Chocolate covered strawberries (wedding edition)
I love this photo because it shows how with a simple double dip, you can create such an illusion of decoration.
This is a combination of white chocolate and normal milk chocolate. When melting your chocolate for dipping, add a tablespoon of shortening (yes, I know it sounds gross, but it keeps the bloom from developing on the chocolate - the bloom being that chalky look that always makes you think the chocolate is molding). Anyway, melt the chocolate, take the strawberries by the green bit and dip dip dip away.
The tuxedo is accomplished by dipping the first layer in white chocolate, then after that layer dries a bit and sets up, you then dip first one side then the other in the milk chocolate. With a little paintbrush used for food purposes only, the buttons and bowtie are painted on.
The wedding dress detail is done after the dipping fact. If you are comfortable freehand, dip your paintbrush in the white melted chocolate and fling it back and forth on first one side of the berry, then the other. If you are not comfortable free handing it, put some melted chocolate in a ziplock or sandwich baggie, and after cutting a very tiny hole out of the corner, use the baggie much like you would a frosting bag. A few paintbrush touches for the pearl necklace and voila, instant bride and groom strawberries.
Chocolate covered strawberries are such a favorite with people. It makes no sense to pay the 100 dollars plus for a dozen that commercial sites often request. Just save your pennies and make your own. People absolutely love chocolate covered fruit. It makes an incredible hostess gift if I do say so myself!
Update: a shy reader sent in her variation of the bride and groom strawberries and what a whiz bang job she did! The pearl necklace on the bride is not for consumption (to be removed before eating) but it adds an incredible touch. And I love the idea of using the sprinkle decorations for the bride’s gown. What a fantastic job. Incredibly well done, shy one!
September 13th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Hi, have subscribed to your ‘hand made gifts” e-mail and have been recieving them quite regularly but have not had any for over two weeks. Something wrong? Tried to click on “contact us” but nothing came up which is why I am sending this through comments. Sorry.
Thanks
Fiona
September 14th, 2006 at 1:37 am
To begin, Fiona, THANK YOU for your note. You just made my day wonderful by letting me know that you have subscribed. I find that wonderful. As for the part about not getting emails, I will have to look into the software tomorrow to find the glitch. With luck I can fix it right there and get the emails sent out to you again. I will contact you via email once I get that finished and hopefully, let you know that it is all fixed. Thank you for letting me know and thanks again for subscribing!
My best to you,
Kat
June 29th, 2007 at 4:14 am
Hey there Kat!
just dropping you a line to say hello and that I think your tuxedo and bridal strawberries are gorgeous, I am a new custom cake decorator and have been teaching myself all the way through! I will be planning the dessert selection for an upcoming wedding and with the bride we were thinking of doing tuxedo cheesecake with the strawberries as the main attraction! well i firmly believe that if i can make those strawberries she will be blown away and hopefully I will get another order and i might just make a career out of it!
July 1st, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Thank you Jacki! I hope that the wedding went well and that the career has taken off like a rocket! All the best - Kat.
October 1st, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I am just wondering if I made these up for my wedding ahead of time, could I freeze them like that. If not what would my options be to make them ahead of time?
Thanks, Cassie
By the way they are gorgeous!!
October 1st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
First, thank you kindly and congratulations on your engagement.
Well, I gave it a lot of thought, and honestly, I would think that with care, it should work fine.
My thought process was that chocolate has always frozen beautifully (chocolate chips always look perfect) and whole strawberries always freeze well (but you must be careful because when they thaw, they will get a lot more juicy, so make sure that the chocolate covers the strawberry very well to basically hold all that strawberry juice inside).
So, I would have a couple of recommendations. Make sure to freeze them individually on cookie sheets or the like, ensuring they don’t touch so that there is absolutely no problems with freezing solid. Once they are solid, you can move them easier and repack. But freeze carefully.
The other thing I would recommend is what I learned so long ago with my wedding. That is - give everything a test run! Buy yourself a pint of fresh strawberries in the next day or so and give it a dry run. Make a very small batch and stick them in the freezer for a week or two. That would be more than enough time to freeze solid and stay for a bit. Then take them out at the end of the week and experiment with how they turned out. It would tell you how long they would last and how long you would have before they unfreeze completely.
Hopefully your wedding is not anytime in the next few weeks which would give you the opportunity to experiment. But honestly, from everything I know from working with chocolate and strawberries, you should be good to go.
Congratulations again on your upcoming wedding. Weddings are such a crazy time and the day moves so quickly that it is over before you know it. Enjoy every wild second and may you and your husband-to-be have fantastic wonderful happiness.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I want to make these chocolate dipped strawberries for a baby shower. Could these be made one day ahead of time ?
It would be great to make these ahead of time.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Tara Jio:
Absolutely you could make these ahead of time: In fact, if you read the comment exchange above, you will see the suggestion about how to freeze these ahead also.
I think making these a single day ahead would be absolutely perfect. Good luck with the baby shower. It sounds like a great time will be had!
Kat
April 29th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I have been researching how to do my own chocolate covered strawberries for my wedding and I came across your site. Every question that I had was answered! I am going to do a test run and try freezing the strawberries and see how it goes.