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Do the items need to be "Medevial Times" themed? If not, I think brownies, cookies, candied nuts, and spiced nuts would be nice snacks. Easy to portion and make in large quantities.

Prabha, nice chocolates and airbrushing. minas6907, the candies that you are making for your friend's wedding candy bar sound wonderful and I am sure they will look fabulous. I just think that your table mockup is a bit too symmetrical and static. Not sure that the flow will work that well either with some items three deep. Have a look at the table setup that gfron1 did for our 2012 Chocolate Workshop... it looked fabulous and worked well too. http://forums.egulle...post_id_1869412 (in case that link doesn't work right, it is post #39 in the REPORT: 2012 Candy and Confection Conference).

I love to make marmalade - don't have time before I head off to SF this week - perhaps I'll bung some in the freezer for that purpose. Freezing them and making marmalade later will definitely work (I have done that too).

When I was in South Florida, we had a calamondin plant and would make a batch or two of calamondin marmalade every year. Wonderful stuff to have around! There are quite a few seeds, Just cut them in half and remove the seeds with the tip of your paring knife.

ElainaA, what a wonderful assortment of holiday treats! keychris, beautiful hearts! What is the filling and which mould are you using?

Don't know if you are still looking at this thread, but I am curious about the chocolates with the orange stripes. Do you mind telling how you made that design? It is very attractive, as is the whole assortment. Jim D. that is actually not an orange stripe, it is milk chocolate. I piped lines of milk chocolate into my molds and then shelled with dark chocolate.

Thanks Kerry.

The recipe for peppermint flake (2nd ed.) calls for chocolate liquor... is this unsweetened chocolate or something else?

Mjx, they look amazing! What are your fillings?

Beautiful! So, do you know what was the cause of all the difficulties?

TeakettleSlim, the peppery gingerbread looks delicious! How did you like them? Sounds like the garam masala gingersnaps with white chocolate cream cheese icing were the favorite cookie of the day.

Kerry, Jim D. is about 2 1/2 hours away from the DC area. Guess it is up to him if it is worth the drive!

Had a few more in the batch that came out super shiny but they were out the door before I remembered to take a picture!

Holiday chocolates... brandied cherry cordials, PBJs, muscovado sugar salted caramels, chocolate nougat (dipped in milk chocolate and dark chocolate) and bittersweet chocolate ganache (not included in attached photo).

How much room are you leaving between the filling and the bottom of the mold? You should cover the bottom of the mold with chocolate, tap the mold three to five times to get the chocolate to settle down and release air bubbles and then scrape off the extra chocolate. The chocolate should still be fluid during these steps. Then put the mold down, let the bottoms begin to set / crystalize, put them in the fridge for 5 to 10 minutes, then they are ready to unmold. Think you just need a live demo and it will all fall into place. You should join us at the 2013 Chocolate Workshop. Here is a link to a video that may help.

Not sure if you are already aware of this but the book is currently available at Amazon.

Theses videos may be of help, Chef Derrick Tu Tan Pho giving a chocolate molding demo and a chocolate dipping demo. We were lucky enough to learn from him at our eGullet 2011 Chocolate Workshop at Niagara-On-The-Lake. http://www.derrickph...io/vstc3=videos If your going to fill larger molds (bunnies, santas, etc.) here is a demo by Chef Peter Greweling. (edited to correct link)

Kerry, so sorry to hear that Dave the chef had a stroke. Hope he feels better soon!

Jim, you can also search the Chocolate World site for molds and filter the results by a various criteria http://www.chocolate...=praline moulds. If Tomric does not have the mold in stock or in their online catalog, just give them a call and they will order it for you. Looks like they have quite a few 13 gram molds, also a lot of 15 gram molds.

I am in Staunton, Virginia (moved back to the family home after 50 years in Boston--so quite an adjustment). After renovating the house, I needed something to do, thus chocolate. Welcome Jim D.! Staunton seems like a wonderful area; I went to their Hot Glass Festival this year; great glassblowing studio and gallery.

What kind of tempering machine are you using that your chocolate goes out of temper so quickly?

A few chocolates for Thanksgiving. Bourbon ganache, soft caramel, PBJs, and peanut butter cups. Pardon the smudges, truly not visible until I photographed them!

So, how was the show?

I'll second the recommendation for Restaurant Eve and suggest that you go to the Bistro side vs. the Tasting Room. Since you have a car, if you can, get a reservation for Komi in DC. If you are interested in cocktails, PX and/or the bar at Restaurant Eve are a must. Also, there are a lot of great Ethopian restaurants in DC. Hope you enjoy your visit.

Matthew, they look great and sound delicious.