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Tips On Thrift Store Shopping | Babble
I’ve often said I have champagne taste on a soda budget. That’s right, not even a beer budget. Beer is expensive y’all! I love flipping through magazines and getting inspiration for my house but seriously, who has the money to ‘refresh their home’ with a $100 can of paint and a $500 new rug!? I wish I did! I’ve come quite adept at shopping in op shops and picking things off the side of the road (which is technically illegal, so I didn’t just say that alright?) It can be quite hard when you start out though, especially trying to see past something’s outward appearance. This is a great guide to read through on where to look, what to look for and more importantly - what to avoid!
How-to Avoid Mistakes Making Chocolate Bowls with Balloons Tutorial
I ran into the picture above of this sweet but frustrated person on the floor after they lost their battle with making chocolate bowls/cups with balloons. xD
Even though their experience wasn’t as fun as they thought it would be they very kindly shared their experience on their Tumblr (and tagged it, thankfully cuz that’s how I found it! always tag people! always!).
Anyway, they inspired me enough to make a how-to or better said a not-to do guide on how to make these chocolate bowls properly…
And believe me, I should know cuz I had the same experience as they did many moons ago…. You see, chocolate bowls with balloons was what got me interested in the kitchen! It was one of the first things I learned to do :)
When I was a teen and made these for the first time my balloons actually popped (it was more like an explosion LOL) they popped cuz they were a bit warm.
Needless to say, melted chocolate ended up all over my mother’s kitchen ceiling, walls, stove, floor……. all over my hair, face, shirt and my sisters face/hair. I honestly believe that if I go back to that old apartment there would still be traces of chocolate all over that ceiling today. xD (my family loves to bring this up in the ‘you remember the time you xyz’ moments at family gatherings… brings a lot of laughter at my expense…) :/ :D
Anyway, I learned to make them in a very random way…. I was watching TV/ flipping channels one day and I saw these two little old ladies teaching how to make the bowls! (they should have given me a heads up about the chocolate explosion thing, but I guess that should have been obvious?) :D
Anyway, The ladies did have pretty awesome tips on how to get it right that I never see in any of the “chocolate bowl” tutorials online…. so I’ll share those and some of my tips from years of experience making them :) ENJOY!
BUT FIRST: Let’s look at what the original poster had to say about their experience, and view their pics of what went wrong…….then I’ll go into my tips :)
This is what they posted:
What I expected to make:
What I actually made:
ROMEO WHAT’S HERE? POISON? DRUNK ALL AND LEFT NO FRIENDLY DROP TO HELP ME AFTER. FUCK YOU ROMEO.
FUCK YOU AND YOUR GROSS ASS CHOCOLATE.The Cake Bar’s Tips:
- 1) Wait till your chocolate is completely, completely cool before applying unto baloons (not even remotely close to being almost warm) this might sound obvious but the balloons will pop if the chocolate is even remotely close to being almost warm :)
- 2) For the balloons, you can either make a knot that you can cut or a knot that you can untie yourself later to deflate balloons (very slowly so the cups won’t break)
- 3) You can use a piece of tape ON the balloon and then put a needle through the tape/balloon to slowly release the air out of the balloon . This way you have more control of how fast the balloons deflates. (the slower the better so you have time to help separate the balloon from the chocolate cup and they won’t crack/break) **the needle will not pop the balloon with the tape over it.***
- Don’t choose skinny balloons, nice and strong so they don’t pop
- Don’t pick balloons that will make the cups too high/too skinny. Make sure the balloons have a flatter bottom/wide sides look to them. You’ll thank me later when you’re removing the cups from the balloon. :)
- After dipping balloons in chocolate, place the balloons on parchment or wax paper so the chocolate bottoms don’t stick to your plate (unless you are going to serve them on those plates, then this method is a good idea because the cups will stay firm on the plate) But if you’re not going to serve them where you place them to dry/cool use parchment paper/wax paper so they don’t get stuck.
- Make sure you slather a nice thick layer of chocolate so when you try to slowly remove the bowls they won’t easily crack/break. So two layers of chocolate is good enough.
- Use the bain marie method to melt the chocolate. It’s the best way
- White chocolate dries up very fast, You have to work faster with it. It dries much faster than regular chocolate. mooooove quickly with white chocolate ;)
- If you’re going to use a combo of white chocolate and regular chocolate for design, use less regular chocolate and more white chocolate not 50/50 because the dark chocolate will eat up your white chocolate…. You’ll see what I mean when you make them :) I would say use 25% regular chocolate 75% white for a 50/50 white/black look.
- Let the air out slowly on the balloons, make sure u have control of the deflation.
- It’s best to serve a cold dessert on the cups because it’ll help keep the cups from melting :) (specially if you’re going to serve them outside like at a BBQ, you don’t want the cups to fall apart/ melt easily)
- Instead of using chocolate use colored wafers/Candy melts for fun looks:
- Some of the balloons WILL break, don’t sweat it. Just make sure you make back-ups. So if you’re making dessert for 6 people make sure you make like 9-10 bowls just in case. You didn’t fail, some always crack, some always break. no biggie!
- I’m sure I have more tips, so maybe check back to this post. If I remember more I’ll add more. (they’re really not that difficult to make, just a bit high maintenance that’s all) :)
- SORRY FOR THE UNUSUALLY LONG POST, I just wanted to share :x
- and last but not least, thank you Nate for letting me use your pictures, and for reminding me why I have my blog in the first place. Brings back memories of fun times!
picture credits:
Awesome!! This nifty little chart helps me to pick out the right glue for my project every single time. Design sponge is an excellent resource blog for everyone from beginners to the most die hard crafters! Go on and check it out, you may even build your own adhesives tool box!!
-Via
“Yes, it takes some care and patience, but there’s really no reason to fear the sheer. You just need to follow some simple precautions and basic rules to get sheers to do what you want them to.”
“If you’ve never cut a pattern out before…this is for you!”
Great tips and pointers if you’re unfamiliar with commercial patterns.
Cupcake Tip Guide!
- (Left to Right) Large round tip, Open star (Wilton 1M), Closed star (Wilton 2D), French tip
Common frosting recipes:
