How to make Chocolate Letters and other Decorations

A few months ago it was my mother-in-law's birthday and being the cake decorator in the family,

I only had time to make cupcakes. I wanted to do something

 special with them and decided to create chocolate letters.

Have you ever wanted to decorate with chocolate decorations?

It is really easy to do and I am going to show you how.

 

The first thing you need to do is make your cake or cupcakes.

 I made mini-cupcakes this time.

Measure the width of your cupcakes.

My mini-cupcakes turned out to be 1 1/2" wide.

Now it's time to get on your computer and pick the font or decoration that you want to use.

You can use any font that you want!

Keep in mind that the more difficult the font, the harder it is to trace it. You need to have a very steady hand to trace them and the chocolate is very runny.

But, pick the font that matches your theme or that you like.

 For this project I used a font called Lumos, it was created to resemble the Harry Potter font.

You can download it here or here for free.

Open up Microsoft Word, change your page orientation to landscape,

and type out the message you want to create.

You want to make sure that you pick the right sized font that will be big enough for your project.

If you are decorating a cake, make sure that the project will fit on your cake.

For this project I used a 115 font size.

Make sure that you bold your font as well.

Print it off and tape it to a cookie sheet.

Cover it with parchment paper (NOT wax paper) and tape that down as well.

If you don't have any parchment paper, you can use wax paper, but it is more difficult to get the chocolate off of the wax paper. The chocolate wont stick to parchment paper and it makes it easier to take the chocolate letters off.

 It's time to grab your chocolate and melt it down properly.

You can purchase the Wilton Candy Melts at any crafting store and even WalMart. You can also buy it in any color! If you can't find the color you want, buy white and add Wilton gel color once it is melted.

Follow the instructions on the back of the bag to melt the chocolate.

Be very careful to follow the instructions.

If you try to melt it on full power in the microwave, the chocolate will burn and it will be ruined.

So be cautious.

You can see that the chocolate is nice and smooth.

I like to take my piping bag (with tip already attached) and drape it over a glass.

That way it is easier to fill.

 Pour all of your chocolate into your piping bag.

Now you need to trace your letters or picture.

Excuse the chocolate blobs all over the cookie sheet.

I melted too much chocolate and didn't want to waste it, so I made blobs that I could melt another time.

 

While the chocolate is still soft, you can take a toothpick and carefully smooth out your decoration, or give it some texture.

Put your cookie sheet into your fridge for 15-30 minutes.

You can leave it out on the counter, but it will take longer to solidify.

I like to put it in the fridge so the chocolate will get nice and hard.

If you used parchment paper, the letters will slide around.

If you used wax paper, carefully pull up the wax paper and you can peel it off the back of the chocolate. I used to use wax paper and I had multiple letters break trying to get them off.

If your house is really warm, don't put the chocolate decorations on until right before you serve it.

You will want to make sure that your hands aren't too warm when you're handling the chocolate, or it will melt or even break your letters or decorations.

For my daughters first birthday, I make chocolate ladybugs to go on top of her cupcakes.
I used the same process as the letters, but I did two different colors.
I did the chocolate first, let it cool and then I did the red wings.

Working with chocolate is messy, difficult at times, but it looks great when all is said and done.

Let me know if you have any questions!