Probably, many housewives have thought about making their own cakes and decorations for them. Confectionery products can be prepared at home. Moreover, in appearance and taste they will be no worse than store-bought products. Decorating the cake with chocolate looks beautiful. A photo of this beautiful piece can be seen below. You will need special devices that allow you to do the job efficiently.

Which chocolate should you choose?

To make the cake beautiful, you need to choose high-quality chocolate. It makes beautiful glossy jewelry. Many people use chocolate coatings that contain cocoa butter instead of cocoa. Such products are convenient to use, but their taste is worse than real couverture chocolate.

Chocolate should have cocoa butter. The main ingredients of the product are grated cocoa and sugar. Dark chocolate is also produced, which contains 99% cocoa.

Types of chocolate

The following types of chocolate are used for decoration:

• Bitter.
• Lactic.
• White.

Professional confectioners use the product produced in blocks and dragees. Tiles can be used at home. Cocoa powder is also suitable for decoration, but it must be of high quality.

Tools

Decorating a cake with chocolate at home can be done using special devices. A pastry syringe or bag serves as an assistant. The attachments are suitable for creating beautiful curls, flowers and leaves.

If there is no special device, then you can make it yourself. A paper envelope is used for this. To create it, you need a landscape sheet. It should be rolled up and the tip cut off. The product must be held tightly, and after filling with cream or chocolate, you can decorate the cake.

Melting chocolate

Decorating cakes with chocolate looks great. You just need to have skill and patience. It is necessary to first prepare the composition. Classic tiles are usually used. How to melt chocolate to decorate a cake? This work is carried out using the following technology:

• Divide the tiles into small pieces and then place them in a clean, dry container.
• Place a pan of hot water on the work surface. Its temperature should be more than 36 degrees, but not boil. The container with chocolate is placed in it so that it does not touch the water.

• The chocolate should be stirred. There is no need to beat the mixture. The product melts gradually, and this process cannot be rushed, otherwise the decoration will be difficult to make. Although the confectionery product can be filled with the composition, a white coating forms as it hardens. The temperature of the chocolate cannot be more than 40 degrees.

How to melt chocolate to decorate a cake so that it turns out neatly? The product should not come into contact with moisture, steam or condensation, otherwise it will become thick. It will be difficult to perform the procedure with him. If the decoration takes about 10 minutes, then the product should be placed in a steam bath. The leftovers can be used again.

Filling with chocolate

To decorate cakes with chocolate, various tools are used to create leaves and hearts. Undoubtedly, such work requires more time. The simplest option is to fill it with chocolate. To complete it, you must:

• Cool the cake until it is at room temperature and then place it on a wire rack. Place a sheet of wax paper under the grate to collect any remaining chocolate.
• DIY chocolate cake decorations are made using scoops or large spoons. This will allow you to fill the entire product at once. The coating occurs quickly, since the composition sets instantly.
• Then tap the grill a little on the work surface to evenly distribute the chocolate.
• If required, the filling is carried out a second time. This must be done after the first layer has hardened.

Creating figures: preparatory work

Decorating cakes with chocolate requires endurance and patience. This work is labor intensive. If desired, you can make various figures. To do this you will need:

• Melt about 130g of white milk chocolate and then pour the mixture onto baking parchment. It is necessary to smooth it out with a spatula or knife.
• To level the surface, take the parchment by the edges and shake it a little. Bubbles will not appear because of this.

Creating figures

If the melted chocolate does not stick to your fingers, then it can be used at work. First, the product must be covered with parchment. Then everything should be carefully turned over. The paper that was used as a backing must be removed.

The chocolate sheet must be turned over again, after which it can be cut out. Cookie molds or cocktail decorations are suitable for this. You just need to press the workpiece onto the chocolate sheet and separate the figure. The result is neat edges. Decorating cakes with chocolate like this is quite simple.

Creating leaves

There are other ways you can decorate cakes with chocolate at home. Photos of the options will help you decide on the transformation of the confectionery product. Berries with leaves near them look great. It will not be difficult to make such decor. To do this you will need to collect plant leaves. They shouldn't be too small. You also need melted chocolate.

The prepared composition should be applied to the turnover of the leaves, where the veins are more visible. The work must be done with a medium-sized brush. You need to make sure that the melted chocolate is not on the front side. The workpieces should remain in a cool place to harden. The leaves should be laid out chocolate side up. Before use, you must separate the mold. This concludes the preparation. The cake will look original.

Openwork method

How to make a cake decoration out of chocolate so that everything looks wonderful? Nets, flowers and other openwork details are perfect for this. To get them, you need parchment paper, foil and polyethylene, a spatula and chocolate melted in a water bath.

You need to choose a pattern. You can draw it yourself, after which you need to cut it out. The pattern is transferred onto foil and polyethylene with a pencil. The finished chocolate should be poured into a bag of parchment paper. The product must be squeezed out along the lines drawn on foil or paper. If the figurine will stand on the cake, then the base should be dense. After tracing the drawing, the sheet must be transferred to the board and placed in the refrigerator.

When the chocolate has become frozen, the figures must be separated with a spatula. These jewelry look great, but they are very fragile. Therefore, you should make several identical parts. Such figures are suitable for decorating cakes, ice cream and other desserts.

Shavings

Decorating cakes with chocolate chips is one of the proven methods. There are several options for obtaining such decor. For example, you can put chocolate in a warm place and then cut it with a sharp knife. The result is chocolate tubes. But before decorating the cake, they should be put in the refrigerator to harden.

There is another method. You should make a glaze from the chocolate and then apply it to the grooved surface. Everything should cool down and you can cut the chocolate into a thin layer. When it hardens, you get large chips, but if you want small ones, you should grate them. You can create a decoration from white chocolate, which you need to melt and add dye of the desired color.

Wavy decor

Waves and ribbons look beautiful on cakes. Doing them yourself is not too difficult. You will need thick foil, plastic wrap, a spatula and 2 rolling pins. To create regular waves like ribbons, you need to use thick plastic film. It should be cut into strips of the required width and length, and then apply melted chocolate to them. You need to fasten the rolling pins so that there is about 5 cm between them, and transfer the strips to them. In this form they are placed in the refrigerator. When the decorations have hardened, you need to trim the edges of the strips to remove excess and film.

If you want to get a complex figure, then you need thick foil. From it you should cut out the shape that you want to get. This is quite simple to do, since you can get any shape from foil. When it is ready, melted chocolate is applied to it. It should be placed in the refrigerator. After 3 hours, the foil can be removed. The work should be done carefully. The decoration can be placed on the cake.

Decoration rules

A home-made cake can be perfectly decorated using various methods. Volumetric compositions made of mastic, patterns and inscriptions look great. For this you can use fresh, canned fruits, jellies, creams, mastics, sweets, whipped cream.

