...I can figure it out on my own! ^_^

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of our finished eggs...they were all glossy and nice, and looked so pretty wrapped up in green foil! Bah! I will have to take pictures of the next chocolates that I make that turn out well. >.<