Bride Groom Strawberries

With Kelly Delaney

A wedding or an engagement cake needs something extra special and this is what Kelly Delaney of Cakes for Occasions suggests for you to consider. Using the same batches of dark and white chocolate, Kelly shows you the trick to how to make a strawberry with a tuxedo and another with a wedding dress, complete with bow tie and a pearl necklace.

Ingredients

8 ounces chocolate8 ounces white chocolate
12 strawberries9-inch heart shaped cake

Instructions

1. Melt your chocolate and white chocolate in separate bowls.
2. Start with the groom strawberries and create a tuxedo by taking a whole strawberry and dipping the “belly” into the white chocolate by tipping the strawberry upside down to create the shirt under the tuxedo.  Set on parchment paper to dry. Tip: angle your bowl if need be to create a pool of white chocolate and to be able to dip the front of your strawberry into the bowl. Tip: Sometimes when strawberries are dipped in chocolate and then placed on parchment paper to dry, a “platform” or “legs” is created. To avoid this, when you set the strawberry down on the parchment paper move it forward.
3. Make your bride strawberry by dipping a whole strawberry into white chocolate. Set on parchment paper and push forward.
4. Now that the shirt for under the tuxedo is dry, time to create the tuxedo. Angle the strawberry on the right side and dip it into the melted chocolate, make sure top to bottom is covered. Repeat on the left side and place on parchment paper.
5. Pipe a bow tie and buttons using a parchment bag filled with melted chocolate. For your bow tie, make two triangles with the tips pointing at each other. Pipe 3 small dots in the middle for buttons.
6. Back to decorate the bride strawberry with some lace and a pearl necklace using a parchment bag filled with melted white chocolate.
7. Make a crisscross pattern over the dried white chocolate (the dress) starting at the bottom of the strawberry. Pipe small white chocolate dots at the top of the strawberry, leaving spaces, to create the pearl necklace.

How To Finish Decorating your Heart Shaped Cake

1. Start with your tuxedo (groom) strawberries and arrange around the outside of the heart shaped cake. Arrange the bride strawberries around the other side. Put one tuxedo strawberry in the middle and one bride strawberry in the middle.
2. Using your parchment bag with chocolate, pipe a scroll border around the sides of the top of the cake. Make sideways “s” all around the top, go one way and then go the opposite.  Accent with small chocolate dots.

That was a piece of cake! Enjoy!

Instructions courtesy of Kelly Delaney, Cakes for Occasions, 2011.

Owner of Cakes for Occasions Kelly received her culinary education from the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland and the Cordon Bleu in London. She started her business with a single oven in her mother's home and has won dozens of awards for her outstanding products. These include Reader's Choice Awards and North Shore Magazines "Best of Boston" Award. Her "Pearls & Shells" cake was voted the viewer favorite and featured on NBC's Today show for their Destination Wedding segment in 2004.

Delaney has also been featured on Boston's Fox 25 News, NECN's Good Morning Live and Phantom Gourmet, TV Diner with Billy Costa, KISS 108's Matty in the Morning Show, Oldies 103's Breakfast Club, MAGIC 106.7's Exceptional Women as well as numerous other programs.

Cakes for Occasions is a gourmet bakery located in Danvers, MA produces over 700 wedding cakes a year.