There are several rules that it is advisable to follow. 70% of the decoration should consist of those products that are included in the base of the dessert. Children's cake decorations should not include alcohol. You can combine several components, as long as it looks harmonious. It should be remembered that the cakes should not be visible. They need to be hidden with cream or chocolate glaze. You can make beautiful jewelry with your own hands if you show a little imagination.

The more beautiful the cake, the more it arouses the appetite and admiration of others. That's why today we bring you quick, easy and effective ways to decorate a cake at home.

One of the easiest ways to decorate a cake or pie is to sprinkle it with powdered sugar or cocoa through a stencil.

Anything can serve as a stencil, from a special ready-made stencil, napkins with carved holes to a wide variety of items!

The decorating process is very simple: place the stencil on the surface of the cake, sprinkle with powder or cocoa using a sieve and carefully remove the stencil.

All this looks especially impressive if you use a contrasting background before using the stencil. For example, make the background white using powdered sugar, and sprinkle cocoa on top through a stencil, or vice versa.

Option 2: Make the glaze

You can quickly and beautifully decorate a cake by filling it with icing on top. You can also sprinkle colorful sprinkles on top.

2.1. Milk icing for quick and easy cake decoration

• Butter 50 gr.
  
• Powdered sugar 3 tbsp.
  
• Milk 1 tbsp.
  

Ingredients.

Melt the butter over low heat, then cool slightly.

While stirring, add powdered sugar, then milk.

The result should be a homogeneous white thick mass.

Coat the tops of Easter cakes or buns with the finished glaze. Let the glaze harden.

2.2. Chocolate icing for decorating the cake

• Cocoa powder 1 tbsp.
  
• Powdered sugar 3 tbsp.
  
• Butter 30 g
  
• Milk 2 tbsp.

We respect the proportions. The main thing is to stir constantly so that the chocolate glaze does not become crusty.

Mix milk with sugar and cocoa, bring to a boil, remove from heat. Cool slightly and add oil, mix well. The oil makes the glaze shiny. Chocolate glaze is ready!

Option 3: buttercream will help you decorate the cake quickly and easily!

Beat 100 gr. softened butter with a mixer until fluffy. Then carefully add 5 tbsp. l. condensed milk (can be boiled), whisking continuously. The cream should be smooth and fluffy.

To color the resulting cream, special dyes, juice of cherries, beets, carrots, spinach, cocoa or coffee (instant) are used.

You can “draw” original borders, ruffles, flower arrangements, etc. on the surface of the cake using a pastry bag or a syringe with various attachments. Alternatively, a cornet (a sheet of thick paper rolled into a cone with the lower end cut off) is quite suitable for this purpose. Having filled the homemade confectionery envelope with cream and holding it with your hand, you need to slightly squeeze it, squeezing out the required amount of confectionery mass.

You can also make something like a pastry bag from an ordinary thick plastic bag or “file” by simply cutting off a small corner and tying the free end of the bag.

Option 4: whipped cream

Not all housewives can boast of the ability to whip cream for a cake correctly, but by following simple rules you can learn how to do it. First, you need to choose cream of the desired fat content, at least 30%. Before whipping, the cream is pre-cooled in the refrigerator for two to three hours. If you do not cool the cream before whipping, then during the whipping process it may separate and become unsuitable for decorating baked goods. The container in which you plan to beat and the whisk should also be pre-cooled; for this purpose, they can also be placed in the refrigerator shortly before whipping. When choosing a container, you need to take into account that during the whipping process the volume of cream will increase; transferring it to another container after the mixer starts working is not recommended; it is better to select a large bowl in advance. You can whip cream to decorate the cake with a good hand whisk, but this will require a lot of effort on the part of the housewife. You need to start whipping at low speed, gradually increasing it; the whipping process needs to be stopped in time, otherwise the cream may lose its airiness. The average beating time is 6 – 8 minutes.

If desired, you can add sugar or powdered sugar to them, which will dissolve faster in the total mass. Additionally, you can use vanilla sugar to add flavor. If you can't whip the cream into foam, you can try adding lemon juice.

To decorate cakes with cream, you will need a pastry bag (syringe) with different types of attachments, with which you can spread the cream on the surface of the cake in openwork patterns, create inscriptions with thin lines, draw flowers, stars and other small shapes.

Option 5: chocolate will help you decorate your cake quickly and easily!

The easiest and fastest way to decorate a cake is with chocolate chips. To do this, you just need to grate the chocolate on a coarse or fine grater.

But there is also a more interesting and unusual way to get chips: put the chocolate bar in a warm place for a while, and then cut thin chips from the bar with a knife. They will immediately begin to curl up. Place these curls on a plate and place them in the refrigerator. Sprinkle them randomly over the cake once they are completely set.

Option 6: fruits, berries!

How to quickly decorate a cake at home? Try the fruity version!

Canned, fresh fruits and berries are a great idea for quick decoration at home. In any season of the year you can find a suitable option: in winter - kiwi, citrus fruits, apples, bananas, in summer - strawberries, cherries, raspberries, apricots. At any time of the year you can use exotic fruits - mango, pineapple.

You can easily decorate a cake with berries and cream - an option for novice housewives!

1. Cover the finished round cake with cream: on top - in an even layer, on the sides, use a pastry bag with a notched nozzle, forming grooved vertical stripes on the sides.
2. Divide the surface of the cake into 8 parts and mark them with the tip of a knife, drawing stripes on the cream.
3. Take about 150 grams of raspberries or blackberries (or others that will contrast in color).
4. On each “slice” of the cake, carefully place the berries in one layer and separate the parts from each other with a thin strip of cream.

Fruits gelled on the surface of the cake are a very impressive and bright decoration. It will take a little more time, but only for the jelly to harden.
To ensure that the layer is dense and does not spread, it is advisable to decorate the cake several hours in advance and keep it refrigerated until serving.

1. Cut the fruit into thin slices and place them on the surface of the cake coated with thick cream.
2. Arrange the slices in even rows, and place fruit flowers made using the carving technique in the center.
3. Prepare the jelly. To do this, you can use store-bought (dilute it with water as indicated on the package) or prepare jelly from regular gelatin based on water or juice. Choose a fill shade to match the colors of the fruit or use a colorless one.
4. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

A delicious and at the same time amazingly beautiful homemade cake is the culmination of any holiday! Do you agree with this?

In addition, a birthday cake is also a long-awaited sweet gift for the birthday person. And therefore he must look his best!

The news portal “site” continues the series of articles devoted to decorating homemade cakes, and this time has prepared for you several more detailed photos of cake decorating master classes.

