What are chocolate balls for cake decoration
Chocolate balls for a cake are considered an original option for decorating confectionery desserts, so it is in wide demand and is actively used by professional confectioners. However, spherical shapes can be created independently at home. To do this, you can use a culinary thermometer, a polycarbonate, plastic or silicone mold.
Chocolate spheres are often prepared hollow, glued together from 2 parts. The blanks can be made without gluing, but this option will be a little difficult for inexperienced confectioners and cooks with little experience in decorating desserts. To create chocolate figures from glued halves, you only need a tempered chocolate base and silicone Hemisphere molds of the appropriate size.
To temper chocolate, they mainly use a microwave oven. The main ingredient is chocolate in cullets or a regular chocolate bar, which is pre-ground. The molds intended for filling the chocolate composition differ from each other only in the material of manufacture.
They can be:
- plastic,
- polycarbonate;
- polypropylene;
- silicone.
When choosing a container for working with chocolate, you need to carefully inspect the surface of the container for scratches or cracks. If any deformation is present, the pieces will stick to the body and break. As a result, it will not be possible to make neat blanks.
Recommendations for preparing a container for working with chocolate mass:
- To quickly and easily remove the chocolate spheres, the silicone mold can be turned inside out. When using a metal, polycarbonate or plastic container, you can knock on its base so that the workpieces fall out onto a towel or soft fabric.
- It is advisable to rinse the purchased container thoroughly in a warm liquid with detergent, and then dry it. Due to this, the ingredient will not stick to the base and walls of the mold.
- The temperature of the container should be as close as possible to the air temperature in the room. Do not pour the chocolate composition into a warm container if it exceeds the operating temperature of the tempered ingredient.
- To prevent fingerprints from remaining on the chocolate figures, it is not recommended to touch them when removing them from the container. It is advisable to wear gloves and perform the procedure without touching the workpiece.
Step by step recipe
Preparation
To make cake pops at home, you will need round plastic sticks (according to the number of cakes) and confectionery sprinkles. All this can be found in confectionery stores.
For ganache it is important to use heavy cream (at least 30%), otherwise the ganache will not stabilize.
Consider how you will serve the cake pops. If you want to place them with the balls down, then buy paper capsules in advance at the candy store. You can make the stand yourself: fill a deep glass with sugar and insert cake pops into the sugar with the balls facing up.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Step 1
Prepare a sponge cake. Sift the flour and cocoa powder until the biscuit is airy and free of lumps. Combine flour, cocoa, sugar and baking powder in a deep bowl and mix until smooth.
Instructions for preparing balls
After preparing all the necessary food products and tools, you can proceed directly to making spherical shapes. Before cooking, it is advisable to rub the polycarbonate mold well with a cotton sponge or a dry cloth until it squeaks. This will make the chocolate spheres glossy.
How to temper chocolate
Tempering the chocolate composition is carried out by performing the following step-by-step actions:
- Weigh out 50 g and 200 g of chocolate bars into 2 dishes. A plastic container is suitable for a 200 gram portion because it is better for tempering the ingredient.
- Melt a large portion of white chocolate in a microwave oven or in a water bath.
- When using the first method, every 30 seconds. take out the mixture and stir with a spatula so that the mass is evenly heated.
- The temperature of the chocolate mass should not exceed 45 ℃. After each heating stage, measure the temperature of the chocolate with a pyrometer. An overheated component is not suitable for tempering.
- Stir the remaining 50g of chocolate chunks into the white chocolate base once it has reached the desired temperature and is completely melted.
- Stir the chocolate mixture vigorously with a silicone spatula, evenly collecting residue from the base and walls of the container. Bring the base to the operating temperature, up to 28 ℃. The process will take 15 minutes. The result of the procedure will depend on the humidity and temperature in the room and the speed of work.
During the process of stirring the chocolate mixture in a bowl, it is necessary to periodically check the temperature. This is required so that the desired performance can be achieved.
For better tempering, it is recommended to actively cool the ingredient by stirring, while the room should have minimal humidity and temperature conditions.
How to paint?
Before decorating the surface of the cake, chocolate balls can be painted in any shade that you like best.
To do this, you must adhere to the following step-by-step algorithm:
- Color the tempered chocolate base in various shades using fat-soluble food coloring.
- Perform the steps quickly, because tempered chocolate quickly crystallizes in air.
