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First attempt using a Zeoto Pen

Becky R

By Becky R
in Pastry & Baking

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Becky R

Becky R

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Posted

This little device is so cool!  My goal was to create a dark chocolate amateur radio tower cake topper for my HAM hubby's birthday.  I ended up with some bloom, but at least it was structurally solid and resembled his beloved tower!  He's been bugging me to make him his very favorite candy, Nonpareils, so we will eventually melt this back down to repurpose the chocolate.  Interesting project that I never would've accomplished without this carving tool.  It'll be fun to figure out what else to do with it!

 

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Becky R

Becky R

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16 minutes ago, KennethT said:

huh.  I have a soldering iron that looks JUST like that!

Yup!  I guess this one is made with food safe, lead free tips, but its the same basic idea!  There are a variety of tips to create various patterns in isomalt, chocolate, cookies, cakes... pretty interesting.

Edited by Becky R (log)
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gfweb

gfweb

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1 minute ago, Becky R said:

I have a feeling a dremel or ultrasonic might just crack tempered chocolate but who knows?  

 

 

It would take a light touch for sure

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Becky R

Becky R

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2 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I'm curious what this looked like before you applied the tool to it.

LOL.  I should've taken pics along the way.  What a project.  I had a drawing of the three sides of the tower and piped each side.  Trouble is, as they dried, they didn't stay perfectly flat.  When I went to put it together the top was bowing badly and I couldn't hold them in place easily enough to attach them.  I then decided to stick the three parts in rice to help hold them upright, and force them into place as much as I could, and this is where the tool came in.  First, I added reinforcement pieces, using it like a soldering iron, and used a bakers putty knife to support various pieces while they set up. Then I evened up the top and bottom pieces and smoothed the whole thing out with the knife tip of this tool.  After a LOT of fiddling at least it was somewhat straight.  I then expanded the 'stairs' with the tool as once I got it attached it was much too thick in the corners.  Once the entire thing was reasonably sturdy I put more tempered chocolate in a cookie cutter and set the three leveled feet in to harden into a nice flat base.  This was perfect to set into the hole of the bundt cake so I lucked out!  Where there's a will there's a way.  It's funny how creative we must become in the kitchen to accomplish certain things!

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Becky R

Becky R

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With inspiration from the Zeoto Pen, I discovered that a Chicago hot knife (Harbor Freight, $29) is a great way to deal with blocks of chocolate if you prefer to have more uniform chunks than you get by pounding it on your walkway.  That specific brand lets you set the temp from 0 to blazing.  What I would LOVE to find now is a spoon that you could set the temperature to help keep chocolate in temper... wouldn't that be cool?  Anyone ever see such a thing?

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