Winning Chocolate Show Pieces

Chocolate show piece step by step

I decided to coach one of my young staff who was interested and motivated by the challenge

We decided to make as a cake mixing chocolate, raspberry, litchi and rose flavor… a chibouste with Flour free dark chocolate biscuit and sable Breton on a bottom sprayed with home made raspberry marmalade,
The whole cake was then to be sprayed with red chocolate color.

During my last trip to Singapore last year I sow a piece of art in a café shop somewhere in town , as I liked it and it inspired me , I took a photo right away with the thought that I could use a similar design in the future
One thing I like about our work is you can get inspiration from everything and any where and you can then let go our own interpretation

For the piece we have used the same technique that the jazz man , mixing modeling and carving in order to be more time efficient as we where doing two show pieces at the same time with the chocolate parrot all carved by hand on the side.

This show piece was up in 3 days
First day the base
Second day starting to add the soft chocolate, softened at 34 degrees
Third day Starting to make the first spiral let it get hard then on a same day finish all the spiral with a supporting underneath until the chocolate became hard enough to hold itself

Washing the piece with water and a cloth gave this woody effect then you just have to let it dry with a dehumidifier the all night “Et voila”
To perfect the effect of the wood you must add the soft chocolate on top of your washed show piece layer by layer

When the show piece is dry and clean just need arrange a proper location to set your cake stand, I believe the way we put the stand was good for the all balance of the show piece not strait and off center and on top of a round ball to the show piece for more point at the end.

The cake that you see on a photo with the show piece is a dummy (empty inside) all in chocolate some competition allow you for this practice you need to be aware of all the rule and regulation well before any competition to see if it is allowed.
You need to make another cake for the jury to taste and one for the show piece witch must stay on display for 2 to 3 days (Macau).
As for the result Sita got Silver, in a conversation with the leading judge (Kenny from Singapore) we learned that it was the higher silver of the day, as they did give 3 silvers medal for this category.
We also found out that we did not win the gold because of the cake which was not well received from the judge and this is where we failed.
A bit disappointing but we will learn out of the experience and succeed next time.
See you
Herve