January 25, 2017

In this post, we’ will make a multi part food grade silicone mold for chocolate. Our Food Grade silicone is FDA approved and is great for casting candies, chocolate, fondant, sugar and the like. It is not approved for use in ovens, however. For this project, we will use ice cube trays in fun shapes instead of already made original pieces. Sometimes, I find interesting molds that aren’t designed for what I want to cast into them, so I’ll go over how to cast a suitable material into the original mold to make a piece to cast from for the new mold.

Materials needed:

See All Food Grade Silicone Products

Your work area:

  • Clean, level work surface, covered in paper or plastic for easier clean-up.
  • All materials comfortably within reach.

Project steps:

  • Spray the ice cube tray(s) with the urethane mold release and let it sit for a few minutes. This allows the propellants in the mold release to evaporate, leaving behind just the mold release itself.

 Urethane mold release

  • Measure out the urethane casting resin. This material is mixed 1:1 by volume, so I just use solo party cups and pour the same amount of the A side and B side into two separate cups. Then I pour each cup into my clean, empty mixing cup and mix with a plastic utensil. Mix vigorously for about 90 seconds, taking care to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing container. Then pour into the ice cube trays.

 Don’t worry about pouring perfectly, any flash can easily be trimmed away

  • After 30 minutes, the casting resin should be set enough to remove the pieces from the molds. Trim away any flash with an X-acto knife. I always make more pieces than I need for my mold so I can pick out the nicest looking ones.

  • After selecting your pieces, smush a little clay on to the bottom of each piece and press into the bottom of the Tupperware container. The clay will hold the piece in place so it doesn’t float when you pour the silicone. Remember to keep the pieces at least a half inch apart from each other and a half inch away from the sides of the container.

 

  • Weigh out the Food Grade silicone and catalyst. I weighed out 250 grams of Part A and 25 grams of catalyst. Pour the catalyst into the silicone Part A and mix thoroughly, until one nice uniform color (kind of a lilac/light pink).
  • Pick a spot in the mold box, not on the pieces, and pour high and thin to reduce air bubbles.

 

  • Let the silicone cure for 24 hours.
  • Once the silicone is fully cured, pull it out of the Tupperware. Sometimes this takes a bit of effort or an extra pair hands. Then pop the pieces out of the silicone. Trim any flash with an X-acto knife.

   Now we’re ready to make some chocolate!

  • I used a double boiler to melt and temper the chocolate. Tempering the chocolate is what makes it shiny and smooth, here’s a link for an easy how-to: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Temper-Chocolate/?ALLSTEPS
  • I added a few drops of orange extract to give the dark chocolate a little extra flavor, but that is optional.  You can add any flavoring you like.

 I used dark chocolate, but milk chocolate and semi-sweet will also work well.

  • I gave my mold a light spray with PAM to help the chocolate release from the Food Grade silicone mold. Then I pour the tempered chocolate into the mold and put it in the refrigerator to cool down.

 The candy thermometer is used to make sure the chocolate is the correct temperature to be tempered.

  • These took about an hour and a half to two hours to harden in the refrigerator. Once I          de-molded the chocolate, I cleaned my mold and melted and poured more chocolate. I kept the already made chocolate pieces in a bowl in the refrigerator.

 

That’s how we make lovely orange flavored chocolates for our loved ones for Valentine’s Day! The Food Grade Silicone can be wash with dish soap, dried, and stored in a zip-lock bag for future use. As always, if you have any questions, you can email us at info@AeroMaineProducts.com

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