Chocolate Nest

This is a fun recipe to elevate a dessert. But this can get messy very fast if you are not prepared before all the chocolate is melted.
A very cool technique to get the twigs using iced water in a bowl and is something I would do again by itself.

Using baking paper on the bowl was a little tricky as it slipped alot on the bowl and was hard to tape down with it being non stick. So unsure if something different could be used here. I would recommend placing the bowl on something you can easily move to the fridge to help it set. I forgot to do this so had to delicately lift the wet chocolated bowl onto a board.

I didnt attempt the leaves as I dont have trees on my property to pinch from but I would say you dont need them to get the effect.

A little edible glitter would help add dimension to the decorations.

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This is a fun recipe to elevate a dessert. But this can get messy very fast if you are not prepared before all the chocolate is melted.
A very cool technique to get the twigs using iced water in a bowl and is something I would do again by itself.

Using baking paper on the bowl was a little tricky as it slipped alot on the bowl and was hard to tape down with it being non stick. So unsure if something different could be used here. I would recommend placing the bowl on something you can easily move to the fridge to help it set. I forgot to do this so had to delicately lift the wet chocolated bowl onto a board.

I didnt attempt the leaves as I dont have trees on my property to pinch from but I would say you dont need them to get the effect.

A little edible glitter would help add dimension to the decorations.

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I found the instructions easy to follow, but a size guide for the bowl would be good - I think my nest was a little on the large side, and that made it a bit fragile. It was a warm day and once I added the chocolate twigs and cocoa pods (which I dusted with edible glitter), the nest collapsed! If I made another one, I'd suspend the covered bowl on a glass or something so the edge didn't stick to the tray I placed it on to set. The dark chocolate twigs set well but the milk chocolate ones were on the soft side so they didn't really look like twigs - unless it was from some bizarre enchanted forest! I didn't use the leaves because we didn't have anything suitable, but I have made those before. Word to the wise - I used disposable piping bags which worked really well, but cut a teeny-tiny bit off the tip or your chocolate will go everywhere - I speak from experience!

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Loved this recipe and it turned out perfectly. I used the back of rose petals for the leaves and it was great to practise tempering chocolate. Piping melted chocolate into iced water was amazing as it set instantly.

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I had fun making this nest. I made an absolute mess in the kitchen but I really enjoyed it.

I am not sure if this can be called a recipe at all, since you are not really baking or cooking anything. It is basically just melting chocolate.

I tried to follow the instruction, but it wasn't the easiest instruction specially for beginners.
• Using a baking paper to wrap around the bowl was hard. The baking paper is too slippery. I cannot tape the baking paper to the bowl either. I ended up using the aluminium foil – making sure the dull, non-stick surface is facing up.
• Making the twigs by dropping the chocolate in a bowl of icy water, just made swirly, worm-like chocolate. It didn’t look like twigs at all. I ended up just drawing some twigs on a flat surface (kitchen bench or tray) lined with baking paper.
• Chocolate leaves: It was very hard to remove the chocolate from the leaves specially when you made a thin coating on the leaves (make it thick coating). Small leaves are very hard to manoeuvre. Using a fern leaf? Good luck with that.
With all that said, I really enjoyed it and I would definitely do it again. I would use white chocolate and add food colouring for the leaves next time.

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