Chocolate Zero to Chocolate Hero:
I accidentally made the best little chocolate bird nests! Last week I was trying to make some chocolate curls with butterscotch chips to decorate the top of a chocolate and salted caramel cake. I usually make chocolate curls by spreading melted chocolate onto the back of a cookie sheet and freezing it for about 1 minute. Then I take it out and scrape it off with a wide spatula to create big lovely curls. Sorta like this. But because I’m always trying to do too many things at once (As I write this I am making a phone cake and eating lunch) I forgot about them in the freezer and when I took out the cookie sheet, the butterscotch mixture was frozen solid. Because I am an optimist, I thought I’d try to make curls anyway. This is what happened:
I was going to toss it and start over but then I had an idea. Easter is coming up and I thought these little shreds might make a nice bird nest on top of my cake. I got out my gold luster dust and gilded some cadbury eggs and arranged it all on top of my cake. Perfect!
The other cake that I had made for the same event was a strawberry rhubarb cake I was planning to top with white chocolate curls. I tried the same accidental technique and made another cute little nest for that cake too. This time I speckled some of the pink cadbury eggs with rose gold luster dust. I think I like this one even better!
Quick, Easy and Foolproof:
Need a cute, quick and foolproof topper for your Easter cake? This is it. You can use any type of candy or chocolate eggs for your nest. I like the cadbury ones because their powdery coating really looks like eggshell to me but I could see using jelly beans, malted eggs or just foil-wrapped chocolate eggs.
Some tips for perfect Easy Chocolate Bird Nests:
- Store the finished shreds in the freezer. They are delicate so put them in a tupperware to protect them from breakage.
- You can find the metallic lustre dusts online (Rolkem Gold Dust
and Rose Gold Dust
)
- Scrape off the chocolate with a straight, sharp edge if possible. I’ve even used a razor scraper but prefer this Wilton Cookie Spatula
. The edge of an offset spatula will also do in a pinch.
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)
. The edge of an offset spatula will also do in a pinch.
