Chocolate Dragon Egg

Well well well it's that time of year again hey. Game of Thrones is starting and everyone is excited. Well I am so happy!

I thought I would add some more pictures of my dragon eggs and let everyone know that they are available for purchase from HERE they take about 4 days to make and then another 3-10 days on delivery. Depending where in the world you are.

I hope you all find them! I have sold a few over Easter and  they were received so well. My determination actually paid off for once! Phew.

To answer any questions.
Yes they are edible
Yes they are chocolate.

You can munch away at them while watching Game of Thrones!

Rheagal Dragon Egg

Viserion Dragon Egg

Chocolate Dragon Eggs

Chocolate Dragon Egg

So I have not posted anything in a very long time. I guess I got side tracked.... 

Anyway, now that it is Easter... well almost, I decided to make chocolate dragon eggs.

Anyone that I know, knows that I love Game of Thrones. Wooo...

I had an idea last year that a chocolate dragon egg would be just amazing! I had a look on the web and there really wasn't much out there that  I really liked, so I made one myself. 

First I made a dragon egg out of clay, then I made a silicone mould with silicone that I got from Barnes in Newtown. After that I had so many issues using this mould for my chocolate. So I cut the mould right down and ended up with somewhat of a skin for the chocolate, because this silicone was quite hard, it still stands up, even though the walls are only about 1cm thick. 

This worked perfecto! 

Then I used titanium dioxide and cocoa butter and got artistic. I sprayed the egg in the Drogon colours. Red, black and a bit of a white stoney bottom. It turned out so much more amazing then I thought it would. Mainly because this process took a lot of turns and also took me about 10 weeks to finish it. Maybe more. It was painful putting every scale on individually with the clay, so naturally, I procrastinated. 

I am glad I took my time though, usually I rush things because I get way to excited for it. This time I didn't rush and I ended up with a product I think is just fabulous. It looks so much more stunning in real life then the pictures, or maybe my camera just isn't great. Anyway I just love, love, love them.

If anyone wants to order these for Easter they can go to www.sivaanchocolates.bigcartel.com and order through there.

I am waiting on packaging to be delivered so I won't be taking any orders until next week, so keep an eye out for when they come in stock.

Enough talking, here is the finish image. They will also soon be available in the Rhaegal and Viserion colours and white, dark or milk chocolate.

Chocolate Dragon Egg

The end result

So I have been given the pictures from the wedding I supplied the succulent cake to along with chocolates as well!

This is very exciting to see and they look so amazing, the bride did such a great job choosing the boxes and decorations. I am really pleased to see the end result of what I make, it will always bring me the most joy in my career. The cake really looked great with the theme of her wedding and from what I hear everyone at the wedding loved it too!

So the photographer sent me a message on facebook with the links to the blog and his information which I will share seeming that his work looks so fantastic. 

My favourite pictures of the chocolates in their little boxes and the cake is of the couple cutting through it, it gives me great satisfaction to view these photos. 

So here is my favourite of the cake and chocolates, but I strongly suggest looking through all of the pictures, some of them are just magical. 

For the link to the blog Click Here


The photographer was James Day and you can find him at the following links

Instagram: jamesdayweddings facebook: www.facebook.com/jamesdayweddings website: www.jamesday.com.au

Chocolate Showpiece

So I finally finished and competed in my first ever chocolate showpiece. I am so happy with what I achieved. I had some support from a couple of teachers but none the less I went through most of this journey alone.

This was my first ever attempt at creating anything out of chocolate which wasn't delicious. So I came to the conclusion that it is more of an artwork where the chocolate is the medium. There, an easy term for chocolate showpieces. Although the showpieces are far from easy themselves. First you have to know how to use the chocolate and the limits of what chocolate can do, then create a structure that can actually hold its own weight. Once these time consuming steps are done you better make sure that the design fits the theme and looks like a stand out piece. Exhausting is all I can describe it as for my first time. So many mistakes were made and so many things broke and almost sent me running off crying. There may have been a couple of days I started talking to the chocolate like it was almost my enemy and discussed how we had to work together just these next few days. Like an agreement, 'I'll start liking you again if you just don't break or melt this one time!' I found myself saying, but either way I still spent up to 14 hours straight working on this thing some days. 

The week before the showpiece was due I had almost finished making all the pieces and had 1 day available to work on it more, the day before the competition. So stressful. So what did I decide to do? Enjoy my Easter, go to family gatherings and get drunk and eat my weight in food and chocolate. Sensible right? I actually think it was the best decision I have made. I enjoyed it a lot more then stressing over chocolate and contemplating our moves together like a relationship. I would be safe to say that I spent about 6 hours accumulated over the preparation time just staring at the chocolate with a coffee cup in hand. Asking it telepathic questions like 'Why do you have to do this to me?" or "Where did we go wrong?" then there was the inspirational statements like "Come on chocolate I know we can do this together!"

Anyway moving along, the competition had a theme which was Steampunk. Pretty cool theme I think because the options are endless. Which is also bad as well. From my first designs to the finished product you couldn't even tell that the same person designed them. Most of my time was spent trying to make my first design work, well this was a waste of time so I just redesigned the entire piece two weeks before the competition. That could have been the reason for stress levels. Oh and trying to finish chocolate orders for my business too, they were the easy part though.

I luckily was given the opportunity to use dental Alginate, a product used by dentists to take a mould of your teeth. This stuff is so awesome, you mix it with water, let it set slightly, add in whatever you want to mould. I used objects like taps, screws and a little bird. Then add another layer on top and set again. There you have a mould for your chocolate pieces. This part was actually really fun to do.

