CHOCOLATE ROSE TUTORIAL

so you want to learn how to make a chocolate rose?

Hey hey! I know you're back here for that Chocolate Rose Tutorial...

So you wanna impress your friends and neighbours? Make a cake/cupcake and top it off with a few of these chocolate beauties and they'll be oohing and aahing. In fact, you'll be oohing and aahing. It's so easy!

Are you excited yet?

Have you been playing with your big wad of chocolate plastic since my Mini Chocolate Pumpkin Tutorial?

People have been asking me if they could use white chocolate. Of course you can use white chocolate! You can also tint it with food colouring if you wish too! Do whatever your little hearts desire! The fun part is fooling around with chocolate, in my opinion. You could make so many little figures with it! Just imagine the possibilities!

It wasn't easy taking pictures while working with the Chocolate Plastic. I had a bit of chocolate gunk on my hands and lighting wasn't so good. I had to take the shot balancing the camera in my right hand while holding the rose in my left most of the time. I was too lazy to whip out my cumbersome tripod. I was doubly lazy when I thought of having to move all my gear down to my cheapie cardboard box food porn "studio" downstairs. I ended up photographing everything at the kitchen table.

Remember to have fun with this Chocolate Plastic. I love the stuff. My daughter pops those little chocolate pumpkins in her mouth and exclaims how yummy they are. Fondant is pretty, but Chocolate Plastic is tastier!

There were a lot of pictures in this step-by-step tutorial. There was also a lot of me fiddling with the chocolate plastic, putting it down, picking up the camera, swearing 'cause of the crappy lighting and taking the shot anyway. I'm sure you'll understand...food is my passion and teaching is my occupation. Photography is neither. I know why they call it "F-stop" now. There was a lot of me stopping to mutter the F word.

CAKEBRAIN'S CHOCOLATE ROSE TUTORIAL:

Please check out my Mini Chocolate Pumpkin Tutorial post for the recipe & storage instructions for the Chocolate Plastic.

Roll a handful of chocolate plastic into a ball. I have a plastic-lined board from my Wilton decorating kit that I like to use that creates a smooth surface. You can also use a wooden or marble board. I'm using my fondant rolling pin. In this case, a smooth surface isn't important because you'll be reworking it with your fingers anyway. Roll the chocolate plastic to about 1/8" thickness.

Using a small circle cutter about 1 inch in diameter, cut out 15 circles.

I used my a cutter from my Wilton flower decorating kit for cutting out the circle shapes.
Take a small chunk of the remnants left from cutting the circles and create a small ball about the size of a marble.

Roll the remnants into a smooth ball. If you roll too much, you might have a sticky situation. I just apply light pressure and work quickly. Apparently, I heard from Mark at No Special Effects that he didn't have much luck working with White Chocolate Plastic because of his hot and humid climate. That's too bad. I live in a temperate climate and had no problems with the chocolate plastic melting. Yay for living in Vancouver!


Create a teardrop shape from the ball. Just bring one end to a point. This part of the rose will be your base on which to build the petals. Don't make your base too big or you'll be in trouble later.

Take each circle and, using primarily your thumbs and index fingers, flatten it into petal shapes so that the edges are thinner at the edges. I just rotate the petal while flattening the edges. Don't overwork it and don't try to make it look perfectly circular. Learn to love little imperfections.

1st row of petals (3 petals required): taking one of the prepared petals, wrap the teardrop base so that the tip is mostly hidden. You should be only be able to see a bit of the tip of the teardrop when looking from the top of the rose. Take another petal and overlap the first wrapped petal. This picture shows what you'll have with 2 petals wrapped around the base. Take the third petal and again, overlap the last petal you applied to the base.

2nd row of petals (5 petals required): the key to the second row of petals is that these should stand straight up whereas the first row were wrapped towards the centre. Wrap each of the 5 petals one by one; overlapping the preceding one. Continue in this manner until all 5 are attached. Use your fingers or a cotton swab to adjust the position of the petals, if you wish. This picture shows the first petal applied for the second row.

This picture shows the second row of upright petals.


3rd row of petals (7 petals required): the third row of petals should be curved slightly. Attach each petal as in the previous steps, using your fingers to gently curve the edges outwards. Form each petal one at a time or you'll have the petals sticking to each other in a mangled mess.

This picture shows the rose with the third row of petals almost finished (with 3 curved petals applied). Adjust the third row of petals to look as natural as possible.

The finished chocolate rose will be unique. It's almost impossible to make all your roses look the same. This is a good thing though because it'll look more natural. You can make some roses look like buds, and have others fully blossomed, like the one above. Make your chocolate rose leaves from the leftover chocolate plastic.
Have fun! Tell me how it goes!