I’m posting the recipe and step-by-step instructions for making the chocolate plastic roses. Maybe someone will find this information useful. I really do like the chocolate plastic as the cake decor. It is easy to work with, looks great, holds its shape, and it is way tastier than fondant. Of course, you can make different things from the plastic, just use your imagination.
Makes enough to make about 4-6 large flowers
Ingredients:
- 8 oz white (or milk) chocolate, finely chopped
- ¼ cup (4 tbsp) light corn syrup
Important note: The milk chocolate can be substituted for the white. But if you wish to make the flowers from the dark (bittersweet or semisweet) chocolate, use a different proportion: for every pound of the dark chocolate, take 2/3 cup of the light corn syrup. Preparation is the same.
Preparation:
Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a wide skillet. Turn the burner off (if your stove is electric, remove the skillet from the burner) and wait for 30 seconds. Meanwhile, place the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Set the bowl of chocolate in the hot water. Stir constantly until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
Off the heat; add the corn syrup and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Transfer the chocolate mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and pat it into a thin disk, about 6 mm thick. Fold the plastic wrap over the chocolate and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours or up to several weeks (check the expiration date on your chocolate). It is preferable to let the chocolate plastic rest in the refrigerator overnight.
Take the chocolate plastic out of the refrigerator. Leave it on a counter for 30 minutes to soften slightly. Knead the plastic with your hands to make it smooth and pliable before you start (it might appear grainy at first, but the kneading will change it).
Shape a small piece of the chocolate plastic into a cone – it will be a flower base. Then form another piece into a small ball (about ½-inch in diameter) rolling it in the palms of your hands. Pat the ball, between two plastic bags (like Ziploc), or between two layers of plastic wrap, into a thin petal. Refrigerate the petal, still between the plastic wrap, for a minute (to firm the chocolate plastic and make it easier to handle). While one petal is chilling, form another one for the continuous process. Take the chilled petal out of the fridge. Carefully peel the plastic wrap and attach the petal to the cone base. Wearing thin, surgical-type gloves helps significantly. Attach another petal to the base overlapping the petals slightly. Make the closed bud first, then start attaching the open petals around. Curve the petal edges gently outward using a toothpick. Repeat the shaping, chilling, and overlapping the petals until you get the desired size and shape of the flower.
Refrigerate the finished chocolate rose until firm, cover loosely with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge until needed.
You probably won’t use all plastic at once (it makes a lot). If you have some leftovers, invite the kids into the kitchen. They love this edible chocolate play-dough.
May 11, 2011 at 2:53 am
i love this idea! i live in england and cant buy corn syrup. i heard its the same as golden syrup? will it still work?
May 4, 2011 at 5:16 am
Hi Vera!:)
I was very much at awe when i saw your chocolate roses that i couldn’t wait any longer to start making them. I just finished making them however when i was already at the stage of mixing the chocolate and the corn syrup, it appeared grainy at first and then for some reason the mixture had a separated liquid to it. So imagine a white taffy with melted butter, did i do something wrong?:(
-Casey
April 21, 2011 at 12:15 pm
LESEGO, thank you. Sorry, I missed your comment. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to make corn syrup at home.
April 21, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Elizabeth, apply the same principle as for working with marzipan or fondant. 6-inch cake-about 1 pound; 8-inch-about 1 and a half pounds, and 7 – somewhere in between. If you find it difficult to cover the entire cake, you can cut out a circle for the top and do the ribbon (smooth or pleated), or fans/ruffles for the sides. The good thing, the chocolate doesn’t dry out as fondant, so you will have plenty of time to work with it. And if you are not satisfied, simply knead and reroll it again.
April 19, 2011 at 7:18 am
hi vera can you give me an idea of how much plastic chocolate you need to cover a 6 inch, 7 inch and 8inch round cakes in weight please and any tips on applying it I’ve made the roses but not used it to cover the cake is it difficult. thanks elizabeth
April 8, 2011 at 12:31 am
Hi Vera amazing roses u made,am a pastry chef wondering if i can use a homemade corn syrup, and asking for a recipe.