- Distribute the mixture into small plastic containers needed for coloring chocolate.
- Mix food coloring with the chocolate base and pour into a pastry bag for ease of use.
How to pour into the mold?
After coloring the chocolate base, it can be distributed into molds.
Step-by-step instructions for pouring the composition into molds:
- Using a paper towel or brush, paint the bases and walls of the containers with colored chocolate. Dip the brush into the chocolate mixture and make chaotic strokes.
- When the chocolate hardens, heat it with a regular hairdryer, bringing it to the operating temperature of 28 ℃. To ensure even heating, stir the chocolate constantly.
- Remove excess chocolate from the polycarbonate container with a pastry spatula.
- Distribute the main chocolate composition into molds to evenly fill the walls of the hemisphere. The layer should be the same thickness.
- To release excess air and distribute the chocolate base evenly, lightly tap the base of the polycarbonate mold.
- Pour the excess tempered chocolate out of the container by inverting it over the bowl and tapping lightly to drain off the excess.
- Run a pastry spatula over the bowl to remove any excess chocolate. Press the spatula firmly onto the mold to obtain an even cut of the hemisphere.
- Place the container with the hemisphere in the freezer compartment for 15 minutes so that the chocolate base crystallizes.
How to collect a sphere?
After the hemispheres have hardened, you can proceed directly to assembling the chocolate balls.
For these purposes, carry out the following step-by-step manipulations:
- After 15 min. Remove the mold from the freezer compartment. Carefully remove the hemispheres and combine to form balls. To fasten the workpieces, heat the surface of any flat metal utensil: a spatula or a wide knife.
- Put gloves on your hands. Take 2 blanks and for 2 seconds. apply to a hot surface. Combine 2 hemispheres into a solid ball.
- Carefully smooth the seam with your fingers. Repeat similar steps with all workpieces.
Once assembled, the ball shapes can be pressed onto the surface of the cake using a drop of melted chocolate mixture. If the component is properly tempered, the workpiece can be easily removed from the polycarbonate mold. If they don’t come out well, you can lightly tap the containers or put them back in the freezer compartment for 20 minutes.
Method for creating a solid sphere
There is another way to make chocolate sweet balls
. It will require a special double silicone mold. Both halves of it consist of hemispheres. They are firmly attached to each other. One of the halves has special holes for liquid to drain.
Preparing pastry balls for decorating cakes using a double mold includes the following steps:
Melt the required amount of chocolate or confectionery glaze using a water bath or microwave.
Pour into mold.
They close it with the other half and begin to intensively turn, rotate in all directions, trying to ensure that the liquid component is distributed as evenly as possible over both hemispheres.
Place the mold in the refrigerator for about half an hour.
Take it out, carefully separate the forms and take out the finished treat.
Don't be upset if some of the rounds break when removed - this is a necessity, since the molding is made of rather rough silicone. You will also have to sand the joints, as they will be ugly and uneven. They are removed either with a knife, or simply by melting the treat with your hands and smoothing out the seams. This is how solid spherical figures are obtained.
Formation of a spherical figure without a shape
You can decorate chocolate balls on a cake without using a special mold. A regular balloon will do for this.
Components needed to create chocolate balls:
Name of ingredients | Required volume |
Sunflower oil | 15 ml |
Chocolate bar | 100 g |
Instead of vegetable oil, you can use butter. This component is needed to coat the surface of the balloon.
Detailed instructions for decorating a chocolate sphere are described below in steps:
- Melt the small chocolate pieces in a double boiler.
- Pour sunflower oil into the chocolate mixture and stir, leaving to cool to a temperature of 35 °C.
- Lightly inflate the balloon and wipe its surface well to remove all dirt.
- Coat the surface of the ball with vegetable or butter. This will make it easy to remove the ball after making the sweet dessert.
- Dip the balloon into the melted chocolate mixture, turn it over and soak it with the sweet mixture on top.
- Transfer the chocolate pieces to a baking sheet and place in the refrigerator compartment for 5 minutes. for fixation.
- Remove the blanks from the refrigerator compartment, soak them in one layer of chocolate mass and send them to a cool place to harden.
When the chocolate balls have acquired good density, use a thin needle to carefully pierce the rubber ball. Use quick movements to separate the treat from the toy.
Chocolate balls for cake, recipe using balls.
When decorating a cake with ready-made chocolate balls, they need to be fixed with icing, whipped cream or pastry mastic.
