Making Modeling Chocolate from Candy Melts
So, in prep for Halloween, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make the little figures that are going to go with the haunted house cake I’m going to bake.
I could use fondant, but it dries really hard, and it doesn’t taste all that great…where as chocolate…well, everything tastes better with chocolate.
I know how to make modeling chocolate with real chocolate, but I was wondering if it was possible to make it with the candy melt disks. Mostly because I have a ton of them, and they come in a wide variety of colors, so that’s a step already eliminated. As it turns out; it works pretty well.
Modeling Chocolate from Candy Melts:
- 7 ounces (200 grams) Candy Melts
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- Melt the candy in a large pyrex measuring cup in the microwave, 1 minute /half power, then 2 more bursts of 30 secs at half power, stirring at the end of each heating cycle.
- Grease your measuring spoon with veggie oil or shortening, so the corn syrup will easily slide off.
- Stir the candy until smooth and lump free, then add the corn syrup. The candy will start to seize almost instantly, but keep stirring until you’ve incorporated all the syrup. You’ll end up with a big blob of warm candy. It’ll have the texture of a tootsie roll. (Well, a warm tootsie roll.)
- Put your blob in a freezer safe resealable bag and pop it in the fridge. Once your dough is cold, you can take it out, cut off a piece that you want to work with, and knead it until it’s a workable mass.
It’ll be really hard when you first take it out of the fridge. If you have time to let it warm up a bit, it will be easier to work. You can mold it like it were fondant or marzipan. Here’s some pictures at google on the groovy stuff people are doing with modeling chocolate. Wrapped well, you can store this stuff in the fridge for darn near forever.
If you’d rather use real chocolate; here are the ratios for doing that: (keep in mind that for melting chocolate, you may have better results using a double boiler, bain marie, or chocolate pot…although I’ve done it successfully in the microwave; the idea of nuking chocolate tends to make chocolatiers get the vapors.)
Dark Chocolate Modeling Paste:
7 ounces (200 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup (60 ml) light corn syrup
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Modeling Paste:
7 ounces (200 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
3 1/2 – 4 tablespoons light corn syrup
White Chocolate Modeling Paste:
7 ounces (200 grams) white chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Milk Chocolate Modeling Paste:
7 ounces (200 grams) Milk Chocolate
2 1/2 – 3 tablespoons light corn syrup.
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just wondering. do you have a prefernce between real and candy melts?
It sort of depends on who will be eating it, or if it’s “just for looking at”. Candy melts perform better for plasticity, and there’s a significantly larger range of pre-made color…but real chocolate tastes better.
I tried the candy melts and the candy turned out fine. The only problem I had with it is when I tried to roll it out. How do you keep it from being so sticky?
The only solution I’ve found when it gets sticky (usually because it’s hot or humid weather) is to use powdered sugar to “flour” my workspace and hands…like working with pie crust, you don’t want to add too much because it will get crumbly.
Question…….tried using the candy melts and when I got done nuking it, the oil/butter fat came out…..is this normal? The white candy melts turned out like taffy after the oil came out and looks great now that its cooled in the fridge. Same thing with the chocolate melts….may have nuked it a bit too long…..started out grainy and the more I worked it (and some of the oils came out), the better it looked. Again, after it cooled it looked great. Haven’t read anything about the oils coming out after corn syrup added so was just a bit curious if anyone one else has had this happen.
It sounds like you may have gotten it too hot. I’ve had it separate when I’ve done that.
Try nuking at 50%, in small increments of time, stirring at least every 30 secs.
Good luck! Let me know how it turns out.
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how much light corn syrup do I use for a 14oz bag of candy melts? Thanks!
I tried this recipe by cutting it in half
100gm white chocolate candy melts
1 – 1/2 Tablespoon light corn syrup.
my end product turned out be very brittle. its more of a powdery and dry.
can you tell me where i might have went wrong??
could this be that i may not have heated the chocolate enough??
i am stuck please help
Oh hey, sorry for the delay, this got caught in the spam filters. I’m fine tuning them. More than likely, you just needed to add a little more corn syrup. Remember to completely melt your chocolate before adding the syrup, because the chocolate will start to seize the moment you add anything. However, if it turns out too hard, remelt, and add a touch more syrup until you get it the right consistency. Hope that helps!
Denise, just double the recipe appropriate for your type of chocolate or candy melt. The type of candy makes a difference as to amounts of syrup needed.
I think I’m going to use this for a cake I’m making next week. How far in advance do you think I can bake, stack and cover my cake with the modeling chocolate? With it being Thanksgiving and all next week, I’m trying to get as much accomplished each night as possible so I dont have to pull an all nighter before cooking thanksgiving dinner…
Gosh, I’m sorry I didn’t see this in time to help…but I don’t think modeling chocolate would work well for what you want. You probably want to use a fondant to cover the cake. Or a ganache…but modeling chocolate is more for making figures, I think it would be really hard to work with in sheets.
Thanks for this great idea! I love using this as a substitute for fondant, mainly because it will actually taste good too. Just a quick question, is there any place in the process to tint the candy melts for colors that aren’t available? For example, if I wanted black, could I tint a lighter color with the good tints sold in cake supply places? Thanks!
Lara, I’ve successfully colored white chocolate using gel colors meant for fondant after it was melted.
I use a manual pasta machine and run the dough thru . Then can make a beautiful bow and ribbons to place on top of a cake. The idea came on cover of Good Housekeeping mag. Celebrating their 100 birthday. Think it was 1983-85 year.
Hi just would like to know does it tend to melt or go soft after its been moulded into a figurine or bow or does it stay stable thanks
Does it matter how long it is in the ice box? Can I make it before I go to bed and take it out before I start molding?
For the question about coloring it black. I’ve had great success using the darkest brown candy melts and black paste color.
Also when dusting your hands or surface use cocoa powder.
You’ll want to let it warm up a tad, just because it’s hard to work when it’s really cold.
They’re pretty stable, up to a point. Here in Texas, I wouldn’t leave them outside at a party for very long, because they would likely turn into puddles. Heck, the asphalt turns into puddles down here.
All kidding aside, they’re pretty stable up to about 85 degrees Fahrenheit, although they’ll start to feel sticky by that point.