The collection of photos of master classes on decorating homemade cakes is so appetizing that probably few people can resist quickly preparing something similar for their family this weekend.

Cake decorated with chocolates and sweets

A great way to decorate a homemade cake. This beauty can be made in a matter of minutes, and the result will delight even the most sophisticated guest.

Buy as many chocolates as possible of the length you need (the length of the chocolate should correspond to the height of the homemade cake), as well as small candies in multi-colored glaze. The final touch in decorating a homemade cake will be an exquisite festive ribbon, which will fix the entire sweet composition and give the dessert a special solemnity.

Cake decorated with chocolate

You can make amazing, magical patterns on your homemade cake with your own hands, without resorting to the help of experienced professional pastry chefs, much less famous artists.

Draw any patterns on the parchment paper with a thin stream of melted chocolate. These can be flowers, lace, stripes, waves, inscriptions and zigzags. Place the chocolate painting on parchment paper in the refrigerator to harden. Now decorate your homemade cake with ready-made chocolate figures.

If you don’t know how to draw at all, you can use stencils. For example, the most common fallen leaves. Rinse the leaves well, dry, and then brush each leaf with melted chocolate. Place in the refrigerator until they set. Then carefully separate the chocolate leaves from the real ones and start decorating.

Cake in the shape of: mushroom, teapot and owl

You can get a very beautiful and unusual cake if you use recipes for making sugar mastic. With its help, you can create the most incredible masterpieces of confectionery art from homemade cake.

Cake decorated with sugar icing

And finally, an easy way to decorate a homemade cake is to drizzle it with sugar or chocolate icing. The final touch to decoration can be fresh berries and fruits.

Although they say that a woman loves with her ears, and the way to a man’s heart leads through the stomach, guests of both sexes appreciate dishes not only for their taste, but also for their appearance. Children are especially partial to food decor. This is used by confectionery manufacturers. But often, behind the lush creamy roses and marshmallow towers, there are absolutely unleavened cakes, and even of dubious freshness. It's better to bake the cake yourself. This will ensure that the product contains no preservatives and that the freshest ingredients were used in its production. But how to decorate a cake at home? We will talk about this in the article.

Simple and fast

Agree, making cakes is a long and labor-intensive task. Therefore, there is no longer any strength or special desire left to decorate it. If you have leftover cream from greasing the cakes, simply apply it to the top and sides of your culinary masterpiece. And then go to the store and buy ready-made edible decor. It can be either ordinary coconut shavings of various colors or more sophisticated decorations: chocolate figures, marzipan beads, bright mastic sprinkles. All these things look stylish and are durable. Other familiar sweets will also help you decorate your cake with your own hands. But if earlier we ate marshmallows or bizet “solo”, now we are not afraid to use them as a decorative element. M&M jelly beans look original in a cake (especially for a children's party). And it’s convenient to decorate the sides of the cake with Lady’s Finger biscuits.

Decorating Cautions

It’s not hard to guess where the housewife turns for advice on how to decorate a homemade cake in a more original way. Photos from culinary sites are full of real masterpieces. But it is worth remembering that you will not only look at the cake, but also eat it. Therefore, all decor should be exclusively edible or, at least, not pose a threat to health. If the cake is being baked for an anniversary, special candles should be placed on its surface that do not melt. There are only a few exceptions to the use of non-edible cake decorations. First: fresh flowers. On March 8th, you can decorate the top of the product with petals of mimosa, roses, lilies, calendula and lavender. These flowers are harmless to the body. You can eat mint leaves and physalis without fear. The second exception is the Barbie cake - for a girl old enough to understand that putting a doll in her mouth is not a good idea. The cake is made like a fluffy hem of a skirt. And a doll is inserted into the middle. Care should be taken to ensure that her hair does not touch the cream.

Simple and economical

Every cook has scraps of cake layers left over during the baking process, and after layering them, the cream remains. Don't throw away these products! Using a mortar, roll out the illicit parts of the baked dough into crumbs. Mix them with crushed nuts. Apply the remaining cream to the sides and top of the product. Sprinkle with a mixture of cookies and nuts. How to beautifully decorate a cake with this simple decor? Let's use a stencil! We cut out various shapes from paper. Apply to the top of the cake and sprinkle. And to decorate the sides you can use regular oatmeal. Suitable toppings include cocoa, powdered sugar, grated chocolate, and confectionery confetti. It is important to combine the colors correctly. The chocolate frosting should be decorated with powdered sugar and the white buttercream with cocoa powder. The gummies will look good on the jelly coating.

Shape as decoration

Let's give room to our imagination and bake something original instead of boring round cakes. After all, instead of thinking about how to decorate a cake at home, you can already create it. Let’s think through the concept: what shape will we give to our culinary masterpiece? And there is no need at all to build something out of cakes that resembles the Burj Dubai skyscraper. It could be a violin-shaped cake. Then we powder the sides of the product with cocoa, and draw the strings with melted chocolate. Figured cakes are especially relevant for children's parties. We already mentioned Barbie Pie. But for a boy you can bake a cake in the shape of a car or a boat. In this case, we will only retouch our sculptural image with cream. And with what pleasure the little ones will eat the stern and the bow of the ship, taking with them the sailors from the mastic as souvenirs.

This is a classic in cooking, and, as you know, it is always in fashion. Butter cream is an unusually plastic product. You can use it to create roses, leaves, flowers, ruffles and flounces. The oil keeps its shape quite well, does not settle or flow. Protein meringue cream is also good for decoration. However, eggs are a perishable product. But custard is not structural, you cannot create flowers from it. The same can be said for whipped cream. Figures created from them turn into blots after a while. So use cream with condensed milk, sour cream and egg whites only for layering the cakes. But how to decorate a cake at home with buttercream? If you don’t have a pastry syringe with special attachments, don’t get upset. You can do something similar yourself. Take a sheet of thick paper and roll it into a little bag. Let's fill it with cream. We will cut off the edge of the bag. You can carry out the truncation simply - along a straight or oblique line, or you can use your imagination. Let's roll up the hollow little bag several times lengthwise. Cut the narrow tip into a triangle shape with the sharp end down. Now let's unfold the envelope and fill it with cream. Squeeze it slowly onto the surface of the cake. The edges of the cream appear to be corrugated. By moving your hand back and forth, you can create lush ruffles - the design of the sides. Instead of paper for a pastry bag, you can use a regular cellophane bag.

Playing with colors

Regular buttercream can be colored in all shades of the rainbow. That's what food coloring is for. If you don't have them, mix in freshly squeezed cherry (beet) juice to get a red cream, carrot juice for an orange tint, spinach juice for a green one. Cocoa powder will give the cream a light brown color, and instant coffee will give it a dark color. Grated lemon zest will turn it pale yellow. The same rule of playing with color applies when you are thinking about how to beautifully decorate a cake with fondant. However, it should be remembered that some natural dyes (red wine, coffee, fruit juices) may cause powdered sugar to dissolve.

