I had heard great things about a workshop offered at Succulent Chocolates and Sweets put on by Chef Sandra Abballe, Owner and award winning Lead Chocolatier. Valentine’s Day Week seems like the perfect time of year for a workshop on chocolate.

salted caramel, cinnamon hearts and rose litchi

Chocolate needs patience

And so I found myself in Sandra’s Chocolate workshop (just like how I would imagine Santa’s – only chocolate) about to create bonbons (small confections enrobed in chocolate). Sandra’s philosophy is, like all good cooks, to use the best chocolate (Cacao Barry) and best ingredients for her fillings.

Tonight we would learn how to splatter, dust and finger paint our bonbons with our tempered chocolate. Create the shells, fill with a white chocolate vanilla bean filling ganache. Cap and finally finish with a chocolate transfer (a bit like a stencil with succulent chocolates written on it). We would learn to be patient. To quote Sandra ” you don’t want to get the chocolate angry”. It needs to be at the right temperature, doesn’t like water, needs to wait before the next stage. The wait was worth it.

In between we would be eating chocolates and tasting the various estate chocolates from different countries.

Chocolate Splatter Specialist

My creations and they taste great too.