My second Easter with Rowdy and Fancy’s meant I had a little more confidence and was better prepared to branch out into new and exciting things, hence my first ever attempt at a hollow figure.
Something I get asked a lot as a chocolatier is how hollow figures are made. This was certainly a question I had before I began the chocolate journey and its one that still seems to baffle people. Now, there are a few different ways of doing this and here is the one I use. There is no sticking together of halves or coating a block of ice in chocolate and letting it drain through a hole (seriously it’s been suggested), this way is simple and neat and if done right, the easiest.
Each chocolate figure is made using two halves of a hollow mould, some clips to keep the moulds together, a fridge, a ladle, a hairdryer, a set of scales, some tempered chocolate and a good pinch of patience.
Melted chocolate is poured into one half of the mould, the sides are clipped together and slowly spun to coat the whole inside of the mould in chocolate. When the chocolate has set, the moulds are unclipped and carefully lifted away, revealing (hopefully) a perfect hollow figure.
This doesn’t always go as 
smoothly as planned and any error in temperature at any stage, the chocolate being uneven, being left in the fridge too long or too short, basically anything you can think of going wrong, can mean the 
bunnies don’t come out right. These error bunnies are allocated to the bunny graveyard where they can thankfully be re-melted and tried again, or eaten.
Bertie the Bunny in milk chocolate was first, soon followed by Rosie Rabbit and Betty Bunny. Hand making each one individually, leaving extra time for breakages, doesn’t leave much room for a social life, so I was very happy to have these cuties as my friends this Easter.