Spheres with praline mousse in caramel sauce
Spheres
To prepare the balls, you need to prepare 375 g of chocolate. It needs to be melted by steaming, stirring regularly so as not to burn. Pour 2-3 tsp into the hemispheres. the resulting mass, spread on the sides with a pastry brush, and place in the refrigerator.
Mousse
Mousse components:
- 350 ml cream;
- 2 squirrels;
- 2 tbsp. l. Sahara;
- 100 g chocolate drops.
Whip the cream until thick foam, add sugar in small portions, gently mixing the mixture. Melt the chocolate pieces and pour into the creamy mixture. In another bowl, beat the whites until stiff, add to the main mixture, and mix again.
Praline sauce
Praline ingredients:
- 225 ml cream;
- 225 ml condensed milk;
- 50 g any
- nuts;
- 300 g granulated cane sugar.
Combine granulated sugar with condensed milk and cream, heat over low heat, add small pieces of nuts, beat with a blender.
Caramel
To make caramel you will need:
- 150 g sugar;
- 30 g butter;
- 100 ml purified water;
- a pinch of vanilla.
Pour sugar into heated water, stir until all grains are dissolved. Turn off the heat, add softened pieces of butter and cream, stir.
Some tricks for working with chocolate
Most people don’t know how to make balls of tempered chocolate to decorate the surface of a dessert, so they think that this process is quite difficult. However, the procedure for preparing confectionery treats is simple, but requires concentration, accuracy, patience and attentiveness from the cook. This material can be melted again and the work repeated again if something does not work out.
To make cooking easier and faster, it is recommended to use the following useful culinary tips:
- Selection of the main ingredient and its proportions . Most people choose glaze when forming spherical shapes. But experienced experts recommend combining chocolate with chocolate glaze in equal proportions. Thanks to this, the composition will be much more elastic, it will be easier to remove from the mold, and it will not develop cracks. At the same time, the product must be of high quality.
- Decoration . You can make spherical shapes using several methods. For the first time, it is advisable to use simple options. Depending on the degree of achievement of a new level of skill, you can try other methods.
- Use of oil . You can include a small amount of sunflower oil in the glaze. Thanks to this, the coating will be lump-free and will better cover the walls and base of the mold. When using tempered chocolate, adding an oil product is not recommended. When choosing milk white chocolate, vegetable oil is often used, which makes it easier to work with the component.
- Temperature. The component is melted directly in the microwave oven. The whole process consists of short periods during which you need to switch the “Start” and “Stop” buttons over a period of several seconds. This is required to ensure that the composition does not overheat too much. When the mixture is completely melted, frozen chocolate chips are added to it to achieve a temperature of + 30℃.
- Tempering . When making figures exclusively from chocolate alone, it is necessary to carry out a heating and cooling process. Otherwise, the balls will quickly melt. Tempering is not necessary when combining chocolate with frosting, since the frosting barely melts at room temperature.
- Form . In the absence of special containers for making chocolate hemispheres or solid balls, you can use improvised items. For example, you can take a tennis ball, polycarbonate rattles, or various plastic objects that are shaped like a ball.
Recipe for Homemade Chocolate Balls for Breakfast:
The hardest part is grinding the flakes into flour. My oatmeal is from Mistral. Grind it in a blender for a couple of minutes. We also grind the almonds with a blender. Also in pain.
Then everything is very simple! Combine ALL ingredients and knead the dough. You may need a little more yogurt (I used thick honey and added about 1 tsp more yogurt). The dough should be dense, but not crumble. It must be formed from it.
. These are the balls. We pinch off a piece of dough, roll it into a ball and place the balls on a baking sheet covered with parchment or a silicone mat or a Teflon napkin. Involve children in the process of rolling balls! Even if they turn out to be of different sizes, the child will receive so much joy and a sense of pride. And breakfast (or lunch or even a snack) will become much tastier.
Bake the balls in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 15 minutes. 5 minutes after you put the baking sheet in the oven, start stirring the balls every 3 minutes.
Eat as you should with milk, kefir or just like that! My son liked the last option the most. Bon appetit everyone.
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Filling options
Chocolate balls on a cake are considered a fun and creative culinary process. However, at the same time, you can not only make ideal figures, but also create various fillings that will make the sweet decor more appetizing.