December 29, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Hi Vera
Thanks for the lovely tutotrial I was so inspired and went ahdea to make these gorgeous roses!!!
I used 7 oz of white chocolate and 3 tbsp od golden syrup
and referigerate overnight the plastic is very sticky what do I do now???
December 9, 2010 at 11:41 pm
Всё, нашла сама) Поспешила с вопросом… Только начала листать. Очень всё у вас красиво!
December 9, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Шикарная роза! Скажите, можно ли заменить кукурузный сироп на обычный самосваренный сахарный?
October 29, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Hi Vera! Thank you for being so nice!
How long can a flower made of chocolate plastic last?
Won’t it melt if we use it to decorate a cupcake as a wedding door gift?
October 1, 2010 at 11:00 am
I had been looking for ideas for a birthday cake for my 7 year old granddaughter who requested a ” cat face ” birthday cake. As we reside in a remote location marzipan and fondant is impossible to locate and decorating with icing always turns out looking awful for me.
I came across your page of chocolate plastic roses and read with interest. I have my daughter’s birthday in October too and thought the roses would be wonderful to decorate her cake with. I’m going to use gel coloring as well.
Meanwhile I thought if roses could be made then maybe anything could be done from your chocolate plastic recipe. I was only able to find dipping chocolate wafers in white and dark, and luckily the light corn syrup. I melted the chocolate wafers in a Pyrex measuring cup set in a pot of warm water and followed your instructions.
I’ve never, ever used chocolate (except to eat…lol..) I was surprised how easy it is to cut and make shapes from. The ”cat face” birthday cake turned out pretty darn cute I must say. I’m looking forward to making roses from the left over chocolate for the other birthday cake.
Thank you so much!
Grateful Nana :-)
September 11, 2010 at 7:52 am
Hi Vera, WOW, these are so beautiful!
I was wondering, you suggest using thin surgical gloves while moulding the flowers, is this to stop it from sticking to your fingers? In that case, would dipping your fingers in a little icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar) work? Because as far as I know, you can only buy those gloves in packs of 20 or 50 over here…
August 31, 2010 at 1:57 am
hi i tried these flowers yesterday and was so happy cz they were so easy and turned out perfect..thanks alot for sharing sucha wonderful talent with everyone…my cake looks wonderful and professional now….will be making many more….i made it with liquid glucose cz dont have corn syrup here…..i have two questions …
1:how can i stop little tears and cuts on ends of petals….i had a little problem with that
2:can i add a little powder or liquid colour in white chocolate to make colored flowrs or would it effect the dough????i was planning to add a little coffee powder in white chocolate to make coffee flwers for my coffee cake????
have a request aswewll …can you show some more things with this plastic dough like leaves ot other floers etc…(i still have alot of dough in my fridge:):)
August 24, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Hi I was just wondering what i can do to stop the chocolate from drying out and crumbling??
thanks
C.
August 12, 2010 at 4:09 am
Hello Vera,
Congratulations on your beautiful blog and for this great chocolate plastic tutorial.
I have a few questions – you said in the previous comments that the corn syrup can be replaced by glucose. Since here (in Bulgaria) there is no such thing like corn syrup, I will be using glucose and I’m wondering whether the quantities still remain the same? Because the glucose is much thicker and I guess that the corn syrup has more of a liquid consistency.
I’m also wondering whether the roses (or other flowers) are melting easily, because I plan on transporting them and it is pretty hot out there :-)
Thanks for your attention!
Best wishes,
Irina
July 11, 2010 at 10:11 am
thank you to mach
July 11, 2010 at 10:10 am
thank you for ever form recepec
June 21, 2010 at 11:05 am
Ella, I’m sorry for not replying earlier :( I guess it’s too late now, but anyway… Thick wire, skewers or toothpicks could be used for attaching the flowers to the sides of the cake (insert a skewer into the center cone, push it into a thick foam and proceed with the petals). As for the coloring, I would recommend concentrated gel colors or powdered ones that wouldn’t affect the consistency much.
Sorry again for the delay and congratulations!!!
