Hello all, my name is Janice and Im new to The Chocolate Life

Im looking to start a business incorporating chocolate cake decorations and confectionery here in the UK and I wanted to ask a few questions to the members here:

Have any of you had any experience with sculpting chocolate? I have researched this and the only information I could find on the subject involved adding glucose/corn syrup in order to make chocolate plastique which Im not really keen on doing if I can help it as Ive heard that it then makes the chocolate taste like a certain branded candy which really isnt the taste or texture that Im going for!

Ive managed to use up small batches of tempered chocolate by hand (by which I mean golf ball sized pieces at the most) to shape into a basic figure before letting this set and then carving into it but I wondered if anyone knew how I could go about turning chocolate into a putty/plasticine-like texture in larger batches without having to add any extra sugar/syrups; or is this unavoidable? I have been using Callebaut White Chocolate if this helps.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

updated by @janice-tividad: 04/22/15 04:45:31

Hi Janice! It is completely avoidable... You should check out the Sculpting with Chocolate Group! There are many ways to make chocolate decorations without using chocolate plastique. I make many chocolate decorations myself and refuse to use plastique. You may want to check out a book by Jean-Pierre Wybauw called "Chocolate Decorations". Chef Wybauw has a lot of helpful tips. I'm happy to help out how I can as well.

~Wendy

yes as Wendy said, this book is very good !!!

in it they have a big range of ways to work with chocolate such as using ice to rapidly cool shapes and keep flexibility

Hi Wendy and Laura

I've joined the Sculpting with Chocolate Group and hope to show people some of my work soon.

I've seen "Chocolate Decorations" by Chef Wybauw so will be getting this soon. Are there any other books that you would recommend and would you say it was worth it attending classes to learn decorating with chocolate as well?

I would like to learn as much as possible but being on limited time and funds (I work full time - not chocolate related work unfortunately) I'm curious to see how others got to where they are now in building their knowledge about chocolate, whether it's their career or as a hobby.