So it gets to the day of the competition and I get everything loaded into the car and drive over to Tafe for the competition. There is one other competitor there and I was an hour and a half early. I set up my items and so does she. The competition doesn't start till 9am. I wait around and get a coffee. 9am comes along and no other competitors have showed up yet. This makes me even more stressed out because I just assume everyone else is so fast and amazing and only needs 30 minutes to put it all together. We are given four hours to complete the sculpture. The first hour I shake and sweat from being so nervous, and in my favour chef jackets aren't the coolest pieces of clothing out there. 

Finally I finish the piece and clean down after 3 hours of construction. Once finished I am a stinky, hungry, happy young lady. I couldn't have asked for a better result. Nothing broke. All that preying to the chocolate angels wore off! 

On the day they told us who came first, second and third. I didn't get any of these places but I was still really happy with what I achieved. Some part of me can't even comprehend that I actually built it myself. 

A couple of days ago I got an email that thanked us for competing and gave us back a combined score from the three judges. I glanced over it and saw with astonishment that I placed 4th overall, missing out on third place by 4 points. This was out of 18 people. I am definitely over the moon with what I achieved on the day. 

Requested!

So I have been asked to do another request by a customer.

Dairy free white chocolate. 

Not the easiest request I have been asked about but I will definitely give this a go because I just love to experiment.

So I found one recipe which used soy milk powder, icing sugar, vanilla, salt and cocoa butter.

I just made this and it contracted during the setting process which is a fantastic sign because this will allow me to use it in moulds. Contraction of the chocolate setting process is so important as it allows the user to be able to get the chocolate out of the poly-carbonate moulds easily. So this is a great sign!! 

Taste is the biggest issue with this recipe so far, the vanilla and salt were a bit too over the top for my liking which is easily fixed. The texture is completely different from normal white chocolate which has a smooth mouth feel and is creamy. The texture of this recipe was not like this at all. It was a bit grainy, this can be fixed with the help of a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder, but my main concern was the overall creaminess of the chocolate. 

To help me out I bought a block of chocolate from a brand who make dairy free white chocolate and tasted their chocolate before hand. This was slightly more creamy and not grainy at all. This is what I would like to achieve. 

So my next thoughts on this product is to add more fat that melts at the same temperature as our bodies, around 35-37 degrees would be perfect. Hopefully I can find some products which can be mixed easily with cocoa butter without sacrificing the temper that I already have from this recipe so far. 

Some extra ingredients I may try are, coconut oil, more soy milk powders. Maybe there are different types or maybe I can find things with extra fat contents. 

Having a chocolate background helps a lot with making chocolate. The chocolate is the easy part and I know how to treat cocoa butter and other important ingredients, thank goodness for that. 

Here is a picture of the chocolate I made today, doesn't look too far off from what I need to establish! 

Its that time of year...

Today I am making my first wedding order for chocolates and I have also been asked to do the cake.

Chocolates are the easy part as I do them very often. Its the cake which I haven't done much of in a while. Lucky for me the wedding is small and the cake only has to be one tier.

The bride has asked for succulents to be the decoration on the cake. I may have stolen some out of a community area because they were so irresistible, but still I need to go to Bunnings to buy more of them. I wonder if anyone knows the best places to get succulents at a good price? Usually this is my parents house but I'm not close enough to just swing by and grab some. This would take four hours driving!! 

The boxes she has chosen are very cute and the theme of the wedding is that gorgeous simple rustic look that has taken the world of weddings by storm. 

Alright well I better finish this cake off and there will be photos in the next post and some tips on how to make a similar cake.

Chocolate information.

Here's the difference between high quality and low quality chocolate.

Something not many people know about or wonder why some are more expensive and less readily available.

There are two types of chocolate, compound and coverture. 

The coverture is made using real cocoa butter and cocoa mass while the lesser quality, compound, is made using vegetable oil instead or in conjunction with cocoa butter. It is almost impossible to buy the higher quality chocolate from your local shopping center.

That's why when you buy chocolate from handmade chocolate shops or buy a much more expensive brand it tastes that much better. It has a less waxy mouth feel and melts in your mouth just like it should!

Give a few handmade and boutique chocolate places a go and see the difference. I guarantee you will not return to your 'normal' chocolate afterwards. 

You can also ask them for tips when tasting chocolate, this information will show you if the chocolate is of good quality and tempered properly as well. 

These include all of your senses:
Look: It has a glossy look to it
Touch: It should melt after touching for a while as chocolate can start to melt from 25 degrees Celsius
Listen: When you break the chocolate it will give you a nice clean snap. This signifies a good temper if the snap is clean. 
Taste: When you put the chocolate in your mouth,don't chew on it, it will start to melt on your tongue, this is the cocoa butter melting first with your body temperature.
Smell: The chocolate should have a beautiful aroma which is set off by the use of cocoa butter.

Also to keep in mind is that the lesser quality chocolates use more sugar and add other ingredients into the chocolate which you probably don't really want to eat.

So next time your out to try a piece of chocolate keep in mind there's a lot more to it then meets the eye.

Some of the products I make. Using coverture chocolate of course.

Getting Started!

So here is Sivaan Chocolates Blog. I figured I better get started and just go ahead a write something!

Sivaan Chocolates is a fine handmade chocolate business created by myself Sivaan Walker. I have studied at Ryde College and worked with Lindt Chocolate during my apprentice years. I have taken my knowledge of chocolate and turned it into my own creative outlet which you will know as Sivaan Chocolates.

The link to my facebook page is

www.facebook.com/sivaanchocolates

There you can see updated information on chocolates, ordering and a little about what I do and why.

I am always looking to create new flavours and use new techniques and I am on a search to expand my business online.

So I figure I'll blog about my daily/weekly/monthly updates about new items, chocolate information and tips and even some recipes I would love to share with the world.

Keep looking back for more chocolate information and updates!