How-To: White Chocolate Snowflakes

This a short tutorial on how to make the White Chocolate Snowflakes that are on the Lemon Christmas Cupcakes in the below post. If you have any questions please just go ahead and ask! Here goes:

You will need the following supplies: a 4 oz. squeeze bottle (or a small ziplock baggie), white chocolate or white almond bark, a three-ring 79¢ cardboard binder with a clear plastic cover, a template of what you'd like to copy (i have a template of snowflakes here), a cookie sheet

The first thing you will need to do is find a design you like and copy it onto an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and place it into the three-ring cardboard binder so that you can see it clearly thru the plastic (see pic three). You will be piping your chocolate directy onto this plastic so make sure you can see everything and have enough room in between snowflakes. Next, tape the binder down onto your cookie sheet and set aside. This will keep your template from moving and and the cookie sheet will allow you to move the whole thing without messing up your work. Hint: You can find art ideas on the net or even in children's coloring books.

In a small bowl, melt up some of the chocolate or almond bark until liquid (i used the microwave). I've used almond bark for two reasons: its used extensively to make candy and it doesnt burn quite as easily as white chocolate. Use a funnel to pour into your bottles or spoon into your ziplock baggie. If using a baggie, cut a really small hole to pipe thru.

Grab your cookie sheet with your binder and template attached and start piping right on top of the plastic (see pic 4). I just quickly traced over my snowflake design, one after the other. If your chocolate or bark starts to get hard, pop it back into the microwave (in the baggie or bottle - just take the metal tip off the bottle first!) for a few seconds to soften.

When you've finished tracing all your designs, place the cookie sheet in a cool, dry spot so that the chocolate can harden up. I placed mine out in the garage as its been really cool outside. Try to wait over night before removing them from the plastic binder. To remove, gently bend the plastic until the chocolate dislodges (when the chocolate gets cold it contracts and should slide easily off the plastic). Remove the snowflakes and store in a cool, dry place. Try to handle the finished chocolates as little as possible. They break easily and the heat from your hands makes them more likely to fall apart.

Tips: I really like the 4 oz. squeeze bottles! I got them at Michaels Craft store in the candy section. The tops come off and you can easily exchange them with a piping tip placed into a coupler, just screw it right onto the bottle (see the first pic above). I use these for icing my cookies as well. Just use a funnel to get your icing or chocolate into the bottles! Chocolate cools off quickly so you have to work fast! I keep a heating pad turned up high next to me while i'm piping. When i set the bottle down, i put it on the heating pad, it helps to keep the chocolate liquid.

Don't get discouraged the first time doing this, just keep practicing. If you scroll a few posts down you can see that my first snowflakes were kinda funky looking but as i got the hang of it they looked better! Good Luck! Let me know if you try it out!