In the image above, I’ve sprayed these dark chocolate triangle decorations with edible gold paint, but at the bottom of the post, you can see that they also look fantastic in their natural color.
You’ll use the “seeding” method to temper some chocolate, and then harden it on acetate sheets. (You might find acetate sheets at a craft store, in the specialty papers aisle.)
Ingredients
5¼ oz. (150g) best-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped
Directions
- Find a cookie sheet that will accommodate your acetate sheet. (Optionally, place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator.)
- Reserve 1½ oz.-worth (⅓-cup) of the chocolate. Place the rest in a double boiler. Ready a folded tea towel, a thermometer, an oven mitt, a silicone spatula, and an offset spatula. Over medium-low heat, melt the chocolate to 122°F, stirring constantly. Remove the insert from the double boiler and place it on the folded tea towel. Add a few of the larger pieces of the reserved chocolate and stir unceasingly. When the added chocolate has melted, add more, starting with the larger remaining pieces and working your way down. Continue to stir and add chocolate until the melted chocolate reaches 90°F. (You can proceed to next steps so long as the chocolate is in the 86-90°F range.)
- Place the acetate on the (cold) cookie sheet, and pour the melted chocolate onto the acetate. Working quickly, use the offset spatula to spread the chocolate backwards and forwards over the acetate until it starts to change color and is beginning to set. Using a knife, score various triangular shapes.
- Transfer the cookie sheet to the freezer just until the chocolate has set hard, 5 minutes.
- Remove the chocolate from the freezer, and carefully remove the triangles from the acetate. Store at room temperature.
Notes
- The chocolate should be chopped to pieces no larger than the size of Kalamata olives.
- I use a 12″x12″ acetate sheet, which fits easily onto a 16″x14″ cookie sheet. Placing the cookie sheet in the refrigerator will make the work go faster, but if you’re new to this, you may want the work to go more slowly.
- Don’t drop the thermometer in the chocolate. 🙂 Don’t drop the spatula in the chocolate. 🙂 Embrace the fact that you are likely going to get chocolate all over the place, including your hands and clothes. 🙁
- When you pour the chocolate onto the acetate, there can be no remaining lumps. If there are, you’ll need to remove them. Otherwise, they’re going to be clearly obvious in your finished triangles.
- You might be tempted to create triangles by cutting the chocolate as if you were cutting a pie, but via this method, you’re liable to either ruin some of the tips, or create tips so delicate that they’re too easy to break. Instead, consider a single horizontal line through the center of the chocolate, and then overlay that with a cross-hatch pattern, such that the node of each X meets at the horizontal line. This will produce same-sized triangles. If you draw your horizontal line slanted, you’ll wind up with various-sized triangles, which is that I did for this post.
- Be careful about the freezer. A minute too long, and the triangles may begin to curl up off the acetate. Although … curled triangles might look awesome if you’re a Tim Burton fan.
- If you intend to stand these triangles up in a cake frosting, as I have, the base of the triangle need not be pretty. (It will be buried in frosting.) If you break some of the tips as you’re handling the triangles, it’s possible to adjust them with carefully executed cuts from a sharp, non-serrated knife, but don’t expect to meet with 100% success. Instead, it’s best to make more triangles than you think you’ll need, anticipating that some will break or not turn out right.
- Take care when handling the freshly-hardened triangles. They may take on fingerprints if you have especially warm hands (which you probably do, after all this work).
- This method will leave one side of the triangle – the one that touches the acetate – as smooth and shiny as a mirror. That’s the side I painted gold and used for the image at the top of this post. The other side will be rougher, like the image below – although I think with care you could get it smoother.
Chocolate Triangle Decorations
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor and Proper Circle. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything.
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I love all of your directions, particularly the one about expect to get chocolate everywhere. I will occasionally temper chocolate to make something (usually chocolate cigars) but when it comes to clean up I regret doing it!
Haha! Its definitely messy!
They truly make an elegant decoration and I love its fuss free preparation too. The chocolate layer cake looks stunning.
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Thanks, Angie!
Nope! I’d have to take a valium and drink a bottle of something in order to attempt these. But they’re certainly pretty!!!
Hahahaha!
Jeff, you’re a wild man in the kitchen! And I mean that in good ways.
Haha! Thanks.
Ah, you made me a cake, Jeff! How thoughtful! Seriously, though, this is such a fun project. I’ve made chocolate curls in the past, but never chocolate triangles like these. That cake looks fantastic, too. I’m guessing we might see a Tim Burton version of this come Halloween this year?? That would be fun!! (But you might have to figure out how to make mini Jack Skellington’s…hmmm.)
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🙂
I showed this piece of chocolate cake to my daughter and she said it looks like a unicorn. I agree! Now I need to do the same for her.
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that, but it does! I should make a strawberry cake, and make some white chocolate triangles! I’ll bet you there’s a way to get the interior of the cake to look like horse eyes, and snout. You’re really on to something here!
The hard part would be getting it to the top of the cake! I like your style!
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Right?
I love the drama of these! I love chocolate and when anything calls for “good quality” chocolate I’m all in to make it! Although not sure they would make it to the cake – don’t want to make them too far ahead of time. 😉
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I know what you mean! Very tempting to just eat them!
Good job on these triangles (Personally, I avoid tempering chocolate – it’s easy to just eat it lol). I love the edible gold paint. It gives a special, quite festive finish. Looks like a crown indeed!
Thanks, Ben! It’s taken me years to figure out how to temper chocolate. I’ve read and read and read about it, and tried and tried and tried, but finally it seemed to click into place.
The chocolate triangles really do make a statement on the cake. I can’t decide which version I like better though, the plain or the gold. You can send me samples of each and I’ll let you know once I’ve had a chance to try them both LOL
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Haha! I’ve already eaten then all.
I had the same question, by the way. I kind of felt like the gold ones were so formal … and that’s not exactly my style. Although they made such an explosive statement. In fact, I dubbed that cake “chocolate explosion” when I served it up. The natural version … there’s something so sensual about it. It just looks luscious.
Nice thing is, you can paint one side, and not the other, and have both!
Ahhhhh, the triangles! What a spectacular cake decoration! It really takes it to the restaurant level. A good friend is celebrating a birthday on Friday and although we’re still in lockdown, I’m dropping off a cake. Because we have Spain in common, I’m decorating the cake with Spanish “lace”, red and black roses and a Spanish “lace” fan made of, you guessed it, triangles!!! I’m hoping I haven’t bit off more than I can chew, I get bored easily so decorating a cake can be a chore.
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Oh my God, I wish we were neighbors! I feel the same way. To me, cake is about the eating. I want it to look nice, but I want it to taste great. How ever much time it takes to make the cake, maybe I’m willing to spend 10% of that time decorating it. This was an exception, created mainly by my desire to master chocolate tempering.
I’m the same, decorating gets tiring really fast. It was a super hot and humid day in TO so my lace melted a bit, but fortunately it still looked great. The boys loved the cake (an orange cake made with two whole oranges) and texted late into the night that they both had two slices!!!!
Oh, yum. I love orange an chocolate together. And two oranges! I must be some cake!
I like recipes where I get chocolate all over the place! Messy stuff is fun, and this recipe looks like a blast. Really nice — thanks.
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Dear friend! Presentation is perfect. I love its all photos. This is art. Dark chocolate is my favourite. So that this is special for me but i would like to see its other versions (such as chestnut cake, strawberry cake, mixed fruits etc.).
Yes, those all sound delicious. I’m sure there is not a cake I wouldn’t love, but my husband has a clear and enormous love of chocolate, so I do bake a lot of chocolate cakes.
This proves that if you’re going to decorate a cake you should go big! These spires are spectacular. GREG
Thanks, Greg!
Incredibly cool decorations for a cake. Love that your tempering instructions are not too scary–really, with a good thermometer it’s not as hard as it seems. Also love your instructions re: not dropping things in things (can you see my kitchen from there?) 😂
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Thanks. I think the main thing I got wrong in the past was not using the very best chocolate. And trying it in the microwave; some people swear by that, but I have never been able to make it work.
Excellent job! That is a beautiful cake. I can only imagine the mess I would make attempting this.
I know! And those chocolate makers in videos are always wearing white!
Che spettacolooooooo 🤩 complimenti Jeff!
Thank you!
This tutorial on tempering the chocolate is incredibly helpful. I’ve never really understood the process, and I’ve always wanted to do certain things… Like make homemade Mozarkugeln. I made them once, and they were really good, but the chocolate wasn’t tempered properly so… Beautiful way to decorate a cake, Jeff! By the way, I love this: “Embrace the fact that you are likely going to get chocolate all over the place, including your hands and clothes.” If you ask Mark, that is the description of every recipe I make.
I know what you mean. All this started for me when, years ago, I wanted to dip homemade caramels in chocolate. They tasted good, but they looked … “unappetizing” would be putting it nicely. I was so excited to finally hit upon a method that works for me! About the mess … I suppose it’s because chocolate likes to stick. You get some on your hand, and you think you wiped it off, but you didn’t get all of it, and five minutes later, everything you’ve touched has chocolate on it.
Jeff,
This is such a masterpiece of it’s own. Tempering chocolate and using acetate sheets is a great creative idea and I guess only a make it like a man can think of. I loved those extra tips, especially about alerting chocolate all over the place. It’s a chocolate storm that I won’t embark on without some little helping hands in the kitchen. Great post.
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Thank you, Hasin! The idea, I have to say, wasn’t mine. I saw something like this on the Great British Baking Show, and I also noticed on that show that the contestants seem to temper chocolate on a whim, as if it were no big deal, which really inspired me to give it yet one more go. (I’ve been trying to teach myself to temper chocolate for years.) So, I did yet more research, and finally hit on the magical mix of methods … and it worked perfectly!
I must say you kept going at it and the result is truly remarkable and self teaching is the best learning I suppose. Well done Jeff!
Thanks, Hasin!
That is a lot of work but the end result is stunning.
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I couldn’t agree with you more!
Such a great post. I made a cake for a birthday this weekend and so wish it’d had these awesome chocolate triangles on top. (Though, not sure I wouldn’t eat them before getting them onto the cake.) And I love the edible gold spray! 🙂 ~Valentina
Thanks, Valentina!
Well I’ve got to get an acetate sheet and try this! What a delicious way to dress up a cake. Your pics here are just mouthwatering, definitely craving chocolate now.
Thanks!
Haha love this post and your directions are on point! … especially about expect to get chocolate everywhere!
Thank you!
Haha, love your directions of cutting the chocolate, especially to expect to get it everywhere. Thanks for a great idea for cake decor.
You’re welcome!
Your chocolate gold decorations really dress up the cake and take it to a new level! They usually taste good too..
Thanks so much, Judee!
Ha! This would be an instant attention-getter at events. Thanks for sharing!
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You’re welcome!