Chocolate ruffles make excellent cake toppers. They’re elegant, sophisticated, and you don’t have to decorate the top of the cake! It’s a chocolate embodiment of the Elizabethan collar! They add drama and flair, and next time you’re cake decorating, you should consider these chocolate ruffles to impress the birthday party crowd.
What are chocolate ruffles?
Chocolate ruffles are thin sheets of modeling chocolate that are lightly pleated to create lovely ruffles. Modeling chocolate is made by melting chocolate and adding to it light corn syrup. It quickly forms a soft dough, and after chilling and kneading, becomes easily moldable. Running it through a pasta machine creates thin sheets that are ready for pleating. They harden slightly and can be placed on a frosted cake.
Necessary equipment for making chocolate ruffles
- Pasta Maker – I know it’s a very specific appliance, but unfortunately there is no substitute. I use a hand crank pasta maker from Sur la Table, but the KitchenAid pasta maker attachment has always intrigued me! I’m sure it would work just as well.
- Chopstick – this is what creates the ruffles by sliding it under the sheet and pinching the dough with your fingers. The chopstick makes a very tight ruffle, but you can use a larger diameter tool for a wider ruffle. The handle of a cocktail muddler would work, too.
- Bench scraper – for cutting the dough. A kitchen knife works fine as well.
- Silicone pastry mat (optional) – this helps in case the ruffles stick to the working surface. You can also dust your counter with a bit of cocoa powder if you don’t have a pastry mat.
Ingredients for making chocolate ruffles
- 10 oz chocolate
- 1/3 cup + 1 tsp light corn syrup
- Nonstick cooking spray for measuring cup and spoon
- Cocoa powder for dusting
This cake with chocolate ruffles was a simple chocolate cake with chocolate frosting on the outside and rainbow frosting on the inside. There was so much going on on the inside of the cake that I wanted the outside to be simple and elegant. To hide the crimped ends of the ruffles, I piped some of the rainbow frosting in the center, though I’ve also seen chocolate ruffles coming out the top in other cakes. This was for a kid’s birthday cake, though, so a little color goes a long way! This reminded me of the movie Up.
Cake Decorating Chocolate Ruffles
Equipment
- 1 Pasta maker Hand crank or electric
- 1 Chopstick
- 1 Bench scraper
Materials
- 10 oz Chocolate semi-sweet
- 1/3 cup Light corn syrup plus 1 tsp
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Cocoa powder
Instructions
Day 1: Make the modeling chocolate
- Place chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Melt in 30-second increments at half power until completely melted.
- Spray the measuring cup and teaspoon with nonstick spray. Spray a silicon spatula, too. Measure 1/3 cup and 1 teaspoon of corn syrup. Pour corn syrup into chocolate, ensuring all the corn syrup is transferred to the chocolate using the spatula. Stir with the spatula until a soft ball forms.
- The chocolate modeling dough will be very soft but still workable. Knead the dough, folding it on itself for 3-4 minutes. Form into a rough square, 1" tall. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Day 2: Make the chocolate ruffles
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit on the counter for 30-60 minutes to soften.
- Roll dough into a log, about 2" in diameter. Use the bench scraper to cut off an inch off the log and flatten it with your hands. Sprinkle it with cocoa powder and run it through the widest setting on the pasta maker.
- Continue running the dough through the pasta maker, decreasing the thickness each time until you've reached the desired thickness, about 1/8"-3/16" and the dough has become a sheet of chocolate.
- Lay the sheet flat on the pastry mat and run the chopstick under the chocolate sheet. Pinch the chocolate above the chopstick to form a ruffle. Pull the chopstick out and run it under the chocolate sheet again, next to the first ruffle. Repeat this process until the entire sheet has been ruffled.
- Repeat cutting dough off the log until all the dough is used. The chocolate ruffles will keep and harden on the counter as you continue working with the remaining dough. When all the dough has been used and all the ruffles have been formed, allow the ruffles to sit on the counter to harden for about 30 minutes before using for cake decorating.
- To apply ruffles to the cake, apply a bit of frosting at the underside of the ruffle or at the unexposed end and place on the cake. It will be easy to cut through the ruffles when you're ready to cut the cake if you let the cake sit out for an hour before cutting.
Baker's Theory is selling cakes!
By the way, I am selling my cakes now! Check out the Order page to see my selection. This was a chocolate rainbow cake with chocolate ruffles for a birthday party.