Coloring White Chocolate Ribbons

by Genevieve
(Scarborough, ME, USA)

I need help coloring white chocolate ribbons for a wedding cake!

I love to bake cakes, and have gotten pretty good at it. One of my friends asked me to make her wedding cake (my Red Velvet Cake), which is coming up in about 4 months, so I have since started to practice what I will be doing.


When looking through a recent copy of a Bon Appetit magazine (back in Nov.), I found a recipe that used homemade chocolate ribbons.


I have never worked with chocolate, that is beyond making a basic ganache, and eating it, of course. So here comes the problem that I encountered:


Her wedding colors are teal and white. I have this wonderful vision of wrapping the bottom of the cake with a teal ribbon with a white ribbon inlay.


I had done my research, or so I thought, and read about coloring white chocolate using the Wilton Candy Colors. So this past weekend, I baked my cake.


I had purchased Lindt White Chocolate bars, as instructed by the magazine. I started out by making my white chocolate ribbon, so I melted some chocolate, and then added the light corn syrup. And voila! It came together just like it said it would, so I set it aside to let it cool.


Next was to make the teal chocolate. So I again, melted my white chocolate, and then following the Wilton Candy Color instructions, I added my color drop by drop while stirring until I found my desired color. I then added my light corn syrup, and again it came together nicely.


Next I sent it through my pasta maker to make my ribbons. This itself was quite the task, and I was certainly glad that both my Mother and Sister were there to help me crank and catch the chocolate.


After much trial and error we found the best way to get the teal chocolate to go through the pasta machine was to hold it in front of a heater to warm it up, and send it through that way.


This, however, is still not the major problem that I had. After finishing making my ribbons, frosting my cake, and then affixing it to the cake, I had to taste it of course, hence the reason it was a test cake.


The white chocolate ribbons tasted wonderful. So I packed my cake up in its' carrier, and put the whole thing in the fridge over night.


The following afternoon, when my sister and I went to have another slice of cake, (here comes the long awaited question, you did say to give ALL the details) I cut into the cake and found that the teal chocolate portion of the ribbon had melted. It was no longer a solid like the plain white chocolate ribbon was.


I am stumped! I certainly realize that adding the candy color changed the chemical make-up of the chocolate, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why it would have melted in the fridge!


Please help me!!!!! I'm melting in Maine!

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Hi Genevieve,

You are an adventurous girl, aren't you! I love it! Your cake making skills must be masterful since your friend has given you the compliment of asking you to make her wedding cake. Wonderful!


What an interesting dilemma you have with coloring white chocolate ribbons. I'd like to rattle off the correct answer, but I'm going to have to do a little research and see what I can come up with.


Meanwhile, let's get your situation live on the site and see if someone else can help you out based on their own knowledge and experience.


They may not have been coloring white chocolate ribbons, but have experience coloring white chocolate that seemed to "melt" when refrigerated.


Blessings,
Angie