Working with Chocolate

I bought your book around about a year ago. I LOVE IT ! Just one thing, I have tried and tried and tried to do the chocolate work and I just can't seem to master it. I have gone over everything in your book but I must be doing something wrong. Can you please tell me how you do it. I don't microwave anything so I'm thinking maybe my chocolate gets to hot and it smears.

Judging by what you have told me, I can make some guesses as to what might be happening.
You may be correct that the chocolate is getting too hot. However, when chocolate overcooks it has a tendency of getting lumpy. Does yours do this? Melt your chocolate over a barely simmering double boiler - never over direct heat. What I do is, once my chocolate is melted to about body temperature, maybe a touch hotter (110F), I mix my colors and fill my pastry cones. I keep the chocolate (in the pastry cones) on a heating pad, which keeps it at the ideal temperature - not too hot, not too cold. I have found that the melted dark chocolate withstands a bit more heat in the liquid state than the white chocolate.

When you say it smears, do you mean one color runs into another? If this is the case, let each color set slightly before filling or piping the next color. Just make sure to not let it harden completely, because this may cause the chocolate to warp off the page which will allow the next color to run under it, also causing a blurred effect.

Are you using confectioner's chocolate? "Real" chocolate may react differently when following the directions in our book. If this is the case you will need to temper your chocolate first.

See my Step-by-Step directions (whimsicalbakhouse.com) for making a Chocolate Portrait for detailed information about working with chocolate.