Start adding colorful flourishes to your handmade chocolates! In this guide, chocolatier Simon Knott explains how to make colored cocoa butter for chocolate decoration.
Now that you’ve mastered how to make homemade chocolates, it’s time to give your chocolate treats and gifts the final decorative touch. Although not necessary, decorations give your edible artworks the final highlights and wow factor that your hard work deserves to be recognised for. Carefully presented treats declare to your friends, family and customers that this is really something worth enjoying.
While there are many ways to add creative flair, one of the most impressive methods is via tinted cocoa butter. Colored cocoa butter for chocolate decoration is versatile, and can be used to apply subtle patterns or vivid swatches to your sweets.
In this article, professional chocolatier Simon Knott explains how you can prepare colored cocoa butter for chocolate decoration, and ideas for how you can use it.
How to Make Colored Cocoa Butter for Chocolate
By Simon Knott, Chocolatier
As long as you keep to a few simple rules mixing your own coloured cocoa butter to decorate chocolates is very straightforward. The process doesn’t take long, and you will save a bundle on buying readymade coloured cocoa butter. When buying colours, ensure you choose fat-soluble products so you can be sure they will mix well when blended with cocoa butter.
Coloured cocoa butter can be used in various chocolate techniques, such as painting the interior of moulds with a brush, painting chocolate figures directly and airbrushing, where the cocoa butter is delivered to the chocolate surface in a very fine mist.
Tempering cocoa butter
In the same way as working with chocolate, it’s necessary to temper your coloured cocoa butter before applying it to the inside of moulds. This will ensure it sets firmly, so the chocolates release easily from the mould and have an attractive glossy exterior. The coloured cocoa butter can be tempered by heating it gently in the microwave and then shaking it gently or by using the seed method, where grated cocoa butter is stirred into the melted cocoa butter.
Sourcing fat-soluble cocoa butter colors for chocolate craft
For a comprehsenive discussion on fat soluble colours, please read my article on the best types of food colours for chocolate. The same information applies to cocoa butter. Below are a few reliable suppliers for coloring agents:
AUS https://www.melbournefooddepot.com
UK https://msk-ingredients.com
How to Prepare the Colored Cocoa Butter for Chocolate Decoration
Melting the Cocoa Butter
Weigh the required cocoa butter into a tub which is big enough for mixing.
Melt the cocoa butter in a double boiler or an oven set to 50° C (122° F).
While the cocoa butter is melting, weigh out the colour.
Weighing Out the Colouring
For this exercise, we are going to use powdered colors for colouring cocoa butter.
You need 12% by weight of colour to add to the cocoa butter.
For example: 100g cocoa butter requires 12g colour powder.
Incorporating Colour into Melted Cocoa Butter
Once the cocoa butter has completely melted, spoon half the colour into the cocoa butter.
As the colour is a light powder it floats on the cocoa butter. Stir it carefully, either with a spoon or gently, using a stick blender.
Once mixed, add the remaining colour and combine until smooth. The cocoa butter should have a very intense colour. Remember, when you paint cocoa butter inside a mould or on chocolate, the coat will be very thin, so the colour needs to be intense.
Strain the Cocoa Butter
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and mix again if required.
The final mixture should be completely smooth, with the colour evenly distributed throughout.
Ready-Made Cocoa Butter Colors for Chocolate Craft
If you are just starting out, using ready-mixed coloured cocoa butter is often easier than preparing your own. By removing the complication of mixing your own colours from scratch, you can concentrate on the techniques and creativity of your batch instead.
Often, ready-mixed cocoa butter colours can be readily combined, enabling you to easily create new tints from your base colours, as long as they are mixed thoroughly.
If you are unsure how to combine the right mix of shades to achieve a particular colour, search online for a ‘colour wheel’. This will graphically show the different component colours required to formulate each shade.
Ready-mixed cocoa butter colour suppliers:
- AUS www.savourschool.com.au
- USA www.tomric.com
- UK www.keylink.org
Conclusion
We hope you’ve enjoyed this practical guide from chocolatier Simon Knott on how to make colored cocoa butter for chocolate. For more tutorials from Simon, be sure to check out the following:
- How to Make Colored Chocolate (including White Chocolate)
- Best Food Colors for Chocolate – Types and Brands
Happy chocolatering!