Decoration with mastic

This is a great alternative to cream. Its consistency resembles soft plasticine, and with certain skills you can fashion anything out of it. However, working with it also has its own difficulties. Decorations made from mastic should only be placed on butter cream, since in a liquid medium the figures will immediately float, like melted ice cream. Also, do not overuse mastic - as it hardens, it becomes too hard. You can buy ready-made decorations, but it is much better to make them yourself. We will tell you how to decorate a cake at home with fondant. We take powdered sugar, milk powder and condensed milk in equal proportions. Mix the first two ingredients on a spread cling film. Slowly add condensed milk. Knead the dough, which can be colored if desired. We sculpt, as if from plasticine, all sorts of figures or their fragments. We glue the individual parts together by moistening the tangential surfaces of the mastic with water. But remember that large sculptures tend to crack.

Icing

This is a drawing mass with which you can apply openwork patterns and inscriptions to the surface of the product. We will tell you how to decorate a cake, describing step by step the stages of preparing icing. We begin work a few days before baking the pie. Separate the egg white and set aside to cool. Sift 200 g of powdered sugar through a sieve. Beat the whites. Gradually add powdered sugar and a spoonful of lemon juice. You should get a dense, stable foam. First draw the desired pattern on paper. You can at least use children's coloring books. Cover the paper with cling film. Lubricate it with olive oil using a brush. Fill a pastry syringe or bag with icing. Apply it with a thin solid line along the contour of the pattern. Leave to dry. Icing can also be used to decorate the sides of cakes. But then the cling film should not be spread on a flat surface, but on the sides of the cans.

Chocolate lace

Icing, like mastic, does not like a humid environment. Therefore, before decorating a homemade cake with snow-white foam, you should think about whether the openwork patterns on the custard or protein cream will dissolve. Chocolate can serve as a worthy replacement for icing. It requires less time. Just melt the chocolate bar in a water bath, fill the envelope with the liquid mass and draw continuous thin lines along the contour of the picture. Unlike classic icing, broken fragile lace can be melted again and the pattern reapplied. Using white, dark and milk chocolate, you can get multi-colored decorations.

Bright tangerine slices, whole strawberries, cocktail cherries look very presentable on the surface of the cake. Fruits go well with various creams, whipped cream or chocolate. But the most common way is to lay them on a colored jelly base. To do this, we bake cakes and soak them with some kind of cream. Separately prepare the jelly - preferably a bright, rich color. As soon as the mixture begins to thicken, pour it over the cake. Now prepare the transparent jelly. By that time, our pie should be dressed in a bright shell. Before decorating the cake with fruits, dip them in transparent jelly. This way they won’t wrinkle, won’t fade and will become even brighter. You can cut out decorations (flowers, stars) from the remains of colored and transparent jelly and transfer them to the surface of the cake.

Glaze

This method is good when there is no cream left to decorate the top and sides of the cake (or we used marmalade praline for the layer). Chocolate icing is a classic of the genre and a great idea on how to decorate a cake. Photos of such culinary masterpieces look very appetizing. We all know the Prague cake, where this particular method of decoration is used. Fill the top cake with chocolate melted in a water bath, diluted milk and butter. Let the black icing harden in the refrigerator. Here is the recipe for the white coating. Mix one hundred grams of Philadelphia cheese with 200 g of powdered sugar. Dilute with a small amount of milk. You can alternate white and black glaze.

Handmade chocolate decorations for cakes, pastries, cookies and other homemade baked goods are the pinnacle of a confectioner’s craft. Of course, you don’t have to overthink it and decorate the cake with chocolate the way your grandmothers did - just melt the bar with cream, and then coat the top and sides of the confectionery with this liquid mass. But you can try and make a chocolate decoration of simply unearthly beauty, similar to real masterpieces.

What kind of chocolate is suitable for decorating a cake?

When choosing which chocolate to make cake decorations from, purchase only a high-quality product. High-quality chocolate makes beautiful glossy decorations. Currently, chocolate glazes are used to make chocolate decorations, which are replaced with various equivalents of cocoa butter. These glazes are very convenient to use due to their significant fluidity, but in taste they are inferior to real chocolate - couverture.

Despite the long-standing domestic traditions of chocolate production, interest in this product on the part of consumers and producers is constantly growing, because chocolate can be used to make a variety of decorations for cakes and pastries: line drawings, three-dimensional figures, bas-reliefs, openwork details and much more. When decorating cakes with chocolate, you can give full rein to your imagination.

Popular trends in working with this product include “marble pattern”, “velor finishing”, “decals”.

As you can see in the photo, chocolate decorations can become real original sculptures:

Such compositions are not much inferior to those carved from stone or cast from metal.

DIY chocolate decorations (with photos)

Do-it-yourself chocolate decorations are made on the surface of cakes and pastries: geometric patterns, drawings of flowers and leaves, various drawings of thematic content. It is prohibited to use dyes other than those approved for use by the Ministry of Health. When decorating products, they use special techniques and various devices.

Chocolate decorations at home are made from chocolate candies and 100-gram bars. To decorate cakes with chocolate chips, the chocolate is cooled and then kept for a while at a temperature of 25-30°C - then when cut with a knife, the chocolate curls into a beautiful tube. Heavily chilled chocolate crumbles, but soft chocolate does not produce shavings.

Look at the photo - decorating cakes with chocolate can be made in the form of twigs, trees, rockets, numbers, letters, antennae, outlines of animals and birds:

To do this, it is broken into pieces, melted in a water bath (so as not to burn) and poured into a small parchment cornet. A drawing is selected. Tracing paper or cellophane is placed on it and chocolate is deposited from the cornet along the visible contours. These homemade chocolate decorations are placed in a cold place, and after hardening, they are removed from the paper with a knife and transferred to a cake or pastry.

Before making a chocolate decoration in the form of a vertical pattern, a “leg” is pre-planted on which it will be fixed in the right place. Chocolate oak leaves are very elegant on the cake. To make them, tracing paper is applied to a drawing of a small oak leaf and a contour is first drawn from the cornet, and then the middle is filled in. With the back of a knife, a line is drawn in the middle of the leaf, and short oblique lines are drawn from it on the sides, thus imitating the veins of the leaf. After this, the remaining leaves are made.

It is not difficult to make decorations in the form of flat figures from chocolate for homemade cakes: for this, the melted product is poured onto parchment paper in a layer of 3 mm and various figures are cut out using recesses greased with vegetable oil. Chocolate for decorating a cake at home should not be hard, otherwise the figures will crumble.

