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You can decorate almost any dessert with chocolate. Decorating Cakes with Chocolate is quick, easy and all you need is chocolate chips, a sheet of parchment paper and something to pipe it with; either a ziploc bag, or if you have one, you can use a frosting baggy with a pointy tip (to be completely un-technical). The recipe for the cake photographed above is posted here. Now imagine how pretty this would look over an espresso creme brûlée; Eh, eh?!
Ingredients/ tools for Decorating Cakes with Chocolate:
1/2 to 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (this also works great for white chocolate decorations)
1 sheet of parchment paper
1 frosting bag
Pointy tip or a ziploc bag
For this strawberry layer cake, I also used strawberries; there’s just something about chocolate and strawberries and especially chocolate covered strawberries….mmm..
Decorating Cakes with Chocolate – How To:
1. Place a sheet of parchment paper on your counter (the least expensive parchment paper is at Costco).
2. Melt 1/2 cup or chocolate chips in the microwave or stovetop (more if you are doing a larger project). Don’t overheat it and check by stirring because the chocolate chips hold their form even if they are hot. If you overheat it, they will crumble and get dry.
3. Transfer your melted chocolate to your piping bag. If it’s a ziploc bag, cut a tiny hole by snipping the very corner of the bag; you can always make the hole bigger but you can’t make it smaller.
4. Pipe your design onto your parchment paper. For more detailed designs, one of my readers suggested that you can print your design on computer paper, then place your parchment paper over the printer paper and trace over it. If you mess up a few times; don’t worry about it; it’s not like you’re piping it onto your cake
I used the hearts for my chocolate cupcakes recipe; it was perfect for Valentines day
5. Put a cutting board under your parchment paper and transfer it to your freezer for 5 minutes or until chocolate hardens.
6. Now carefully peel it off the paper and transfer it to your cake. It’s easiest to transfer it while it’s still very cold from the freezer (less chances of your 3D chocolate breaking during assembly)
(p.s. Click here for the chocolate cupcakes recipe)
Gosh it’s so easy. It’s too easy! You can also write out chocolate letters so you don’t destroy your cake if your “Happy Birthday” is uglier than you imagined it would be (been there) or if your flower ends up looking like a creature (done that).
If you try this and share a picture on Instagram or Facebook, do let me know. I’d love to see your creative designs!
hey natasha just wanted to let you know when i tried to melt chocolate in microwave it burnt twice so it doesnt work for me its works better na paru:) im not the only one that had that problem many of my friends aswell just wanted to give you that tip if someone else has that issue
Thank you for sharing, microwave can be faster but it’s very easy to overdo it. I will make the update once I will return from my camping trip :).
Natasha, does your piping bag get extremely hot because of the melted chocolate, making it impossible to hold in your hands? Because that was my issue when I tried this 🙁
Let the chocolate cool down until its cool enough to handle. It all depends on how much you heat it up. Hope this helps :).
Thanx, I will make sure to do that nest time.
Can you please email me how you use a ziplock bag instead of the actual bagy thing because when I used the ziplock bag all of my chocolate like spilled out:(:(
Juliana, you have to zip seal the top after the chocolate is in and cut a tiny hole in the bottom corner of the bag, just enough for a thin stream to come through. Hope that helps!
Do i have to use chocolate chips?? Can i just break chunks of choclate and melt them instead?? Will that work??? Please answer ASAP!!;);););)
Yes, you can totally do that as well :).
Do I have to use chocolate chips??? Can I just break big chocolate squares and melt them and use them instead??? Please reply ASAP!!:);)
i love this idea i think i will be able to do it very easely for my sisters wedding.
Congrats to your sister! What an exciting time in life 🙂 Enjoy!
If i do the chocolate toppers in advance and keep it on the fridge will it fall flat after couple of days in the chiller?
It will be fine in the fridge 🙂
This is awesome!!! soo much easier than trying to write/decorate letters on a cake..:)
I agree and that is a good way to make an ugly cake (speaking from experience) 😉
So awesome! Can’t wait to try it for my daughter’s birthday cupcakes! She was looking thru your site and found this “how-to” tutorial and keeps talking about it non-stop ever since! 🙂
That’s so sweet 🙂 Happy birthday to your daughter!
natasha, i love the chocolate decor idea.. but how did you get your words to stay uprght? because mine keeps on wanting to fall flat.. lol i dont know if i made it too big?
Try refrigerating the cupcakes a little bit before and after putting the letters in; it helps them to stay upright as it cools.
Thats actually what I ended up doing! So thanks anyways. Delicious cake and the decor was so easy. I’ll definitely be using the chocolate decor again 🙂
Natasha, just wanted to clarify, bittersweet or semi-sweet? in the picture its semi and the directions its bitter….. always wanted to know is there a big difference between the two?
I meant semi-sweet 🙂 I’ll fix it. Thanks! p.s. either one should work fine and white chocolate works well too.
just in time for Valentines Day! Yahhoooo 😉
I love how-to’s, and this is awesome! I’ve always wanted a good tutorial on how to make chocolate art! Definitely using this next time I make anything with chocolate!
I wish I had figured this out sooner too. I think white chocolate would work really well too 🙂
This is so neat, simple but good looking. I have to try it soon. Thank you so much for that!
You can also print a page of whatever design or lettering you like, place it under the parchment paper and trace the design/lettering on the parchment paper with chocolate…works wonderfully!!
That’s a great tip Lily, I will use that in the future :).
need to try looks fabo!!!”)))
Thanks for sharing, I can’t wait to try this!
You are welcome Amanda :).
This is so easy! Who would of thought? Thanks so much for sharing!
This is such a cool trick!!! I am so excited about this techinque that I will surely try it out next time I work with chocolate! :)))
I am (admittedly) not the best cake decorator in the world, but this was pretty easy to do and I think it turned out swell 😉