To give you all a laugh at my expense...

[Finsmom]

Well, here is the laugh of the day (or tears, if you are compassionate!)

I just decided to try making chocolate bowls for the first time, using a method I saw online on another site... they said to melt the chocolate, then dunk a small balloon in and coat the bottom, then sit it in a mug to cool...

So I decide to attempt making 2 to start... I will need 6 for this Saturday, but I thought I would play around a bit and experiment....

So I dunk my first balloon, and things look pretty good. I dunk the next, and again, I am impressed. I sit it in the mug by my stove, and take a moment to admire my work...

POP! One of the balloons explodes, completly covering me and my entire kitchen in splattered dark chocolate... And I mean covered... I have chocolate in my eyelashes. I have chocolate splatters all over my white kitchen blinds. I have super high ceilings in my kitchen that I cant reach unless I stand on my tippy toes on the counter, and yet there is chocolate there too... Really, if you could have seen me, you would have peed your pants...

So, thank goodness I attempted this before the day of the party... I cant imagine having to scrub blinds, ceilings, etc. while Im in the midst of preparing for a dinner party!

Ok, well now that you have laughed at me, does anyone have any chocolate bowl making advice, of the non-exploding variety???

[callmijane]

Lol. That happened to my dad once when I was in High school. I came home to find the kitchen covered in chocolate.

[Becca Porter]

As far as the reason the balloon popped....my guess is your chocolate was too warm. If it was just body temp (tempered), I wouldn't think it would have popped the balloon..

[chocolatstiletto]

When we were six or so my twin brother and I fought like monkeys over the honor taking the ketchup bottle to the table. Yup. "Unbreakable" plastic + corner of the wood table = set for the next Saw movie. It was in the chandelier, on the ceiling...oops!

back to the chocolate cups- could the person who reported the double types of chocolate please detail the swirling a little more? Thanks!

[ajcraig]

It was a couple of years ago, but if I remember correctly, I melted both in the microwave, drizzeled the white onto the top of the milk and then swirled or marbelized them with a rubber spatula, keeping it on the surface. I'd dip on a diagonal until the white was used up and then add some more. They were so pretty and I was so nervous until they were on the table. Believe me, I'd take pix now, if only to prove to myself that they actually worked!

[rockycat]

The Great Martian Chainsaw Massacre - The Spouse was making a cilantro/parsely/other stuff marinade in a nearly antique blender which had long ago lost its lid. The sheet of aluminum foil he carefully folded over the top didn't do squat once the blender was turned on to puree. Result? Permanent green splotches everywhere, including all over the ceiling. Oh yes, and a new blender the next day.

[jlafler]

If you had done it on the day of the party, you could have explained it as part of your decorating scheme.

[Smileelisa]

Thanks for the good laugh! Oh to be a fly on the wall (prob covered in chocolate) Sorry I have never attempted to try that ( now I know why) What an inexpensive way to redecorate! My kitchen disaster involved a jar of pasta sauce. I dropped it and it covered everything in the kitchen including the ceiling, sliding doors, cabinets and myself. I had to repaint and I swear there was 6 gallons of sauce everywhere. I think I did pee my pants, I was pregnant at the time. I feel your pain.

[Davwud]

Mine was an extra large bottle of Franks Hot Sauce. It was on top of the fridge. We figured out that every time the door closed and the fridge shook, it would edge slightly closer to the the front until it stopped at the gap from the freezer door. So when I opened the freezer door, down came almost a litre of Franks Hot Sauce.
It stains floor tiles in no time flat. We managed to mop up the stuff quickly but the puddle under the fridge set before we could get it out of the way. So when someone moves it (It was in our old apartment) they're gonna think that someone was slaughtered in the kitchen, what with the big red stain under the fridge.

DT

[alkapal]

frank's hot sauce probably ate through the flooring. no floor, no stain! ;-)
no worries, mate!

[Davwud]

When I was reading this my first thought was, I hope the balloon doesn't pop.
So when I read that I started LMAO.

I guess you'll probably be finding chocolate for months to come.

DT

[alkapal]

michel richard uses the bowl method first mentioned by marina.

[fmed]

No pictures?

[ajcraig]

I've done it successfully as well (with swirled white and milk choc). I think RPMc was correct with the advice to keep the balloons only semi-inflated. I don't see how sitting them in a mug worked, though, how will they sit flat later? I cooled them on parchment paper so they had a flat bottom. I also dipped them on a diagonal to get a petal pattern. Filled with chocolate mousse...OMG!

[foiegras]

I had an incident involving meatloaf glaze that ended with me cleaning it out of crevices with a large number of Q-tips ... It got the walls, but thankfully not the ceiling. I feel your pain ... sounds like enough to put one off chocolate, and I didn't think that was possible!

[RPMcMurphy]

worked ok for me. not one pop. I flash cooled them int he freezer.

the key was not to blow up the balloons much.....at all.

get the biggest balloons, and just blow them up a little.

some pics
http://rtimko.smugmug.com/gallery/416...

[Nyleve]

I've done it also but you need heavy-duty balloons (culinary grade - just kidding) and only inflate them partway. The first few I did also blew up but somehow didn't explode the way it sounds like yours did. Hilarious - I'll bet you laughed and laughed....

[Val]

Hah...blowing up balloons can even be tricky...I was blowing some up in our office last year to help decorate and the one I was blowing up burst while I was first blowing it up and it snapped back into my right eye...I had a laceration of my cornea that was not funny...very freaky accident to be sure but drat those balloons!!!!

[DCLindsey]

That's pretty funny - but I assure you its been done before. My boyfriend took my handblender and stuck it into a thing to tomato sauce to blend... Of course, he turned it on before putting it in and he sprayed hot tomato sauce everywhere. I had to take a toothpick to clean it out of the cracks of the vent above the stove. Like the chocolate, it was on a bunch of white things so it looked like a crazed axed murderer had just gone through. I feel your pain!

[danhole]

So sorry! This sounds like it should be an old episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show, with you being Laura, sobbing "Oooooh Roooob." LOL!

[cayjohan]

danhole, if the OP's story didn't have me almost wetting myself, your OOOOH ROOOOB, did!
(We've all been there, haven't we?)

Cay

[marina13]

i think what i've seen done on tv before is that you take small bowls, cover the outside with plastic wrap, and "paint" the outside of the bowls in chocolate. place in the refrigerator to cool, and they should come off with little problem since the plastic wrap is touching the bowl and not the chocolate.

[oakjoan]

Wha? If you cover the bowls with plastic wrap and then paint it with chocolate...how can the plastic wrap NOT be touching the chocolate?

Finsmom: What a tale of woe! We should have (actually there probably have already posts) threads about disasters because ALL of us have suffered from awful mishaps, miscalculations and mistakes!

[TorontoJo]

I think marina means that the plastic is against the bowl and will come away easily, rather than having the chocolate painted on the bowl directly.

[oakjoan]

Ah, I didn't understand since she'd been painting on balloons before (which also could be peeled away). Thanks for clarification.