Filling options for chocolate spheres:
- Coffee cream cream . It is prepared using liquid cream and coffee drink. Chocolate balls filled with a similar composition are suitable for decorating the surface of a dessert, as well as for serving as a complete delicacy.
- Mousse . A light mousse filling made from heavy liquid cream, powdered sugar, egg whites and confectionery glaze goes well with tempered chocolate. Chocolate decor can be used to decorate both cakes and pastries. To make chocolate spheres more attractive, you can soak them in caramel on top before sending them to the table.
- Praline . Prepared with nuts, condensed milk, heavy cream and sugar. This filling is considered a classic composition for filling chocolate spheres. At the same time, it can be supplemented with a mousse composition, creating a combined filler.
- With cookies . To make the filling, they use almonds with white chocolate, berries and small muffins without filling. All ingredients are finely ground and generously coated with caramel.
Cookie Cake Pops
In order not to waste time on a biscuit, you can make cake pops from cookies. Grind the shortbread cookies in a blender, add curd cheese, powdered sugar and soft butter to the resulting crumbs. Knead the dough and roll it into equal balls. Next, follow the recipe above. However, remember that curd cheese in the composition reduces the shelf life to 4-5 days.
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How to decorate a cake?
When decorating the surface of the cake with chocolate balls, they give the sweet dessert a beautiful appearance and airiness. In order for the edible treat to stay firmly on the product, it should be fixed well.
For fastening it is best to use the following composition:
- caramel;
- Cheese cream;
- sugar mastic;
- chocolate composition.
In cooking, there are many options for decorating the surface of a cake with chocolate figures. It is permissible to produce compositions from spheres of different shades and diameters. You can also use 1 or 2 chocolate balls of medium parameters.
Chocolate balls are an original culinary product that can be used to decorate absolutely any confectionery dessert: ice cream, pastry, cake. In this case, the figures can be given any shade using food coloring. Additionally, the workpieces can be sprinkled with coconut or other toppings.
Delicious balls with creamy coffee cream
Surprisingly tender, aromatic dessert with a bright taste of cream and cocoa.
To prepare the delicacy you will need the following ingredients:
Brandy (cognac) 4 tablespoons.
6 creamy toffees or sweets, such as “Cow”.
White chocolate for spheres (100 grams) and dark (300 grams) for cream.
Instant coffee in the amount of 2 tablespoons.
250 ml heavy cream.
To prepare the rounds, you will need a mold (mold) in the form of hemispheres.
The basis
The dessert preparation process includes the following steps:
White tiles are cut into pieces or rubbed with small shavings.
Place in a bowl and place in a water bath.
Melt and apply a thin layer using a regular brush onto hemispherical molds. It is necessary to carefully coat each mold so that there are no thin walls left.
Place the mold in the refrigerator for 3-5 minutes.
After this, take it out and coat the molds with chocolate again. They put it out in the cold again. And they repeat the process one more time until the walls of the future balls become dense enough.
After this, remove the hemispheres from the molds. If they are thoroughly frozen, they easily jump out of the mold.
Formation of a spherical figure
Now it's time to connect the hemispheres. To do this, melt a little of the chocolate remaining in the plate and carefully coat the edges of the molding with a thin brush. When working, be sure to use gloves so that the treat does not melt and fingerprints do not remain on it.
Small holes are made in the balls using the heated tip of a pastry syringe, applying it to the surface with light touches. Next, the dessert can be painted with any patterns. The surface can be decorated with food coloring diluted in alcohol.
Making cream
Before making chocolate balls to decorate the cake
, you should remember that cream is a very important component in this recipe. It is this that makes the dessert most delicate and very tasty. But it is important to remember that the composition contains alcohol, albeit a small amount. If the delicacy is being prepared for children, it is better to either not add brandy at all, or significantly reduce its amount (a drop only for the smell).
So, to create sweetness, you need to do the following:
The cream is heated almost to a boil, but at the same time make sure that it does not boil.
Pour the cream into the chocolate and stir gently until it is completely dissolved.
Add vanillin, brandy, instant coffee.
Cool and beat with a blender.
The resulting cream is poured into a pastry syringe and the spheres are carefully filled with it.
Melt the candy in the microwave and use a toothpick to carefully cover the holes in the rounds.
Put the dessert in the refrigerator.
All is ready. You can serve it to a festive table or decorate a birthday cake. Many self-taught pastry chefs who made similar desserts with their own hands at home note that some guests even feel sorry for eating such beauty.