Chocolate decorations for cake at home (with video)

To prepare three-dimensional chocolate decorations, one- and two-sided molds made of plaster, porcelain, clay, plastic and metal are used. Such forms are fastened together using clamps. The molds are thoroughly cleaned of chocolate residues and wiped dry with a clean cloth so that the figures and bas-reliefs can be easily separated, then they are heated to 30°C and filled with chocolate at a temperature of 29-30°C. Chocolate is poured into double-sided, interconnected molds through the bottom hole; the mold is shaken well for 2-3 minutes and turned over to avoid voids from air bubbles and to ensure that the chocolate is evenly distributed. After filling, place the mold with the hole down and pour out the remaining chocolate, leaving a layer of 2 to 4 mm on the inner walls.

If the shapes are large and have a complex pattern, the chocolate is applied with a brush. The filled forms are cooled in the refrigerator at a temperature of 10-12°C, and then the figures are cleaned from the seam formed at the gluing site.

The video “Chocolate Decorations” shows how various figures are made:

To make chocolate jewelry, you don’t have to come up with complex designs, but simply make a chocolate pyramid. Before making such a chocolate decoration for the cake, first draw the contours of the pyramid details on cardboard with a pencil and cut out a template. A design is syringed from the cornet: the lines of the design are thinner, the edges of the pyramid are thicker. To make the pyramid harder, add cocoa butter to the melted chocolate. The parts are cooled in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, then their reverse sides are processed.

The pyramid is assembled like this: two parts are placed on a board with their flat sides facing each other and chocolate is squeezed out along the edges, the halves are compressed and cooled. Place it vertically on the cake and glue the remaining 3-4 parts to the sides, allow the pyramid to harden and additionally decorate the cake with marzipan and sugar mastic flowers.

As you can see in the photo, you can also make DIY chocolate decorations from a chocolate substitute. It is prepared from 15% cocoa, 45% butter, 40% powdered sugar and 10% (of the total mass) vanilla sugar. First, a quarter of all the butter is heated to 45°C, vanilla sugar and cocoa are added, then the rest of the butter is mixed with powdered sugar and all the products.

Decorations made from glaze can be immediately applied to the product or prepared for future use. In the second case, they are “planted” on sheets covered with parchment paper and dried for 12 hours at room temperature.

The simplest decoration is to apply straight or wavy lines to the surface of the product, smeared with cream, using a pastry comb. It can be made from tinplate, aluminum, plastic. The size and style of the comb teeth may vary.

The master class on decorating cakes with chocolate offered below contains interesting information about this product, reveals how tempering is carried out, as well as the technology for preparing figures, leaves, curls and shavings that will give a festive look to any cake.

Equipment for chocolate decorations on a cake: stencils and cornets for chocolate

Before making complex decorations for a chocolate cake, you need to stock up on special tools. First, you will need cornets or pastry depositor bags with a set of tubes. The cornet is made from tracing paper, parchment or other thick paper that does not absorb fat: cut out a right triangle and roll it into a conical tube. The protruding ends of the leaf are bent inward to secure the root. Its sharp end is cut depending on the pattern that they want to get. The cornet is filled halfway with cream or glaze and closed tightly so that when pressed, the cream or glaze is “deposited” only from the bottom hole. With the help of a cornet, inscriptions, dots and subtle elegant designs and flowers are applied.

To make chocolate decorations, you can make a piping bag. To make it, use thick fabric (tik eraser is best). The bag has a cone shape; various tubes are inserted into its narrow end. A new bag must be boiled before use. After work, the jigging bags are washed in warm water mixed with baking soda, boiled for 3–5 minutes, dried and stored in a specially designated place.

Depositing tubes for making decorations for chocolate cakes are made in the form of a cone, the end of which has a shaped hole, from which the cream is deposited in the form of various decorations. Sometimes a confectionery depositing bag is used, into the narrow end of which a conical ring with a screw thread is inserted; tubes of different styles can then be screwed onto it.

To fill a pastry depositor bag with cream, hold it with your left hand, unfold the bag and place the cream with a spatula or spoon to fill 1/2 of its volume. The cream must be placed tightly, as remaining air can ruin the design. With both hands, connect the edges of the bag and, holding it with your right hand, “pipe” the cream, holding the narrow end of the pastry bag with your left.

A variety of chocolate designs for decorating cakes is achieved not only by different styles of tubes, but also by zigzag or wave-like movements of the cornet or depositing bag, slow or instantaneous changes in the pressure force with the right hand, the angle of inclination relative to the product being decorated, the distance from the product, etc.

Before completing any design for chocolate decorations, you should stop pressing the pastry bag and use the end of the tube to make a sharp, short movement forward along the design.

Various openwork chocolate decorations are made by depositing cream from metal shaped tubes inserted into a depositing bag. A set of 10–12 tubes with different cut configurations allows you to make all the variety of decorations needed for decorating pastries and cakes. But most often they use tubes with smooth and straight, jagged and wedge-shaped cuts.

Stencils for decorating cakes with chocolate can be useful, especially when you need a lot of decoration elements (for a festive banquet or children's table). You can also create a hybrid: for example, make some parts of the composition using a stencil for chocolate decorations, and others by original cutting. The stencil for chocolate decorations has a metal base. Place it on appropriately prepared raw materials and press firmly, cutting through the flesh in the shape of a butterfly, leaf, fungus or any other figure.

Here you can see a photo of the “Chocolate Decorating Tools” that you will need to create the drawings:

Decorating the sides of cakes with liquid chocolate cream with your own hands (with photos and videos)

To decorate cakes with chocolate cream, use only freshly whipped product; standing cream will result in patterns without gloss and pockmarked.

When decorating a cake with liquid chocolate, lines - smooth, zigzag, wavy - are drawn with a pastry comb heated in hot water, lightly pressing it against the smooth edge of the cream. Flowers, figures and patterns are made by squeezing cream out of shaped tubes inserted into a depositing bag. The most delicate drawings and figures of a certain shape or color are made using a cornet, the narrow end of which is either cut off or a shaped tube is inserted into it.

When making openwork chocolate decorations for cakes, the cornet is filled halfway with cream and closed tightly so that when pressed, the cream comes out only at the cut point. It is better not to hold the cornet with cream in your hands for a long time: the cream heats up by hand, becomes liquid and the drawings turn out uneven. After twisting, the cornet is freed from the remaining cream.

To decorate a cake with chocolate with your own hands, fill the depositing bag as follows: unscrew the wide end of the bag so that it rests on the left hand, and with your right hand, using a spoon, fill the bag with cream to 1/2 of the volume. There should be as little air as possible left in the bag, as it will spoil the drawings. Then, with both hands, connect the edges of the wide end of the bag and, pinching it with your right hand, release the cream, supporting the narrow end with your left hand.