June 6, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I could not be more excited that I came across this post! I am getting married in 2 weeks and everyone that gave me prices on sugar flowers told me like $150 for 10 roses and now I can make them on my own!!! I would need to have them stay on the sides of the cake and I’m sure my bakery would do it but I want to ask you if you could explain how to do it. I saw that I would need wire but I’ve never made any type of flower, gumpaste or otherwise, and I have no idea how to secure them to the cake. I would possibly want to make red ones but not bright red….more of an apple red, close to a burgundy color….any tips on which coloring would work best? I would appreciate any help you could give me. Thanks so much!
April 8, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Bouathong, you can attach them to the top of the cake with melted chocolate (preferred) or royal icing. But for the sides, I’m afraid you’ll have to use wire, otherwise the heavy roses will simply slide down.
April 7, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Love this! I’m going to cover a wedding cake with chocolate plastic and I was wondering how you would attach the chocolate plastic roses to the rest of the cake without using wire? The portion of the cake that will have the roses is the part that they will be cutting. Thanks, Vera!
April 5, 2010 at 9:25 am
Alan, you can use the golden syrup instead. If you plan to make dark bittersweet chocolate roses, it won’t affect the color at all.
April 5, 2010 at 8:27 am
Hi I’m making a cake for my mothers birthday. I can’t seem to find corn syrup anywhere and was wondering if I could use golden syrup as a substitute. Hope to hear from you, thanks for your time.
April 4, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Cake conspiracy, it’s really hard to tell… I can only guess… Since it had worked for you before, maybe your measurements were off this time? Was it a different chocolate brand?
March 31, 2010 at 2:19 pm
I have used this recipe before, but this time the chocolate never came to a completely hardened state like before, what am i doing wrong and can it be fixed?
March 20, 2010 at 6:05 am
Thank you Vena for giving me a direction. very nice works. i try my own today but cant be perfect like u.just want to know are u using real chocolate, i just used a compound. nice blog good sharing info. if you don’t mine can i link your blog to mine.tq
January 25, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Why can’t we use honey?
December 23, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Vampy, thank you for your words and the recipe. I am sure someone will find it useful.
I color the already made plastic with concentrated paste food colors just by kneading it into the plastic.
If you need to attach them just to the top of the cake, use melted chocolate. If you want to put them on the sides, you can form the roses on the wire, the same way you do gumpaste flowers.
December 22, 2009 at 3:43 am
Love this blog,but how can I make plain plastic and then colour it.,how do you attach roses to a chocolate covered cake please.
Your roses are beautiful,I am making chocolate Roses but want red ones too.
I noticed there was no recipe for homemade_Corn Syrup, here is one:-
2 Cups sugar
3 Cups water
1/4 Tsp Cream of Tarter
Pinch salt
Place all ingredients into saucepan on medium heat till it boils,
Turn down heat to simmer,then put lid on pan and simmer for 3 Minutes Stir Often.
To test if ready drop a few drops of corn syrup into glass of cold water, if it drops to bottom of water it is ready, Cool.
Then add chosen food colouring (remember to add drop by drop) and stir, alternatively add colouring to your Plastic mix. (you can split the Syrup into seperate containers for other colours). Then store at room temperature if using in 2 days, otherwise, put in sealed container, Jar,ect and keep in cool conditions.
To use, measure 1 Part corn Syrup to 2 parts Butter
2 parts Salt.
Multiply for larger amounts.
Have Fun
December 20, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I absolutely LOVE this blog. I just tried this recipe with agave syrup instead of corn syrup and was pleasantly surprised with the results…it seems no different, at least with white chocolate.
November 17, 2009 at 11:41 am
Hi Vera,
Thank you for posting these instructions – so helpful. I’ve just made two batches of the plastic. One with dark chocolate following your recipe. It seemed quite soft… I wrapped it up and it’s in the fridge. I guess it will set overnight. The white chocolate batch by contrast seems really thick. Fingers crossed they both work out ad that I have the patience to produce such beautiful roses as you.
November 11, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Annie, thank you. The light corn syrup is usually on the shelf next to the golden syrup in most North American supermarkets. You can substitute it with liquid glucose. Or, you can use the golden syrup instead; you won’t get white color though. There’s no need to dust the working surface; you will flatten the chocolate plastic between plastic which is non-stick.
