Chocolate Roses

Now this is how you top a chocolate cake! These delightful chocolate roses can be used as edible decorations for a cake or to create a basket of blooms. You can also use it as a modeling clay for making other figurines and objects. The soft pliability makes it easy to work with. From What's Cooking America. Roses will harden after a few days and can be saved by storing in a cool, dry place. We have not made this yet, so 1 dozen is a guestimate. We're also guessing that you could use white chocolate and a drop or two of food coloring for different colored chocolate clay. Put here for safe keeping. Great visual demonstration at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrsgFcE1xMc

• Ready In: 2 hrs 30 mins
• Yields: 1 dozen

Ingredients

• 10  ounces  semisweet chocolate (coarsely chopped chunks or chips)
• 1⁄3 cup light corn syrup

Directions

1. In a shallow bowl, melt the chocolate in microwave for 2 minutes; stir. NOTE: Be careful so that the temperature does not exceed 100 degrees F. If chocolate is not completely melted, return to microwave for 30 seconds at a time and stir until smooth.
2. Add corn syrup to the chocolate and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, stir and fold mixture, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl well, until no shiny syrup is visible and the mixture forms a thick ball.
3. Pour mixture onto a waxed paper sheet and spread with the spatula until it's about 1/2-inch thick; let it sit and stiffen, uncovered, for about 2 hours. Use at once or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.
4. TO MAKE CHOCOLATE ROSES: Knead a handful of clay at a time on a work surface until it is soft and pliable like Play-Doh.
5. Roll dough into twelve (12) 1/2-inch diameter balls of clay. Place the balls on waxed paper or plastic wrap about 1-inch apart. Using your fingers, press in the center and then on either side, flattening the disk into 1-inch flat disks about the size of a quarter (leave the top edge thinner than and bottom edge. Repeat with the remaining disks.
6. Remove one disk and curl it into a "teepee" shape, narrow at the top and wider at the bottom, (this will be the center of the rose. Wrap the next disk around the opening of the teepee and the third disk at the back of the teepee - this is the rose bud. Continue adding disks which will look like petals. Continue adding petals, placing them in between slightly lower than previous row.
7. For a fuller flower, continue adding petals in this manner. As you form petals, you gently roll or curl the right edge of the petal downward. Pinch off any excess chocolate clay at the base of the rose to make more balls.
8. NOTES: If the clay balls or petals become too soft from your body heat, let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes. To periodically cool you hands, grasp a cold glass. To make larger roses, make larger chocolate clay balls.