Making chocolate decorations that work

Spread tempered chocolate thinly on baking paper, let it set at cool room temperature, then break it into irregular pieces. Stood upright in a cake's frosting they look considerably more accomplished than the effort involved.

The only requirements are temper, for snap and gloss, and thinness. Thick shards look clumsy and are hard to eat.

Draw a vegetable peeler along the edge of a bar at room temperature. Too cold and it shatters into shavings; too warm and it smears. The window is real and narrow, and a bar held in the hand for a minute is usually about right.

For larger curls, spread tempered chocolate on the back of a baking tray, let it set until firm but not brittle, then push a scraper across it at a shallow angle.

Tempered chocolate in a paper cornet, piped onto baking paper in whatever shape you like, set and peeled off. Filigree, letters, lattice discs.

The practical constraints: pipe thicker than seems necessary, because thin filigree snaps when peeled, and let it set fully at room temperature rather than in the fridge, which makes it brittle.

Printed acetate sheets carrying a pattern in coloured cocoa butter. Tempered chocolate spread over the sheet picks up the pattern as it sets, and peeling the acetate away leaves a printed, glossy surface.

This is the technique that produces professional-looking results with almost no skill, and the sheets are inexpensive. The chocolate must be in temper — an untempered piece will not release cleanly and the pattern smears.