November 11, 2009 at 5:16 am
great pics cant wait to make some thanks for your blog . what is light corn syrup & where can i buy it because when i look it up on the computer it shows golden syrup i also have the recipe that kerry posted back in april using cocoa butter & wondered what the difference between the two recipes were also when rolling out do i dust the work surface with icing sugar to stop from sticking thankyou
November 9, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Jo, you are welcome! Yes, I do store them in the fridge.
November 6, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Thank you so much Vera. This is really appreciated. May I ask just one last question … once the roses are made, how do you store them – in the fridge? Thank you again. With kind regards, Jo
November 5, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Jo, you are very welcome. If there’s an air-conditioned room and no direct sun light, I wouldn’t be worried; several hours at room temperature are not a problem.
November 4, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Hi
Thank you for your demonstration. Your roses are beautiful. Do you need to keep the cake refridgerated once made & decorated with the chocolate roses? I am doing a cake next week which will be presented after a meal at a restaurant and I am worried that the chocolate roses may start to wilt & melt while the cake is sitting at room temperature. Can you advise?
Many thanks
October 29, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Indre, you can use liquid glucose instead.
October 28, 2009 at 3:25 am
Is it possible to add other ingriedient instead of corn syrup? I can’t found where to buy it in Lithuania :(
October 26, 2009 at 9:33 pm
AndriesF, I’m glad it worked for you! Thank you for the feedback.
October 24, 2009 at 5:55 am
Dear Vera
You are an absolute life-saver.
I have spent the last couple of years looking for a recipe which actualy works, and your’s did the trick beautifully. I have bookmarked your page, and will definitely be checking in regularly.
September 20, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Pam, thank you! I usually use Belgian Callebaut or Lindt Excellence. I never use chocolate chips for this or any other baking purpose. I prefer to chop a good quality chocolate bar instead. Hope it helps.
September 17, 2009 at 7:05 am
Beautiful rose! I have been playing with chocolate plastic and will need to try this! (but it really *does* look too pretty to eat!)
Do you use a particular brand of white chocolate? I used a bag of Nestle white choc chips, and even though I was careful not to let any water get into the melting chocolate, it seemed to seize (get dry and crumbly) before it finished melting. I added a bit of melted butter which helped a bit. I’ve read that different brands of chocolate have different levels of fat which may make the melting process “better”…. but was wondering, is there a brand you use/recommend? Thanks!
September 15, 2009 at 9:14 am
Collette, thank you. I successfully color the white chocolate plastic with Wilton gel colors available everywhere. Just knead a tiny amount of color into the plastic.
September 11, 2009 at 4:35 am
Just stumbled on your lovely website. Beautiful work and very informative — thanks for sharing. I’m planning a birthday cake and am not a big fan of fondant. I’d like to experiment with coloring white chocolate plastic and using it for decorative cutouts to decorate cakes iced in buttercream. Any experience with that or thoughts on how you think that would work?
July 16, 2009 at 3:12 am
Thanks a lot Vera!!!
I think i will go with a conventional oven…:)
July 15, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Meettu, I’m not a big expert in this. A convectional one bakes faster and more even, but you’ll have to adjust recipes accordingly, reducing oven temperature and baking time. If you are an experienced baker, you will get used to it soon enough. If you rely on baking books instructions (and most of them are written for conventional ovens), then maybe it’s better go with the conventional one. Hope it helps.
July 14, 2009 at 3:45 am
Vera,
One more question..
I just have a microwave oven at home and am planning to buy a new oven.
Which oven would be best for all baking purposes??(including breads)
Conventional or Convectional???
Thank U
July 13, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Meettu, thank you! You can use liquid glucose instead.
July 13, 2009 at 2:14 am
Hey Vera,
I just love your website…I cant believe that your not a professional!!!The pics you post are sooo beautiful..I feel like i have no words to appreciate you :D….
I am also obsessed with baking…as you said even i bake when am sad and happy….:)
Can you give me a substitute for corn syrup…I checked out many shops in my hometown and they dont sell corn syrup…:((