Week 43 Chocolate Easter Egg in October?

Last day of October and we are making chocolate easter egg? Haha....This is because it is a requirement in the school outline. Hmm.... since it is halloween, does that mean I need to make a scary spooky egg? 

First off, our trainer showed us a few ways of decorating the egg. Free hand designs, piping in the designs and playing with some coloured chocolates. After looking at so many designs, I still like the simple free form designs, so no spooky egg for me. I did piping of circles in the egg shells with white chocolate. Initially I was happy to leave it at that but a friend said she had some extra yellow chocolate, so I used it to do some dots. I shouldn't have done the dots, I don't really like the yellow. 

Piping designs on the shells

After the white chocolate has set,I brushed in the milk chocolate but had to be careful not to brush away the designs. Then wait for it to set in the fridge. Now it is ready to add another layer of chocolate onto the shell. Ooops!! I forgot to let the shells come back to room temperature before pouring the chocolate in. The chocolate set so fast and I tried to give it a quick swirl and tip the extra chocolate out. Too late! It was a thick and heavy egg! hahaha..... Now it is a dinosaur egg! 

Then it was placed in the fridge to set. After a short while, we had to flip the egg around and place it on a baking tray, this is to loosen the chocolate egg from the shell. Not too long after that, the egg just came out of the shell. 

Waiting for it to set

After the moulds were removed, the fun bit of joining them together to get an egg. We heated up a baking tray in the oven for a short while and placed both the egg rims on it for a few seconds to melt the chocolate.  Then with one quick move, I joined them together and waited for the chocolate to set.  It all happened so quickly that I couldn't reposition it once it got in contact. Yup!! my egg was not sealed perfectly. It was a little crooked. Aarggh! 

Unmoulded

Ah.. luckily we have to pipe a border around the join, now no one can see that it is crooked. hehehe..... maybe I might attempt to make easter eggs for Christmas! Just to see if I can get it right the next time. 

Pipe the joint and hide the flaws

Happy Halloween or Happy Easter?

The next day we made a small chocolate showpiece. We were given a template to follow. First I piped the borders of the design with dark chocolate. Once it was set, I flooded it with milk chocolate and white chocolate. It was suppose to be made of 4 pieces but because it was an intricate design, we made extras, just in case it broke. I made 13 pieces of it. hehe... (well, you can say I was practising my piping skill) 

Borders

Flooding the chocolate

Then I made the base on an acetate and cut it with a round cutter when the chocolate was half set. The base was made thicker to hold all the pieces of delicate work. Another smaller round disc was made to be placed on top. The top disc was made thinner so that the weight won't break the designs. Then we glued the pieces together and because I had so many pieces and they didn't break on me, I placed 8 pieces together and gave it a better support for the top disc. We didn't get to do the decoration on the top disc because of time constraint but I was determined to finish it at home. That is provided it doesn't fall apart on the way home. 

Base for the showpiece

I managed to get the showpiece home in one piece and I wanted to make a flower design on the top. I struggled to stick the petals together because the chocolate took so long to set. It was not a good day for chocolate when the temperature was 28˚C outside. Then with the extra bits, I made a butterfly. I wanted the butterfly to stand at the edge of the disc. It took so long to set, I think my fingers were melting the bits that I was holding. But it finally set. Now its done. It is not very pretty but I am happy with the experience. It was a lot of work and being pedantic about things only makes it harder. haha. But it was worth it. 

Butterfly

Flower

Butterfly in the garden

My chocolate showpiece