Recipe: Chocolate Flower Cupcakes

the appetizer:

Learn to make extraordinary cakes with Cake Art from the Culinary Institute of America by Chefs Kate Cavotti & Alison McLoughlin, featuring recipes for Glazed Cake with Chocolate Tiles, Chocolate Flower Cupcakes, Chocolate Sponge Cake, and Hard Ganache.

Chocolate Flower Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

You will need oil-based food colors for this project because liquid and gel colors are water-based and will not mix with the chocolate.

Preparation Timeline

Up to 3 days in advance: Make the flowers
Up to 1 day in advance: Make the cupcakes
(See Chocolate Sponge Cake recipe)
Day of event: Decorate the cupcakes

Components

Cupcakes
Flowers

Equipment and Materials

Dark modeling chocolate
White modeling chocolate
Oil-based food colors
Large and medium flower cutters
Tempered or coating chocolate
Teacups or small bowls for shaping flowers
Small circle cutter
Hard Ganache for glazing

Assembly

1. Roll out the dark modeling chocolate until is it 1/8-inch thick. Cut out the desired number of large flowers.

2. Place the flowers over the bottom of inverted teacups or inside the small bowls. They will need to dry for 12 to 24 hours.

3. Cut out as many small circles from the dark modeling chocolate as there will be flowers. These circles will be the centers of the flowers.

4. Tint the white modeling chocolate pink using the oil-based food colors. Repeat steps 1 through 3 with the pink modeling chocolate and the medium-sized flower cutter.

5. Once the components are dry, secure the pink flowers inside the larger chocolate flowers with a small amount of water.

6. Secure a dark modeling chocolate center inside each flower with a small amount of water.

Finishing

Dip each cupcake into the fluid hard ganache.

Place a flower on top of each cupcake. Once the ganache sets, the flowers will be secured to the cupcakes.

from:
Cake Art from the Culinary Institute of America
Simplified Step-by-Step Instructions and Illustrated Techniques
for the Home Baker to Create Showstopping Cakes and Cupcakes
Designs and Techniques by Chefs Kate Cavotti & Alison McLoughlin
Lebhar-Friedman, 2008
$29.95/hardcover/Full-color photographs
ISBN: 0867309229
ISBN-13: 978-0867309225
Recipe reprinted by permission.

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