I’ve had these wonderful little chef hat molds, from Belgium, sitting in a box, just waiting.  Biding their time, until I am ready to attempt the engineering and culinary challenge of double-sided, hollow chocolate molding. I open the box and stare at them.  Darned cute, very detailed.  Lots of crevices that will demand that the chocolate be perfectly tempered, so it will flow into all of the places it needs to go, to create the definition – the pleats in the hat.  These should be sturdy enough to stand up, when finished, with no extra messy “tails” of chocolate trailing out from the bottoms or sides.  They should look like little sculptures.

I am staring at these beautiful chocolate molds. It could be said that I have been helping to make molded chocolate since I was a very small girl. For as long as I can remember, my Mum made “wee chocolate cups” – a recipe and technique she had learned during World War Two, when her Grandmother managed to secure her some contraband chocolate, and Mum shared it with her friends.  One friend showed them all how to make these, filled with whatever they could concoct from the rations. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting at the kitchen table on Sunday afternoons,