When making chocolate cake decorations at home, depending on the wavy or zigzag movements of the cornet or bag, slow or instantaneous changes in pressure with the right hand, changes in the angle of inclination relative to the product, and changes in the distance from the surface of the product, a variety of cream designs are achieved. After completing the beautiful chocolate decorations, you need to stop pressing on the bag or cornet and use the end of the tube to make a short movement forward from you along the design, then the rest of the cream will fall in an inconspicuous smear. If you lift the bag or cornet up, then a cone of cream will remain in the picture.

To prepare small chocolate decorations for the cake, to make dots and inscriptions, the narrow end of the cornet is held close to the surface of the product to be decorated. You can fill bags and cornets in advance with creams of different colors. This will make the chocolate decor for decorating the cake more varied and vibrant.

If you need to make a rose from cream, first cut out a small cake from the sponge cake (or take candied fruit, profiterole, etc.) - the core of the rose. The core is secured on a stick with a pointed end and a cork placed on it or on a table fork. In the left hand they hold a stick with a core, in the right - a pastry bag with a straw. By turning the stick, cream is squeezed onto the core. When the rose is ready, remove it from the stick with a spatula or fork, holding it with the fingers of your left hand, and place it on the cake or pastry.

As you can see in the photo, when decorating a cake with chocolate at home, you can weave a basket of the same or different colors:

The basket can also be made from sponge cake (short pastry), gluing the layers with chocolate cream or fruit filling. The basket is placed on a stand (for example, a plywood circle) with the wide side down and, lifting one side, a weave of cream is applied. When the cream has hardened, the basket is placed on the cake. A handle is made from caramel or special dough (composition: flour, powdered sugar and egg white) on top of the basket. Flowers or sweets are placed in the basket.

To decorate the sides of the cake with chocolate, you can decorate them with borders of cream. By the way, borders are made before all other cake decorations. Borders serve not only as decoration, but also cover gaps, cracks, and smooth out the edges of the cake. They are mainly made using a smooth straight-cut tube or a tube with fine teeth.

The video “DIY Chocolate Decorations” shows various confectionery techniques:

How to decorate a cake with chocolate with your own hands: making flowers

Flower-shaped chocolate cake decorations look very nice. In addition to roses, carnations are often made. They are syringed from a flat tube with an oblique cut. The sharp corner of the tube is placed motionless on the surface of the cake or pastry and they begin to squeeze out the cream, turning the opposite end of the tube 180°C around the motionless end with wave-like movements. Exactly the same, but in the opposite direction they “assemble” the second row of petals, etc.

It is advisable to complement cream flowers with leaves. They are planted from tubes with a wedge-shaped cut of various diameters. The leaves can be green, brown, yellow and even white.

You can make a border or an entire design entirely from leaves. Leaves look especially good on small cakes. Words, names, numbers, congratulations and wishes are often written on cakes and even pastries. For inscriptions to be expressive, there must be a contrast between the inscription and the background. For example, you cannot write chocolate on chocolate or write with white cream on white icing.

The inscriptions are syringed from a small cornet with a very narrow round cut or using a metal “pencil” tube. Protein, custard and butter creams of various colors and shades are used. But there should not be even the smallest lumps in it, otherwise it will get stuck at the exit from the tube or cornet, and you will get uneven, broken lines. You can also write inscriptions using two-color cream. In this case, the cornet is filled with cream of two colors in longitudinal stripes.

Watch the video “Chocolate Cake Decorations” for some fresh ideas:

How to make a cake decoration using tempered chocolate

From tempered chocolate you can make a variety of decorations for cakes and pastries - full-volume figures, bas-reliefs, flat thin figures, “jigging” ones, etc.

For full-volume figures, it is better to use metal molds of two halves with clamps. When pouring chocolate, the mold and the chocolate must be at the same temperature. Chocolate is poured through the bottom hole of the mold and shaken for 2-3 minutes so that the chocolate is completely distributed over all patterns. Then the excess chocolate is poured out. A layer of chocolate 3–4 mm thick forms on the inner walls of the mold. After the chocolate has cooled and hardened, the mold is released from the clamps, the figure is opened and removed. Most often, bas-reliefs are made from chocolate.

To obtain flat thin figures, tempered chocolate is poured onto parchment in a layer of 2–3 mm, allowed to harden a little, and the figures are cut out with a notch.

To “deposit,” tempered chocolate is placed in a cornet and “deposited” on parchment in the form of continuous patterns and so-called tendrils. Tempered chocolate, cast into a bar and then cooled until almost completely hardened, is cut into thin wide chips with a knife, which roll into tubes when dropped.

Making chocolate figures for cake decoration

Chocolate is an excellent material for decorating cookies or cakes; it will add a festive look to any baked goods. To decorate the cake, it is better to use a chocolate mixture. It hardens at room temperature and melts easily in a water bath.

Line a baking sheet with parchment and lightly grease it with vegetable oil. Break the chocolate into small pieces. Place it in a water bath and melt without water. Pour onto the parchment, guiding with a round-tipped knife to form a thick, even layer. Leave in a cool place until the chocolate is almost completely set. Use a knife or dough cutter (star, flower, etc.) to cut out shapes. They should be stored in a cool, dry place.

Chocolate squares- a simple and effective way to decorate a cake or holiday dessert. Line a baking sheet with foil. Spread 200 g of melted chocolate in an even layer and gently move the fork to create a wave effect (make sure the tines of the fork do not touch the bottom of the baking tray). Refrigerate until the chocolate is half set. Using a sharp knife and a ruler, cut the chocolate into squares with a side of approximately 6 cm. Place the baking tray with chocolate decorations in the refrigerator until they completely harden. Remove the foil. Gently press the chocolate squares onto the top and sides of the frosted cake. They can also be used as a topping for ice cream desserts.

Chocolate decor for decorating a cake: grated shavings, crumbs, petals and curls

Chocolate chips and crumbs. To decorate the cake with grated chocolate, use a sharp knife to cut off the shavings from the chocolate bar. It is better to remove the shavings over a plate, using smooth movements. Before decorating the cake with grated chocolate, it should be warmed up, but only enough so that it is easy to work with. Leave the chocolate in a warm place for 10-15 minutes. You can spoon the shavings onto the cake or shake them off. Decorating with chocolate chips is done in the same way, only it is rubbed finer.

Chocolate curls. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a water bath. Spread a thin layer on a smooth board. Set aside until the chocolate is almost set. Pull the blade of a large wide knife towards you along the entire length of the chocolate, getting long curls.

