How do they do that? (the bonbon thread)

[kevnick80]

Hi guys. 

 

Came across these amazing bon bons on Instagram. How would you say I could replicate the design?

 

thabks. 

[Lisa Shock]

They're pretty basic, just take your prepped mold and splatter tempered yellow cocoa butter with stiff brush (just like paint). Allow to set up. Then put a dot of white, pink, purple and blue tempered cocoa butter in each cavity, swirl with a finger. Then proceed to make the shells with dark chocolate, fill and cap.

[kevnick80]

3 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:

They're pretty basic, just take your prepped mold and splatter tempered yellow cocoa butter with stiff brush (just like paint). Allow to set up. Then put a dot of white, pink, purple and blue tempered cocoa butter in each cavity, swirl with a finger. Then proceed to make the shells with dark chocolate, fill and cap.

 

Thanks lisa!! I think they look absolutely amazing. Just like a galaxy...

[kevnick80]

What about this? How would these be recreated?

 

 

[Lisa Shock]

Use the expensive masking tape (yellow or green) and cut out a triangle, place it in the center of the mold, leaving some tape sticking up out of the mold to use later as a tab to grab. Paint uncovered sides with tempered blue cocoa butter and allow to set. Carefully peel up tab and discard. (This can also be done with carefully places acetate sheets.) Splatter with black tempered cocoa butter, allow to set. Paint center with pink tempered cocoa butter, allow to set. Fill and cap per usual.

[kevnick80]

Thanks Lisa - you are a godsend 

[Tri2Cook]

While the techniques for doing some of this stuff aren't always as difficult as they seem like they might be when you look at the pictures (on the good days when the chocolate gods favor you... or at least, aren't angry with you), I'm not sure I'd necessarily classify that decorating as basic. From what I can see in the pictures, that looks like some pretty nice work to me.

[kevnick80]

Yeah. I don't think it is basic either. But I'm gonna give it a shot and see how I go. 

 

Thanks guys! 

[Tri2Cook]

57 minutes ago, kevnick80 said:

Yeah. I don't think it is basic either. But I'm gonna give it a shot and see how I go. 

 

Thanks guys! 

Absolutely... I wasn't suggesting otherwise. The thing I've learned in the short time I've been doing chocolates is, it's always fun. Even when it's frustrating.

[Bentley]

A member recently posted a picture of a chocolate from Instagram and asked for tips on how to achieve the same look.  I know I've made one or two similar posts before.  

It inspired me to create this thread.  I always find beautiful chocolates on the web and wonder "how did they do that?"  I'm sure I'm not the only one.  The idea is that you can post a picture of a chocolate bonbon (with proper credit/citation in accordance with forum rules) and members can chime in with their ideas on how to recreate the look. I think it would be educational and a great way to get some inspiration to try some new techniques and ideas.  

I'll start - I've always been fascinated by this chocolatier's work.  It's from Amanda Wright at A519 Chocolates:  

 

Link

 

How would you go about doing this one to achieve those white lines and the beautiful variations in tone in the red?

[Jim D.]

I could well be wrong, but my guess is that this is another example (a dazzling one) of someone using tape to mask off sections of the cavity and then spraying in stages. Achieving stripes has been a frequent question on eGullet. I recall that Pastrygirl recently used painter's tape to get a stripe on an egg. At least two other contributors said they had found tape certified to be food-safe (one of them, @Dallas, stated: "I use a low tack, paper material tape...its kind of like masking tape, but has a very low tack (no residue) and uses either an acrylic or epoxy type of adhesive, which is suitable for direct or indirect food contact." But he never posted the name of that tape.) I found a promising tape at a Michael's craft store, but it wouldn't stick to polycarbonate. No matter what tool you use, it's very labor-intensive work (to state the obvious).

[Merry Berry]

I wonder (and I may be way off on this) if they do not have some kind of flexible template on the stick or something and then they spray around it, picking it up, moving to the next cavity, spraying, moving to the next cavity, etc.  I too have seen the talk about the tape, but I just cannot wrap my mind around that.  I want to work fast and efficiently in the kitchen and trying to tape 300-500 cavities at a go seems too tedious to make any money off of it.

 

But like I said I might not even be close.  I too am curious what others are thinking.

[Kerry Beal]

Great topic Bentley

 

[pastrygirl]

@Merry Berry I think you're on the right track, the edges don't look as sharp as you should get with tape.

[Jim D.]

45 minutes ago, Merry Berry said:

I wonder...if they do not have some kind of flexible template on the stick or something and then they spray around it, picking it up, moving to the next cavity....

 

That sounds logical, given the slightly "fuzzy" edges of the stripes. Tape would ideally give a sharp edge, and I have seen examples on eGullet that achieved that effect. When I experimented with painter's tape (just to see what would happen), cocoa butter seeped under the edges of the tape, so that could also explain the edges in the example.

[pastrygirl]

As for the variations in the red tone, that looks finger-painted. 

[keychris]

42 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

As for the variations in the red tone, that looks finger-painted. 

