Chocolate Poinsettia
200g white chocolate
Green powdered food colouring
Red powdered food colouring
Rose leaves (you could use poinsettia leaves to ensure accuracy,
Fondant
Yellow gel paste
1. Wash rose leaves
2. Melt your white chocolate
3. Pour 1 third of your chocolate into a separate bowl and colour green
4. ‘Paint’ an assortment of some of the largest rose leaves green. Some people use a paint brush, but I just use the back of a teaspoon. (NB: Make sure you paint onto the side of the leaf that have the veins sticking out)
5. Colour the remaining chocolate red.
6. Paint an assortment of different sized rose leaves red.
7. Place leaves in the freezer for 10 minutes, or until solidified (but not frozen).
8. Peel off the rose leaves. (NB: Ensuring your fingers tips and cool and that you don’t hold the leaf in the same spot for too long will help you avoid a lot of frustration)
9. Place the leaves on the cake, ensuring you leave a small ring in the centre of them for the flower buds
(NB: Before chilling, I lay my leaves onto the tray in a variety of positions. I don’t like flat leaves and like to give them character by raising a centre here, twisting a point there. But keep in mind, whatever position you shape it in to here will be opposite to how it will look once finished, i.e., your leaf is face-down on your tray. If it is positioned to be concave here, it will look convex once the leaf is removed)
10. Colour a small batch of fondant yellow.
11. Roll small balls of it into teardrop shapes.