Monday 28 May 2012

A white chocolate lolly 'cake'

I don't even like white chocolate, but let me tell you, these were so good I almost ate them all in 'quality control' before the actual day.


Yesterday was my eldest daughter's first holy communion. I made her a cake made entirely of white chocolate lollies. Since first experimenting with chocolate lollies last year, I've really moved on with them and by investing in a few things: proper moulds, sticks and a stand, you can really make something quite simple and easy to make (but ssssh, don't tell anyone) into something that looks spectacular.

I made these the day before, and just assembled them on the day (i.e. slotted them into the holes in the stand). Once I've had an alcoholic drink, my guests have to pretty much fend for themselves so anything that can be pre-made plays to my great organisational skills and my weakness for being a dreadful, drunk, host.

I usually make chocolate lollies in 70% cocoa chocolate. But a few months ago, my friend Lucy (who is the only person in the whole of East Anglia who possibly has more baking gadgets/biscuit cutters than I) mentioned that she had made some lollies in white chocolate using crystallized violets. I stored this bit of information away in my brain, thinking white lollies would be lovely for a holy communion, instead of a cake, say. We had some crystallized violets that my partner and the girls had made for mother's day (every aspect of that sentence sounds smug, but I don't mean it to), I used Green and  Black's white chocolate (which is, I have to say, absolutely superb). And this is what I did.

Melted the white chocolate.
Poured it into the moulds.
Put in lolly sticks.
Scattered on some crystallized violets or freeze dried strawberries (from Waitrose, they come in a tube, in the baking aisle).
Put in fridge to set.
Removed from moulds after a couple of hours.
Tasted one for quality control purposes.
Decided they were so amazingly good I had to have more.
Cycle to Waitrose to buy more white chocolate.
Repeat process.
And then, when time comes, slot the lollies into the holes in the stand and da-dar.

A note about the stand. I bought mine from Amazon. It doesn't appear to be sold anymore, but I'm looking out for other stockists as it's really lovely and minimalist and classy.

5 comments:

Mrs Dee said...

They are beautiful! I'm not a white chocolate fan either, but Green and Black's is the only variety that I will actually eat. It's not as sickly sweet as the others and actually tastes of real vanilla.

Mrs Dee said...

This stand is quite nice: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classikool-Maypole-Cake-Balls-Stand/dp/B004QT4KWK/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

Annalisa Barbieri said...

Yaha! But I only paid £19.99 for mine!

Mathew Parry said...

You cycle to Waitrose!
Do you now live in a magazine?

Annalisa Barbieri said...

I do live in a magazine darling Mathew. It's called Mess and Madness. x