Family Reunion Cake

Comment

Comment by josephine on September 14, 2010 at 11:23pm

thank you so much bettina.yes i live in oz and we have copha here(can't get this crisco here)...
you rock!
gonna check out you tube link now

Comment by Bettina Dwyer on September 14, 2010 at 5:04pm

The lady emailed me a photo of the family home which I printed out for reference.Traditionally you use cocoa butter but in our small town this wasn't available so I used copha (a white vegetable shortening that is solid at room temperature). You melt the copha and add cocoa powder. You have to keep the copha in a melted state so I put it on a ceramic saucer and placed it over a small bowl which held water that I had boiled.; when the water started to cool I just put it into the microwave and heated it up again. You need to use a REALLY fine brush (10/0) to paint the details or your lines will look clumsey. Then it's just a matter of adding more layers of the cocoa coloured copha to add shading. You can also use melted chocolate mixed with cocoa butter to get really dark brown.
Elaine MacGregor has a great video tutorial here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pw1D0uXEVw

Comment by josephine on September 14, 2010 at 9:12am

omg ...brilliant!
how did u draw with cocoa????please share ur secrets!