keychris

I need to see a video of it (hint, hint @Kerry Beal)

I feel like this technique is another one that's just too time consuming to do on anything other than a special occasion - whilst it looks amazing, it just doesn't look practical!

I use regular (non-metallic) colours from PCB

remember it has to be fat soluble powder

But the issue isn't if everyone else is not worried about that shine - it's if you're happy with your products. And if you are, great. I find that most of the general public don't notice the flaws or the lack of shine, but they definitely do notice when your chocolates are shiny and perfect. I had an argument with a chocolatier back when I was starting out about capping chocolates after filling. I said "why bother to make the bottom of the chocolate perfectly flat and shiny with acetate or a transfer sheet, no-one actually looks at the base". His answer changed my outlook completely. It was that he doesn't cap the base of a chocolate perfectly for other people to see, he does it because HE wants it perfect. And now, I do the same. Aspire to be the best you can be, regardless of what other people think. And whenever I buy chocolates (for "research"!) I flip them over and look at the base, because it shows me how much the person that makes those chocolates cares. What does all this rambling word salad leave us? It leaves us at "you do you." But be aware that people on this forum are so dedicated and helpful that if you post photos of product that they perceive as not "perfect", they're likely to offer constructive criticism and advice on how to get better. If you don't want the advice, that's fine too

I like what you're doing there but you can definitely see a difference in the finish between the thin plastic moulds and a hard polished polycarbonate mould.

I don't know about those exact ones (although it sounds like IKEA) but you can get those super cheap molds from most cake supply shops. They're ok for solid chocolates but close to useless for filled stuff when compared to polycarbonate imho.

As @KennethT said above, you need a vacuum. Freeze dry is a slightly misleading term, you first have to freeze the product, and then you place it under vacuum at room temperature and due to the wonderful laws of physics / thermodynamics / some science thing, the frozen water will sublimate directly to vapour phase without passing through that messy liquid water bit.

Postage to Australia would probably push it out to $20k!

Don't you just love that sound

not really a standard piece of kit in the home kitchen though

I'm open to suggestions on how to do it any other way

Tape (mask) the entire side, spatter with gold. spray with what looks brown, so perhaps 50% dark/50% CB (or just coloured CB). remove the side tape, add the angled tape at the top of the mold, spray the gold, remove the tape, spray with black. I wouldn't want to do it!

So I got a sneak peek at RB1 before the launch here in September. It's a very fruity flavour, a little acidic. My wife described it as "just raspberries and white chocolate" whilst my 9yr old described it as "yummy like strawberries". For me, nothing to really get excited over. I'll probably only have some to give to people who are interested in trying it, I haven't any plans to work with it in anything.

Here's a better shot for you

Spotted @ Savour School in Melbourne

I have four, but they refused to work unless I let them paint their face orange

It's interesting that Kris Harvey in an instagram story question just a couple of days ago recommended washing chocolate moulds in "high heat dishwasher". I Just rinse mine off with hot tap water then polish when they're dry. I know that at the school I occasionally attend they used to wash all their moulds in the dishwasher however now they're all done by hand.

Alas, they were all eaten before I could get to the classroom in the light to photograph! The pizza oven is at the school, my children go to a Steiner (Waldorf) school, they're there tonight to get up in the middle of the night to watch the eclipse as part of their physics lesson

Sort of bread related. Cooking pizzas for my eldest child's class for their school sleepover Wonderful!

It depends what you want to do - if you want to make chocolate, do it. If you want to make pralines / bonbons / chocolates / artisan blah blah do that. There's no rule that says just because you like making beautiful pieces of chocolate art that you have to make the chocolate itself! When you bake a cake, do you grind the flour from wheat? Extract the sugar from cane juice? Milk the cow yourself? It's the same question in mind, and the answer is the same - there's perfectly good products that we can use to make our lives easier!

You may also like to try mixing a little of the egg white with the chocolate mixture to lighten it up before folding the rest in, it's easier to fold if the two components are somewhat close in consistency - if you have thick heavy chocolate mixture and soft fluffy wgg whites, folding might take a while

There's a few of us floating around on here that are also subscribed to Savour Perhaps when you post your pics, just give us a description of what they are and what flavours you're playing with. I quite like the look (even blurry!) of the blue and pink ones, and the gold pattern you've applied to the domes.

My gold sheets are spot on 2g per sheet if that's any help

I would guess semi-set cocoa butter hit with a spray of air, but I just as equally don't think that would make that distinct pattern, which is beautiful