 

I would assume pretty much what has been stated above:

• star shaped pattern is sprayed with white into each cavity
• red sprayed
• white applied in a swirl with finger
• create the shell in dark.

[Kerry Beal]

8 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

@Merry Berry I think you're on the right track, the edges don't look as sharp as you should get with tape.

Had that same thought 

[Bentley]

Interesting thoughts.  I also tend to view it from the perspective of a commercial operator (which A519 is).  Looking at it that way, I don't see how it is feasible to use tape for this process.  It would take too much time to mask in any quantity.  Plus, the way the edges look, I came to the opinion that it wasn't tape.  

I also thought about creating some kind of stamp or flexible stencil. My best guess right now is some kind of 5 spoke flexible thing on a stick that is sprayed or dipped in white then placed in the mold cavity and then turned a few degrees. IF you look closely at the white stripes, you can see some horizontal lines that suggest movement.  Seems like a possible way to do it - I'm just not sure what to make the tool out of.

 

@keychris when you say to spray the red, then apply white with a finger....do you let the red dry completely first or do you let the red and white mix to create the color variations?

Edited May 5, 2017 by Bentley (log)

[keychris]

18 hours ago, Bentley said:

Interesting thoughts.  I also tend to view it from the perspective of a commercial operator (which A519 is).  Looking at it that way, I don't see how it is feasible to use tape for this process.  It would take too much time to mask in any quantity.  Plus, the way the edges look, I came to the opinion that it wasn't tape.  

I also thought about creating some kind of stamp or flexible stencil. My best guess right now is some kind of 5 spoke flexible thing on a stick that is sprayed or dipped in white then placed in the mold cavity and then turned a few degrees. IF you look closely at the white stripes, you can see some horizontal lines that suggest movement.  Seems like a possible way to do it - I'm just not sure what to make the tool out of.

 

@keychris when you say to spray the red, then apply white with a finger....do you let the red dry completely first or do you let the red and white mix to create the color variations?

 

 

I envisage a solid flexible piece of plastic or silicon with the star pattern cut out of it, or even some sort of piping nozzle, you spray onto the pattern, you get diffusion at the edges of the spray depending how far the stencil is from the mold. You can see there's very little diffusion in the centre, with more out to the edges, so the stencil could be against the centre of the mold and is away from the edges. The diffusion could also simply be spraying from a slightly further distance away and not getting full coverage. IMHO you can't get that pattern with a stamp which you coat and place into the mold, but I've never done that so can't really say

 

@Bentley, once you've sprayed the red, applying white with a finger once the red has set will create the highlights of red, then when you create the shell in dark you'll accent them against the darker red colours. If you add the white whilst the red is still setting you'll get a more smeared effect which is not what I'm seeing in that picture.

 

I notice someone has posted a link on the instagram photo to this thread, we might get a direct answer

Edited May 6, 2017 by keychris
clarification of a statement (log)

[Bentley]

Great.  It would be nice to get an answer right from the source.  In the meantime, someone can post the next bonbon for discussion.  I hope this thread will keep going so we can all learn some new techniques and have fun discussing chocolates!  I've got a million I could post, but I am sure others have some good ones that they wonder about.  

Edited May 6, 2017 by Bentley (log)

[Kerry Beal]

As part of this thread I think that someone should attempt to reproduce the effect.

[keychris]

if no-one else does before next weekend, I'll give it a go

[a_pinch_of]

OK, I'll play. I am such a newbie that I don't know how to do much of anything yet . I am getting the hang of the nice shiny, bright and vibrant bonbons (slowly) but I came across these on Instagram by Tara Zhang and I'm very taken with the subtle, muted colours almost like watercolour. Does anyone have any ideas on technique (perhaps finger painted) and the type of colours that may have been used - cocoa butter or other.

 

Here's the link

 

 

[Bentley]

10 hours ago, a_pinch_of said:

OK, I'll play. I am such a newbie that I don't know how to do much of anything yet . I am getting the hang of the nice shiny, bright and vibrant bonbons (slowly) but I came across these on Instagram by Tara Zhang and I'm very taken with the subtle, muted colours almost like watercolour. Does anyone have any ideas on technique (perhaps finger painted) and the type of colours that may have been used - cocoa butter or other.

 

Here's the link

 

 

 

This is a first - never seen a question on how to NOT get shine on bonbons   

My first guess on this one is that she is using splatters with White cocoa butter then finger painting with white and red.  Artisan colors rather than jewel colors (in the Chef Rubber line) - meaning no glitter to the colors.  That hazy matte effect reminds me of a technique that Melissa Coppel once showed.  She took melted cocoa butter and added a small amount of colored cocoa butter to it and sprayed the mixture into the mold before painting.  It created a hazy, translucent effect on the bonbon.  It was very shiny though.  I wonder if spraying that coat on the unmolded finished bon bons would give a matte finish?  In the case of the above bonbons, I would add a small amount of white cocoa butter to the uncolored cocoa butter.