Chocolates a la Amy

I spend most of my time writing and reading about chocolate, so I thought it was about time that I tried to make some for myself!

Jackie Windels, owner of tempertemper  kindly allowed me to visit her company on Friday so that I could try out being a choclatier for a day! There was only one catch…. I was to be included in a children’s Birthday party of 15 seven year olds! I was firstly worried that I would be covered in sticky chocolate hand prints and secondly I was concerned that they would all be better than me!

However, the day was definitely a success, my clothes were untouched by dirty hands and I left with a bag full of my own delicious chocolates. However, I think I need a lot more practice before my confections resemble anything you would see in a shop window display!

During the day I created my own moulded chocolate dinosaur,  a chocolate lollipop, Florentines and a chocolate basket to carry all my goodies home. For each product, I was able to try piping on a pattern (an eye and a smile for my dinosaur’s face, and a spiral for the lollipop) and choose whether I wanted to use dark, milk or white Belcolade chocolate. Rather than creating traditional Florentines with cherries and almonds, some more adventurous toppings were available, so I was able to experiment with marshmallows, mini eggs and milk bottle sweets.

As you can see from the images, I think confectionery production is best left to the professionals!