Chocolate petals. Cut the foil into squares. Melt the chocolate in a water bath, then cool slightly. Place the square of foil on your palm. Using a spatula or spoon, spread a thin layer of chocolate onto the foil. Form a petal. While it is still soft, lift your fingers slightly under the foil to slightly bend the petal, giving it a natural shape. Leave to cool. When the chocolate has completely hardened, remove the foil. Using melted chocolate you can make a flower from the petals.

Homemade chocolate cream dessert

Chocolate cream

Ingredients:

• 100 g chocolate by weight,
• 1/2 cup milk,
• 3 yolks,
• 4 squirrels,
• 2 tbsp. spoons of powdered sugar.

Pour milk over the chocolate broken into pieces and place in the oven to melt. Then grind it with a spoon, gradually adding one yolk at a time until a fluffy mass is formed. Beat the whites into a thick foam and carefully mix with the chocolate mixture. Place the cream in glasses and sprinkle grated chocolate mixed with powdered sugar on top.

Note. This cream must be prepared shortly before serving and kept in the refrigerator, otherwise the whites will fall off and the dish will be spoiled.

Cocoa karem

Ingredients:

• 400 g butter (unsalted) butter,
• 250 ml milk,
• 200 g sugar,
• 3–4 tbsp. spoons of cocoa powder,
• 2 eggs.

Heat the milk in a water bath, add cocoa, stir, pour in the eggs mashed with sugar, cook until thickened, stirring occasionally, then remove and cool.

Beat softened butter until white. Then add the cooled mixture to it. Beat the cream until it reaches a homogeneous consistency.

Custard chocolate cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour,
• 1/2 cup milk,
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar,
• 1 tbsp. l. cocoa powder,
• 50 g butter.

Cooking method. Bring a homogeneous mixture of cocoa powder, granulated sugar, flour, milk and butter to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. The cream will be ready after it boils and thickens.

How to prepare chocolate icing for cake decoration (with photo)

Recipe No. 1

The easiest way to prepare chocolate glaze is from chocolate. This product can be used as a cream for cakes, or simply spread on cookies.

Ingredients:

• 200 g chocolate,
• 100 g of water,
• 25 g butter.

Dissolve the chocolate and water in a water bath. Mix with butter. Spread the warm glaze over the cake and let cool.

Recipe No. 2

To make this glaze you only need 2 ingredients.

Ingredients:

• dark chocolate (at least 56%) – 0.6 kg (3 large bars),
• “Krestyanskoye” oil – 0.3 kg.

Chocolate icing from chocolate is prepared in a water bath, so first we will select containers: you will need 2 of them, of such a volume that one is immersed in the other, but at the same time, water poured into a larger container should not be poured into a smaller one.

So, set up the containers, pour some water into the larger one and put it on the fire. When the water is hot enough, melt the butter - it melts easier and faster. Gradually add finely chopped chocolate to the liquid butter. Stir continuously, because the mixture quickly thickens and begins to burn at the walls. When all the chocolate has melted and the glaze has become homogeneous, it is ready.

Thus, from butter and chocolate, a mirror-like chocolate glaze is obtained. However, this is a fairly high-calorie product.

As you can see in the photo, when decorating cakes with such chocolate glaze, it glitters very beautifully:

Chocolate glaze made from cocoa and sour cream

Ingredients:

• sugar – ½ cup;
• sour cream with a fat content of at least 20% - 150 g;
• vanillin – 2 sachets;
• cocoa powder – 4 tbsp. spoons.

Preparation:

Since it is not recommended to heat sour cream, it is better to grind the sugar into powder - this way it will dissolve more easily. Mix the dry products: grind cocoa powder with powder and vanilla. If you use vanilla sugar, grind it too. Add sour cream to the mixture a little at a time to avoid lumps. Mix thoroughly until a smooth, shiny, homogeneous mass is obtained. You can use a mixer, then the chocolate icing for the cake will be more airy.

You can make a rich glaze by adding cocoa to the chocolate - this recipe is suitable if you cannot find chocolate with a high cocoa content. We'll tell you how to make chocolate icing from cocoa powder, chocolate and milk.

Chocolate and cocoa glaze

Ingredients:

• mirror chocolate glaze;
• cocoa powder – 4 tbsp. spoons;
• sugar – 1/3 cup;
• milk – ½ cup;
• dark chocolate – 1 bar;
• butter – ¼ pack.

Preparation:

Heat the milk and dissolve the butter with it. Gradually add chocolate chips, cook until ingredients are completely combined, stir. Mix sugar with cocoa and pour in the milk-chocolate mixture in a thin stream. Grind until the sugar dissolves. This chocolate glaze must be applied very hot for decoration.

Light chocolate icing for decorating cakes and desserts

What to do if you need to decorate a dessert, but at the same time you want fewer calories. To do this, you need to cook a light cocoa glaze.

Ingredients:

• sugar – 1 glass;
• water – 0.5 cups;
• cocoa powder – 2-3 tbsp. spoons.

Preparation:

To make this glaze for decorating desserts with chocolate, first of all we prepare the syrup: add sugar to hot water and cook the mixture over low heat for so long as to get a drop that does not spread on the nail. As soon as the syrup is cooked, add cocoa little by little, thoroughly grinding it with the liquid. Quite quickly the sugar will begin to crystallize at the walls. If you don't rub the mixture, it will burn, so be careful and careful. The glaze hardens quickly, so it must be applied warm.

It is not necessary to cook cream to decorate dessert. If the cake contains jelly, do not add a hot chocolate layer. In this case, we will prepare the glaze without heat treatment.

How to make chocolate fondant for cake decoration

Ingredients:

• 75 g softened butter or margarine;
• 225 g powdered sugar;
• 3 tbsp. l. water;
• 2 tbsp. l. cocoa.

To prepare chocolate fudge, mix 1 tbsp. l. hot water and 1 tbsp. l. cocoa, cool.

Mix butter and powdered sugar. Beat with a mixer on low speed, gradually adding water until the fudge is smooth.

Frost the cake with the chocolate decoration prepared according to this recipe and decorate it in accordance with the theme of the holiday.

How to melt chocolate to decorate a cake

To make a product or decoration from chocolate, you need to prepare it, that is, melt it. There are several nuances in how to properly melt chocolate to decorate a cake. Several methods can be used.

First way , how to melt chocolate for decoration - use the microwave, it's very simple.

Second way How to melt chocolate to decorate a cake - use a water bath. To do this, place the container with chocolate in a pan of hot (not boiling!) water.

Third way How to properly melt chocolate for decoration - use a double boiler. You can also melt chocolate in it.

