Twirly Swirly Chocolate Decorations
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 2:02PM 
dark chocolate swirls and twirls decorations
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*Updated ... note at bottom about using water instead of vodka
I love these chocolate twirly swirly decorations that are easy to make with the help of a glass of chilled vodka. You can make abstract shapes like I did today, make straight squiggle shapes, thick or thin shapes, intertwine different coloured chocolates or even piped flowers/designs. Here's how....
Ingredients
1 tall glass or tall narrow container of vodka
melted tempered chocolate of choice
piping bag fitted with a small round tip
Method
Pop your glass of vodka or water in the freezer to chill, you want to be nice and icy cold.
Fill your piping bag with melted chocolate. Remove cold vodka from the freezer. Holding your piping bag 2cm (bit less than an inch) from the surface of the vodka, apply firm even pressure and pipe directly into the vodka letting the chocolate fall naturally.
piped chocolate in chilled vodka
Chocolate will set instantly set on hitting the cold vodka, remove decorations as they are piped to a baking rack to dry. Moving your piping bag as you're piping will create different shapes. Once dry they are ready to use on your cupcakes or plated desserts.
Try using multiple piping bags at once with a swirling motion to have intertwined shapes. White and dark chocolate look great together.
Using light pressure with your piping bag will result in "floating shapes", carefully pipe flower shapes and designs remove to baking rack to dry after you have completed each shape.
*Note "Water" My preferred method is using vodka because alcohol evaporates quickly and you don't get water marks. However, you can use iced water if you are using the pieces immediately. There is a high risk of water marking/blooming on standing. You can compensate for water marking by spraying or dusting with food colours or dusting with cocoa powder. As an alternative chocolate be piped directly into a tray of sifted cocoa powder for a 3D effect.
Frozen vodka: if you have ever frozen vodka you would have noticed it doesn't 'turn into ice' what you do get is a slight thickening, this is the perfect condition for the chocolate swirls to form. The vodka used has to be the highest alcohol content, lower alcohol brands of vodka will become icy.
Happy Baking :)
You might also be interested in;
try easy Bubble Wrap Chocolate decorations
or perhaps a fondant gold fish tutorial
Reader Comments (16)
Jeniffer, this is soo cool! What a creative idea! I would never have in a million years thought of doing chocolate twirls like this!! You are so innovative!
Wow. I have never heard of this. How very cool. I don't drink much, but this is definitely a reason to buy some vodka.;-)
Gorgeous presentation. Where do you go for your inspiration?
I'm so glad to see you back.
Thank you so much Faithy :)
Hi Haniela, My Mum loved a fancy cocktail, many years ago she brought me home carefully wrapped in paper napkin a chocolate twirl that had topped a chocolate cocktail. I played around until I "got it" and made them for her birthday cake that year. Other inspiration... lol, that is a hard question... things I imagine or reinterpret I guess. It's good to be back :)
Wonderful! What a great idea!! Cant wait to try it! I was taught to pipe onto cocoa....this is WAY better!
BTW where did you get your half sphere silicon moulds?
Hi Winnie... I love all the wonderful things you have been creating!!
Amazon has the moulds "World Cuisine" for $19.95 each... they have a "three for four" promotion going on them. Postage is fast but expensive to Oz.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_kitchen?ie=UTF8&search-alias=garden&field-brandtextbin=World%20Cuisine
In Oz $36 each from Hospitality Wholesale... however, they don't have all the items listed in stock and it can take months!!!!!!
http://www.hospitalitywholesale.com.au/back-of-house/bakeware/silicone-bakeware.html
That would be "four for the price of three" not "three for four" as I said above... that would not be a good deal ;)
I just discovered your site tonight, through craftgossip, and you have some of the greatest decorating ideas I've ever seen! I am so excited to try this out!
Thank you Jessie, I just went & checked out your blog... love it!! Hope you fun making the twirly swirly chocolate decorations :)
is it possible to do these without using anything alcoholic?
Hi Sahoura, no... to get the 3d/free standing pieces you have to use alcohol. The alcohol evaporates quickly from the piped chocolate pieces thus avoiding the dreaded surface "bloom".
If you can't use alcohol due to religious or health reasons... you could try piping melted dark chocolate directly into a tray of sifted cocoa powder as an alternative, though the pieces will be flatter & will have a cocoa coating they can still look quite striking.
Thanks for stopping by :)
hi! i googled "piping chocolate designs" and the pic of your cupcake popped up....i'm in culinary school and my final in advanced baking is today. we're making chocolate mousse w/2 sauces and tempered chocolate garnishes and i'm going to try this twirly-swirly on one of my plates because it's just gorgeous! thank you so much for the idea!
Wow Nicole that's great! Good luck for your final!!
That's really clever! Do they hold up, or do they wilt? I've made long chocolate coils, but they don't hold their shape if you stand them upright, unless they're really substantial in size/thickness. I've also found that white chocolate (e.g., coils and bows) tends to hold its shape better than dark chocolate.
Hi Ruth, they hold their shape as long as the chocolate is tempered,... and do stand upright even when they are thin. They won't hold up in hot weather/humidity but all other weather conditions they will last... well, at least for a week... that's how long I tested for stability. I used Belcolade dark chocolate. A girlfriend tried it with melts/compound chocolate and said it worked but the pieces were thicker due to the nature of the melts.
I need a white chocolate lesson from you... I've found dark chocolate holds it shape much better than white... and I swear my white is hit and miss tempered regardless of my thermometer reading. I love your white chocolate polka dot bow!
Jeniffer :)
Hi,
Can i use water instead vodka or anything else ?
Thanks,
Mihaela
Hi Mihaela, no you can't use water... to get the 3d/free standing pieces you have to use alcohol. The alcohol evaporates quickly from the piped chocolate pieces thus avoiding the dreaded surface "bloom".
If you can't use alcohol due to religious, health reasons or children... you could try piping melted dark chocolate directly into a tray of sifted cocoa powder as an alternative, though the pieces will be flatter & will have a cocoa coating they can still look quite striking.
Thank you for stopping by :)