Chocolate curls are easy to make and a delightful way to decorate treats.
Chocolate curls on cake is very popular in our house. We don't need much of an excuse - a birthday, a great test grade, a rainstorm - and we are off, pulling pans out of the cabinet.
We sometimes make this Healthy Chocolate Cake or my other favorite Dairy Free Chocolate Cake here which is the recipe I gave you in the recipe card below along with the curl tutorial.
This cake is like a wonderful fudge dream with a deliciously firm texture and deep chocolate flavor.
Oh, but before we dive into the recipe, I'd like to invite you to sign up for my free chocolate course. Five lessons hit your inbox with detail on how to create your own simple healthy chocolate desserts.
Okay, so back to this dreamy DIY...
So I made the cake first. Then I frosted it using my favorite vegan chocolate frosting. THEN I tried out a new cake decorating tool called a "comb". It is so much fun to use.
Basically you rake the sides of your cake frosting to create a pattern.
How to Make Chocolate Curls
Next it was time to create chocolate curls to top the cake with.
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Up until now, I had been trying and trying by shaving chocolate bars with a potato peeler, but my curls always ended up being bits of shaved chocolate.
So I came up with a better way. Basically, I melted a bunch of chocolate, poured it into a small container and let it set in the refrigerator. I used a mini loaf pan, but if you don't have that pan, use 2 or so paper-lined cupcake wells. However, as you can imagine, a final rectangular shape is easier to get curls off of.
If you can buy a quality chocolate bar that is 2-inches thick, DM me on Instagram! Because that would be ideal.
The Trick to Shaving Thick Curls
The trick is this: once that bar is set, probably overnight, you microwave the chocolate brick to soften it.
Then use a potato peeler to shave nice thick curls, and gently lower them to a dish or pan and set into the refrigerator to set before using tweezers or a fork to gently transfer them to the cake!
Easy peasy! I share exact details in the recipe card below.
Consider These Other Chocolate Recipes
- Sugar Cookie Truffles
- Chocolate Spice Truffles
- Edible Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Easy Truffles Recipe
- peanut butter oatmeal balls
- Crunch Bars
- Vegan Fudge
- Chocolate Covered Chickpeas
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📖 Recipe
How to Make Chocolate Curls
Ingredients
- 1½ cup all purpose flour or a GF mix like Bob's Red Mill's 1 to 1 baking flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder or cacao powder which is healthier but more expensive
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ⅓ cup sweet potato puree (Or pumpkin puree or apple sauce)
- 3 tablespoon aquafaba the liquid from a can of chickpeas (Or apple sauce, or a flaxseed egg - mix 1 tablespoon flaxseed in 3 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Useful Equipment
- Two 6-inch cake pans (I used this brand)
- 2 cup Pyrex measuring Cup
- 1 Frosting comb (I use this brand)
Chocolate Curls
- 3 3oz dark chocolate bars I have used Chocolove, HU, or even just 1 ½ cups of Enjoylife chocolate chips
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Instructions
Prep
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease cake pans with coconut oil or butter, and dust with cacao powder.
Make the Cake
- In a large bowl, stir the dry ingredients together.
- Mix together the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
- Blend the batter until smooth, then divide evenly between the two baking pans, tapping them on the counter to level the mixture.
- Bake 35 minutes or until tester is clean.
- Let the layers cool in the pans about 15 minutes, then run a knife around the inside, turn each over onto a cooling rack and tap until it falls out.
- Let them cool completely on the racks before frosting.
How to Make Chocolate Curls
- Melt 2-3 chocolate bars (chopped or use 1 ½ cups of Enjoylife chocolate chips) in the microwave at 30 second intervals.
- Pour into a miniature loaf pan lined with parchment OR fill 2 paper-lined cupcake wells to the top and put in freezer for about 30 minutes. You are going for a chocolate brick that is at least 2-inches tall.
- Once chilled, remove chocolate brick from parchment and using a vegetable peeler, slice thick strips off the chocolate brick. You can scrap either the side for narrower curls, or the top for wider ones.
- Treat the curls gently, let them fall or gently place them onto a small dish layered with smooth parchment paper.
- When you have enough to decorate a cake, put the newly-created curls, still on the dish, into the freezer for 20 minutes so they can become firm enough to handle. If the brick feels cold as you are "curling", warm it in the microwave for 30 sec to soften it. Decorate your cake! Enjoy!
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