Chocolate Beer Bottles

So yesterday was my brother's eighteenth. When you think eighteen, what comes to mind? Alcohol? Well it did for me and my sister so we decided to go along those lines for his birthday cake. How do you make a non-alcoholic alcohol cake? Well this is what we came up with...

My sister was on chocolate duty so this is how she made the chocolate beer bottles.

Click here for the cake recipe 

What she used:

• 200g of plain chocolate per bottle (We had four)
• Boiling water (to melt the chocolate but it shouldn't touch the bowl)

• Plastic bottle mould (comes as two half moulds)
• Confectionery thermometer
• Glass heatproof bowl 
• Small saucepan 
• teaspoon

What she did:

Tempering chocolate is not actually as hard as it sounds...

• Boil the water for your saucepan and then keep it on a low heat on the hob 
• Put your chocolate in your glass heatproof bowl and let it melt 
• Use the thermometer to keep an eye on the heat
• When it reaches 45 degrees Celsius take it off the heat - stir every now and again.
• Stir it slowly and let it cool to 27 degrees Celsius 
• Once it reaches 27, put it back on the low heat until it reaches 29 degrees Celsius  - stir every now and again
• It's now ready to use

Eric Landlard's book pictured behind - helpful tempering tips

As you can see from the picture above, tempering chocolate gives it a nice thick, smooth and shiny look. 

What she did next:

• With a teaspoon, evenly distribute the chocolate in the mould
• Stick the two moulds together to create the bottle
• Leave it in the fridge to harden

If there are any gaps in the bottles, you can fill them in with left over tempered chocolate. It is very easy to re-melt the chocolate.