How To Use Decorating Pen For Cake Sweet Creations

How to decorate with melted chocolate explains how to make and use chocolate for piping and drizzling decorations and letters and squiggles on cakes and cookies and whatever you fancy.

Squiggles of melted chocolate on a piece of parchment with a piping bag lying beside.

In case you've always wanted to know how to decorate with melted chocolate, here's your answer. Yep. You read correctly. An entire recipe to show you how to make melted chocolate squiggles and letters for piping and drizzling. It's actually a pretty easy thing to do, although no one else needs to know that. Just let them be impressed by this nifty talent that you can use to decorate cakes, cupcakes, cookies, anything. Someone we know even wrote the name of her college football team in script and used it as a decoration for cupcakes. Because sometimes—actually, most times—chocolate makes everything better, even if your team didn't win.–Angie Zoobkoff

*What Type Of Chocolate Works Best For Decorating?

For the smoothest and most well-behaved melted chocolate for decorating, seek out "couverture chocolate," which contains more cocoa butter than other types of chocolate. It's easier to handle than regular chocolate and may be a good option if you're new to chocolate decorating or you're the impatient sort. But really, almost any dark, semisweet, or milk chocolate will work adequately for most decorating purposes. If you really want to go all out and decorate with chocolate that firms and becomes glossy and sufficiently sturdy to stand upright, use tempered chocolate. Be forewarned that white chocolate is rather fragile and is typically not recommended for decorating.

How To Decorate With Melted Chocolate

Quick Glance
Quick Glance
10 M
30 M
Makes 1 batch of decorations

Ingredients

Chocolate* (the amount and kind can vary according to your needs; see above note on What Type Of Chocolate Works Best For Decorating?)

Directions

Chop the chocolate into small, even pieces. If using a microwave to melt the chocolate, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and microwave on 50% power in 15-second bursts, stirring after each burst to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn, until melted and smooth. The exact timing will vary depending on the amount of chocolate and the wattage of your microwave but will probably take around 1 1/2 minutes. (You want to be certain that the bowl and implement you use to stir the chocolate are completely dry. The introduction of any water into the chocolate will cause it to seize and not melt properly.) If using a pan on the stovetop to melt the chocolate, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over but not touching a pan of simmering water and wait, stirring occasionally to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn, until the chocolate is melted and smooth. (You want to be certain that the bowl and implement you use to stir the chocolate are completely dry and that no steam or water from the pan comes into contact with the chocolate. The introduction of any water into the chocolate will cause it to seize and not melt properly.) Remove the pan from the heat.

Cover a plate or baking sheet with wax paper or parchment paper. If making chocolate squiggles or shapes, use a teaspoon and drizzle the chocolate into squiggles or shapes on the paper. If making chocolate letters, pour the melted chocolate into a plastic squeeze bottle or a disposable piping bag (available in most shops in the cake baking sections) or a large resealable plastic bag or a cone that you formed from parchment paper. If using a plastic bag, just snip the end off close to the tip for thin lettering or a little further up for thicker lettering. (Keep in mind that thicker letters are less likely to break once cooled.) Then simply write, er, pipe your letters or words or numbers as desired, gently squeezing the bag from the top toward the tip as you write to keep a slow but continual flow of melted chocolate coming through the tip.

If you make a mistake and one of your letters looks wonky or is uneven, just eat it and try again. If you don't trust your penmanship, before melting the chocolate, print out your words or designs at the desired size and tape the printout onto your work surface beneath the sheet of parchment paper and trace over the lines with chocolate.

Transfer everything to the refrigerator until the chocolate hardens, 10 to 20 minutes.

If using a microwave to melt the chocolate, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and microwave on 50% power in 15-second bursts, stirring after each burst to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn, until melted and smooth. The exact timing will vary depending on the amount of chocolate and the wattage of your microwave but will probably take around 1 1/2 minutes. (You want to be certain that the bowl and implement you use to stir the chocolate are completely dry. The introduction of any water into the chocolate will cause it to seize and not melt properly.) If using a pan on the stovetop to melt the chocolate, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over but not touching a pan of simmering water and wait, stirring occasionally to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn, until the chocolate is melted and smooth. (You want to be certain that the bowl and implement you use to stir the chocolate are completely dry and that no steam or water from the pan comes into contact with the chocolate. The introduction of any water into the chocolate will cause it to seize and not melt properly.) Remove the pan from the heat.