Fourth method - oven. Heat it to 60-70 degrees, place a container with chocolate there for 10-15 minutes. The fifth method is a steam bath. The container with chocolate should be kept over boiling water.

A liquid mass is not always required, so the process will need to be controlled.

Chocolate doesn't like sudden changes in temperature, so don't start melting it when it's cold. Wait until the product warms up to room temperature.

The melting point of white or milk chocolate is 45 degrees. But bitter dark chocolate will melt only at 50-55 degrees Celsius.

How to make openwork chocolate designs to decorate a cake

Openwork designs are an excellent option for decorating a cake.

You will need a brush (it is better to buy a special culinary brush, it is simple and convenient to work with), a pastry bag or plastic bag, dark and white chocolate.

To start, you will need to cover the entire cake with chocolate, which you will use for the background (other chocolate will be used to create the designs). To do this, melt it to a liquid state in any way. Coat the cake with the mixture using a pastry brush.

Let the glaze dry completely.

Start melting the other chocolate. It should also be quite liquid.

Transfer the chocolate to a piping bag. You can replace it with a regular plastic bag by making a small hole in its lower corner.

Start creating! Draw different patterns, show your imagination!

Master class on making a butterfly decoration for a cake

Prepare everything you need in advance: chocolate (you can use white or dark), cling film and a plastic bag (or pastry bag), cutting board or any other hard surface.

What do we have to do?

Melt the chocolate in any way until liquid, transfer it to a pastry bag (or a plastic bag with a hole).

Place cling film on a cutting board.

Start drawing butterflies with liquid chocolate on cling film. If you use two chocolates (white and dark), the decoration will be more impressive.

When the drawing has hardened a little, move it to the refrigerator until completely hardened.

Remove the jewelry from the refrigerator and carefully peel off the film.

Place your butterflies on the cake.

Decorating the cake with balls of chocolate, nuts and cookies

Chocolate balls with nuts

Ingredients:

• cocoa 3 cup;
• sugar 1 glass;
• milk 3 cup;
• butter 150 gr;
• walnut 150 gr;
• shortbread cookies 400 gr;
• coconut flakes 1 sachet;
• egg 1 pc.;
• cognac 1 tbsp. l;
• vanillin 1/2 tsp.

Preparation:

To decorate the cake with nuts and chocolate balls, mix cocoa, sugar and milk. Add chopped butter and put on fire. We are waiting for it to boil. Let cool.

Add the egg, vanilla, cognac and beat well.

Chop the nuts in a coffee grinder (you can roast them first, it tastes better) and add to the mixture.

Grind the cookies (a meat grinder is your friend here) and add to the mixture.

Mix well and make balls. We envelop each ball in coconut flakes. Beautiful!

Place the balls in a pyramid on a plate and place in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

Bon appetit!

Chocolate balls with cookies

Ingredients

• 250 g cookies;
• 150 g dark chocolate;
• 50 g butter;
• 2 tbsp. l. Sahara;
• 1 glass of milk;
• coconut flakes or colored dragee.

Grind the cookies. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or in the microwave. Add milk and sugar, stir until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. Add crushed cookies. Stir and make balls from the resulting dough. Roll the finished balls in coconut flakes or colored dragees. Chocolate balls for decorating the cake should be placed in the refrigerator for several hours.

The selection of photos “Decorating a cake with chocolate at home” clearly illustrates all the above recipes:

Chocolate chips for decorating cakes

If you grind the chocolate on a grater, small strips, separated from the bar, will twist into spirals and are perfect for the role of the top layer. Moreover, when improvising with colors (black, milky and white), interesting combinations come out, and even entire edible paintings. Before you get to work, place the chocolate in a warm place, softening it a little. You can also create curls by hand: you need to get used to cutting thin strips with a well-sharpened knife.

And for the sake of perfectly even chips, the technique will have to be adjusted. To do this, you will need ready-made chocolate glaze, which must be applied in separate strokes to the grooved surface and placed in the freezer to harden.

When the mixture has set, carefully scrape the mixture and transfer it to the cake. Don't stop your imagination with a solid background. Such small particles are also used to create works of art. It is important to place the chocolate decorations on the cake quickly so that they do not have time to melt on your fingers or stick to each other.

Chocolate cookie decoration

Ingredients:

• 1 part vanilla shortbread dough;
• ground cinnamon added to flour;
• 400 g of a mixture of different whole nuts;
• 175 g plain chocolate, broken into pieces;
• 175 g milk chocolate, broken into pieces.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease the base and sides of 2 short pans and line each with a sheet of parchment. Oil the paper.

Divide the dough between the pans and pack it tightly into the pans. Sprinkle with nuts so they are evenly distributed. Press them into the dough with your hands until they hold tightly.

Bake for 40 minutes until the nuts and edges of the cakes are golden. Carefully remove them from the molds and transfer to a wire rack.

Melt the milk and dark chocolate in separate bowls set over pans of simmering water. Leaving the cookies on the paper, carefully cut each cake into strips 2 cm wide.

Place the pieces on the rack so they are 1-2cm apart and drizzle a thin stream of melted dark chocolate using a dessert spoon. Then drizzle milk chocolate on top and leave in a cool place until the chocolate hardens. Cut each strip in half lengthwise.

Cookies with chocolate decorations can be stored for about a week in a tightly sealed container.

Recipe for poured chocolate figures for cake decoration

Such figures can be poured from melted chocolate using generally accepted casting technology. Just having a form is enough. We purchase silicone molds of the desired theme in the confectionery department and fill them with melted chocolate, cool, cool to a solid state, remove from the molds, turning them inside out. If you do not need large chocolate products, pour the chocolate into the molds in a thinner layer. Once poured, smooth the surface with a thin spatula or table knife.

In the absence of bulk molds, you can use shaped recesses, which we usually use for molding cookies or gingerbread. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a flat tray, place the molds and pour chocolate into them in a layer of the thickness you want, trying to get into the center of the cavity so that the chocolate does not stick to its sides above the intended layer. When using indentations, it is better for the chocolate mass to be thicker - let the melted chocolate thicken a little so that it does not spread too much from under the indentations on the parchment. After cooling the chocolate figures to a solid state, carefully squeeze them out of the cut-out molds, keeping your hands cool and wearing gloves so as not to leave fingerprints. Until the figures have completely hardened, they can be further decorated - notches applied with a knife or a special cutter, or pressed with mesh or other textured objects, according to the intended decor. Anything you press onto the surface of the chocolate will leave its mark on it. Such massive chocolate figures are used in confectionery compositions if they are intended to be picked up, for example, to fill baskets or to create a voluminous center of a confectionery composition.

And in conclusion, another video “How to decorate a cake with chocolate”, which will help you cope with this difficult task perfectly: