Can This Bunny Be Saved?

[pastrygirl]

@Kerry Beal

dark chocolate on the backside of a silpat, if you have a cheap one you can sacrifice for “gauze”

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Sone sort of fine plastic mesh, like window screen or needlepoint/crossstitch backing, depending on whether the hardware store or the craft supply store is closer. 

 

or rough it up after with a stiff brush or towel. 

 

Roll the modeling chocolate on it 

 

 

[IowaDee]

Maybe you could build on that old classic, "Ichabod Bunny and the Headless Hare"?

[Kerry Beal]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 Since you did not take my first suggestion, sent by email, of giving him his head  tucked underneath his arm,  perhaps you could behead him and let him stand on his head.😂  

 

But how would I package Sleepy Hollow bunny - perhaps glue his head to his butt?

[teonzo]

I can't give other suggestions about fixing the cracks on the finished bunny.

 

But I can try to explain why those cracks happens and how to avoid them. Cracks happen because the chocolate is not crystallizing in a homogeneous way: if some parts become solid sensibly before other neighbouring parts, then when the other parts become solid they contract, pulling the already solid chocolate and causing internal tensions in the structure. If there are critical points in the structures (edges, corners, whatever is not round) then it's much easier for the chocolate to crack in that point, and that crack will spread becoming a long line as long as there are critical tensions in the structure.

These troubles occur mainly when there is a sensible difference in the chocolate width in neighborouing areas and when the shape has sharp edges. Different width means different crystallization times (the higher the width, the higher the crystallization time). Example: if you have an area with 10 mm chocolate width, an adjacent area with a 5 mm chocolate width, these 2 areas are connected by a sharp edge, then it's highly probable that you'll face a crack along there. The area with the smaller width will crystallize way sooner and will be more fragile since it's thinner, so when the second area crystallizes minutes later it will create tension on the first area, causing it to crack in one of the critical points, and this crack will spread.

This trouble is almost unavoidable with convoluted shapes (like this bunny) and with the spinning method. With convoluted shapes I mean when you have sharp edges, steps/jumps (don't know how to call them in English, sorry), basins/depressions (same, I mean negative surfaces); that bunny has plenty of these. The trouble of the spinning method is that the chocolate looses fluidity while you are rotating the mold, causing it to stagnate in the hollow spaces (cavities with small radius, like the bunny ears, the nose/mouth, the "hands"). Stagnations means huge differences in chocolate width, this means highly probable cracks. So if you are using the spinning method with that mold, then the possibilities to get a perfect result are really low (I'd say it's not worth trying). With Easter eggs you don't notice the trouble with the rotating technique due to their round shape, with convoluted molds it's a nightmare.

 

I repeat the suggestion I gave recently: try the 45° method. With that method you get a homogeneous chocolate width along all the surface, avoiding these troubles. Plus you don't have to spin the mold, which cuts a lot of times.

I found a video (Italian language, sorry) showing that technique for an Easter egg. The part where Mirco runs the scraper at 45° is really quick, but you should able to see how it's made:

 

 

With this method you work really quick and avoid boatloads of troubles. The only downside is that you don't have perfect control on the final weight, but usually you sell chocolate figures by the units and not by weight, so it's a non problem.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, teonzo said:

I can't give other suggestions about fixing the cracks on the finished bunny.

 

But I can try to explain why those cracks happens and how to avoid them. Cracks happen because the chocolate is not crystallizing in a homogeneous way: if some parts become solid sensibly before other neighbouring parts, then when the other parts become solid they contract, pulling the already solid chocolate and causing internal tensions in the structure. If there are critical points in the structures (edges, corners, whatever is not round) then it's much easier for the chocolate to crack in that point, and that crack will spread becoming a long line as long as there are critical tensions in the structure.

These troubles occur mainly when there is a sensible difference in the chocolate width in neighborouing areas and when the shape has sharp edges. Different width means different crystallization times (the higher the width, the higher the crystallization time). Example: if you have an area with 10 mm chocolate width, an adjacent area with a 5 mm chocolate width, these 2 areas are connected by a sharp edge, then it's highly probable that you'll face a crack along there. The area with the smaller width will crystallize way sooner and will be more fragile since it's thinner, so when the second area crystallizes minutes later it will create tension on the first area, causing it to crack in one of the critical points, and this crack will spread.

