Make a Chocolate Drizzle Heart

This is such a pretty way to decorate special occasion cakes and cupcakes. You can make any design you'd like, but since it's almost Valentine's, I made hearts.

Here's a 1.5" heart on a cupcake:

        

You'll need:
*semi-sweet chocolate chips
*a zip-lock plastic bag or piping bag 
*parchment paper
*cookie cutters to draw around (or free-hand it!)
*small piping tip (optional)

I don't want to make this harder than it is- basically, you just melt chocolate in a zip-lock bag, snip a corner off, and squeeze out a design onto parchment paper. But I like to know details on projects I attempt, so here are a few more specifics:

Draw the designs you want to make on the parchment paper. I drew around heart-shaped cookie cutters. Turn the paper over. You'll still be able to see the designs, but you won't get pencil or ink on the chocolate.

I used a 3" heart and a 1.5" heart

If using the piping tip, cut a small hole in one of the bottom corners of the zip-lock bag and push the tip into the hole from the inside.

Put about 1/4 cup chocolate chips in a zip-lock bag. Push them, in a single layer, into one of the bottom corners (into the piping tip corner, if using). Zip top closed. Microwave at 50% power for a few seconds at a time, lightly kneading the chocolate to mix it, until almost completely melted. Lightly knead the chocolate through the bag until smooth. Keep the chocolate in the corner as much as possible. You may want to hold the bag with a kitchen towel or pot holder- it gets very warm.

Twist the bag until the chocolate is firmly "packed" in the corner. If not using a tip, cut a tiny hole in the chocolate corner. Keeping a steady pressure on the twist, pipe the chocolate onto the paper, following the designs you drew.

Now you'll want to fill the inside space of the design with loops or zigzags. Make sure there are lots of intersections in the lines- this is what will give your design strength and stability.

3" heart 

Let the chocolate shapes set. When completely set, peel them v-e-r-y carefully off of the paper. If you have a thin spatula you could slip the hearts off of the paper with that. What worked for me was to keep the chocolate design flat, and peel the paper off at an angle from underneath. Handle them gently, and as little as possible. The smaller hearts were sturdier than the larger ones. You can use your chocolate hearts as soon as they're set, or store them in a covered container in the fridge for 1 to 2 days. They're prettiest right away.

3" heart on a small layer cake:

Here's the Red Velvet Cake with Mascarpone Frosting recipe 

that I used for this tutorial.

May have been taken to some of these fun parties!