Love & Luxury: Boxed Chocolate Mini Cakes

Since this is my first-ever Valentine’s Day post, I have to admit I was a  little overwhelmed with the endless (and glorious) love-inspired confection inspiration out there. As with every year, right around this time I start to dream about luxury boxes of chocolates. Big boxes of chocolates, and well, come to think of it, they need not be luxury, but just chocolate! During the rest of the year, strangely, I don’t crave them and I rarely indulge in them (I’m too busy indulging in cake, I suppose!). So, this year I thought it would be fun to recreate a luxury box of chocolates, using mini rich chocolate cakes. When I started doing some research online for real boxed chocolates (colours, textures, etc.), I came across a few other amazing spins on Valentine’s chocolate: Bakerella’s adorable red heart box made of cake, as well as the sweetest heart boxed cupcakes from Hello, Cupcake! What I really loved about making these mini cakes, though, is that you can truly create any shape, style, “flavour,” and design you like, since no two chocolates are the same–definitely a custom assortment. This was one of the most enjoyable baking projects I’ve ever done!

I took a sort of an “anything goes” approach to decorating them, and some are wackier than others, but like I said, it seems there could be  no rules when recreating boxed chocolates. I’m always drawn to the square chocolates when I dive into a new box, or, of course, the ones that are heart shaped and foil wrapped! How about you? I think you can learn a lot about someone by what chocolate they select (and neglect) from a big assorted box. I think I avoid the round ones for fear of biting into a syrupy cherry concoction, or the like, and I’m certain I grab the square ones due to the likelihood of it being crunchy or caramel-y.

Here’s an image (above) I found online of a real box of chocolates, and I just love everything about this: the heart, the square chocolates, the gold detail, the photo itself–everything!

This “A” chocolate of my assortment is simple, but I really like it. I just rolled the fondant over a silicone baking mat to get a subtle waffly texture, covered the mini cake, and then used a wee ball of fondant to create a “white chocolate” monogrammed medallion using a wax seal embosser.

I do have to say that the 24 karat gold (yes, it’s possible I have an addiction to confectioning with gold!) “foil-wrapped” heart chocolates are my favourite of the bunch. For these, I heaped up the buttercream when coating the cakes, to make a more realistic dome-style top. Then, I rolled out ivory fondant on top of a crinkled up piece of wax paper, to get the wrapper-like crease impressions. Once I started painting them gold, using my favourite 24 karat gold luster dust and clear lemon extract, the paint just seeped into those creases so beautifully. I really love the effect!

Luxury love cake for two (or one!).

Which one would you choose?

To make these Boxed Chocolate Mini Cakes, I used a batch of my Rich Chocolate Cake, as a sheet cake (using a baker’s half-sheet) and cupcakes, being sure to fill the cupcakes about 80% full, so they would dome (unlike how I normally fill no more than 2/3). Once the sheet cake was cool, I placed in the freezer for about 30 minutes, then used different size circle cookie cutters and heart cutter. Using Swiss Meringue Buttercream, I filled two layers and then covered with a generous layer to seal in crumbs and coat, smoothing the edges and top using an offset palette knife. I then placed the iced cakes in the freezer for about 20 minutes, before covering with different shades of chocolate fondant. (I use dark chocolate Satin Ice fondant, then knead in white fondant to get varying shades of brown). I created a marbled chocolate effect by combining dark chocolate and white fondant and rolling out after just a moment of kneading. I used melted Lindt chocolate and piped crazy squiggles and swirls on a few, and added ground nuts to another for colour.
You can do pretty much anything decorative and it will look fabulous, in my opinion–as I mentioned, that is one of my favourite parts of this project. Just have fun and run with it!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!  http://sweetapolita.com/2011/01/love-luxury-boxed-chocolate-mini-cakes/