This trouble is almost unavoidable with convoluted shapes (like this bunny) and with the spinning method. With convoluted shapes I mean when you have sharp edges, steps/jumps (don't know how to call them in English, sorry), basins/depressions (same, I mean negative surfaces); that bunny has plenty of these. The trouble of the spinning method is that the chocolate looses fluidity while you are rotating the mold, causing it to stagnate in the hollow spaces (cavities with small radius, like the bunny ears, the nose/mouth, the "hands"). Stagnations means huge differences in chocolate width, this means highly probable cracks. So if you are using the spinning method with that mold, then the possibilities to get a perfect result are really low (I'd say it's not worth trying). With Easter eggs you don't notice the trouble with the rotating technique due to their round shape, with convoluted molds it's a nightmare.

 

I repeat the suggestion I gave recently: try the 45° method. With that method you get a homogeneous chocolate width along all the surface, avoiding these troubles. Plus you don't have to spin the mold, which cuts a lot of times.

I found a video (Italian language, sorry) showing that technique for an Easter egg. The part where Mirco runs the scraper at 45° is really quick, but you should able to see how it's made:

 

 

With this method you work really quick and avoid boatloads of troubles. The only downside is that you don't have perfect control on the final weight, but usually you sell chocolate figures by the units and not by weight, so it's a non problem.

 

 

 

Teo

 

Can you picture how I could do this with an open bottomed bunny?

[patris]

How about breaking out some luster powder, mixing it with a bit of alcohol and going the kintsugi route?

[Kerry Beal]

17 minutes ago, patris said:

How about breaking out some luster powder, mixing it with a bit of alcohol and going the kintsugi route?

That would be really neat if I could make it happen!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Melt him down and make a 24 inch egg.  Then go for a bit of alcohol, possibly negroni.

 

[RobertM]

How about colorful  half-eggs, (sticking with the Easter theme), and then gluing them on the bunny with chocolate?  

 

 

[pastrygirl]

Back to flocking ... I have done the 50/50 chocolate/CB on frozen things, though not since circa 2002.  BUT I question if freezing is 100% necessary, or if it just gives a better flocked effect, or if that was before we all started doing so much with colored cocoa butter.  I can't imagine Kate Weiser freezing the entire Carl army before spraying with white ...

 

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

1 hour ago, pastrygirl said:

Back to flocking ... I have done the 50/50 chocolate/CB on frozen things, though not since circa 2002.  BUT I question if freezing is 100% necessary, or if it just gives a better flocked effect, or if that was before we all started doing so much with colored cocoa butter.  I can't imagine Kate Weiser freezing the entire Carl army before spraying with white …

I'm in the same boat as far as it having been a while since I've done it but I did a lot of experimenting with temps and chocolate/CB ratios at one point. The effect is definitely at it's best with frozen items. It works on non-frozen items but the effect diminishes as the temp goes up. Refrigerated items do ok, room temp items tend to just have a matte finish with not much fuzzy look. Of course, that probably is effected by room temp... something I didn't have a large degree of control over where I was working at that time. 

[pastrygirl]

8 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

The effect is definitely at it's best with frozen items. It works on non-frozen items but the effect diminishes as the temp goes up. Refrigerated items do ok, room temp items tend to just have a matte finish with not much fuzzy look. 

 

Then I wonder if freeze spray would work to cool the bunny surface section by section, since it is too big for the freezer. Freeze a little, flock a little ... 

[Kerry Beal]

23 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Then I wonder if freeze spray would work to cool the bunny surface section by section, since it is too big for the freezer. Freeze a little, flock a little ... 

Interesting idea - I have freeze spray - wish I had time for getting this all done.

 

24 hour shift yesterday and another tomorrow.

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

It's work related; can't you take it to the hospital?

 

[Kerry Beal]

18 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

It's work related; can't you take it to the hospital?

 

I do take a lot of stuff to the hospital to work on - but I haven't got the counter space there for chocolate.

[blue_dolphin]

7 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I do take a lot of stuff to the hospital to work on - but I haven't got the counter space there for chocolate.

Dang....I was hoping for a “Take Your Bunny to Work” thread 🙃

[teonzo]

19 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Can you picture how I could do this with an open bottomed bunny?

 

I did not notice it is an open bottomed mold, sorry, but with some practice it's doable. You need to keep the mold lightly sloped on the non open side, so to avoid the chocolate from flowing out of the mold. Then you pour a good amount of chocolate from the tempering machine in the mold, the more you can the better. Rotate the mold to spread the chocolate along all the surface of the figure (some chocolate will overflow out of the mold, not a problem, it will be scraped away), starting from the closed side (the bunny head) going to the open side (the bunny feet). When you reached the open side you tilt the mold almost vertically (open side down) and let the excess chocolate flowing out of the mold. Then you put the first half upside down, when it starts setting you scrape it (the section line at 45°, the base line at 0°). Then you proceed the same way with the second half.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Kerry Beal]

2 hours ago, teonzo said:

 

I did not notice it is an open bottomed mold, sorry, but with some practice it's doable. You need to keep the mold lightly sloped on the non open side, so to avoid the chocolate from flowing out of the mold. Then you pour a good amount of chocolate from the tempering machine in the mold, the more you can the better. Rotate the mold to spread the chocolate along all the surface of the figure (some chocolate will overflow out of the mold, not a problem, it will be scraped away), starting from the closed side (the bunny head) going to the open side (the bunny feet). When you reached the open side you tilt the mold almost vertically (open side down) and let the excess chocolate flowing out of the mold. Then you put the first half upside down, when it starts setting you scrape it (the section line at 45°, the base line at 0°). Then you proceed the same way with the second half.

 

 

 

Teo

 

It's all I can do to lift this mold when it's partly full of chocolate - I can't picture the logistics of doing what you suggest without the entire room becoming covered in chocolate. I'll try it with a round mold - but I'll have to find another way to mold this one successfully. 

[pastryani]

On 3/29/2019 at 6:03 PM, Kerry Beal said:

He seems pretty stable when I tried to snap his head off.

 

Taken out of context, this sounds bad.  Very bad. 😅

 

I know this is supposed to be made as a whole, but would you have better luck molding the 2 halves separately (layer by layer) and then attaching them together?

 

I second (or 5th or 6th) the idea of making some lightly colored modeling chocolate  and giving it a lovely shawl.  

 

My fave though, is the flocking idea.  But if you are out of time, and don’t want to take the bunny to the hospital with you, perhaps you could snag a bit of dry ice from there and create your own “freezer” at home with a large Tupperware container.  Then all’s left to do is to suffocate the bunny in there and then spray away. 😜

 

[keychris]

The problem I have with that technique is that it's kind of fragile, every time I've done it it tends to brush off very easily

[heidih]

Notn on topic but when I thumbed through a local mag and saw this ths topic stuck in my mind.  

[Tri2Cook]

1 hour ago, keychris said:

The problem I have with that technique is that it's kind of fragile, every time I've done it it tends to brush off very easily

Yeah, the fuzzy is somewhat of a "don't mess with it more than you have to" technique. It is pretty easy to brush off or smash with warm fingers. I imagine trying to move something that large and heavy without destroying a lot of the effect would be a fun challenge... 

[Kerry Beal]

5 hours ago, keychris said:

The problem I have with that technique is that it's kind of fragile, every time I've done it it tends to brush off very easily

Yeah - it’s a problem when it needs handling. 

[Kerry Beal]

7 hours ago, pastryani said:

 

Taken out of context, this sounds bad.  Very bad. 😅

 

I know this is supposed to be made as a whole, but would you have better luck molding the 2 halves separately (layer by layer) and then attaching them together?

 

I second (or 5th or 6th) the idea of making some lightly colored modeling chocolate  and giving it a lovely shawl.  

 

My fave though, is the flocking idea.  But if you are out of time, and don’t want to take the bunny to the hospital with you, perhaps you could snag a bit of dry ice from there and create your own “freezer” at home with a large Tupperware container.  Then all’s left to do is to suffocate the bunny in there and then spray away. 😜

 

Do you think it looks more male or female? Thinking shawl vs jacket - wonder if the arms will work with a jacket - making shawl preferred. I’m getting a male bunny vibe myself