Silicone Chocolate Molds
In my first semester of grad school, a colleague and I decided to anonymously put (store-bought) chocolates and (hand-made) Classics themed Valentine’s on the desks of all the other grad students and in the faculty mail boxes. Because, naturally, no good time-wasting exercise is complete without escalation, we decided to try making chocolate coins last Valentine’s Day. I, like an idiot, volunteered to make the molds. I had absolutely none of the skills needed for this project, other than Google and a paper to procrastinate in writing.
While the process itself was really simple in theory, in practice it was finicky, exhausting, and unbelievably messy. You have about 15 minutes from when you mix the silicone to when it cures and can’t be worked, so it gets tense. I ended up making several different coins using things like a janky owl statuette I got in Athens, a janky Roman helmet I got in Italy, and a janky Alexander coin repro a friend got in Greece. I also hand molded some hearts and the letters A, M, O, R, and Ε, Ρ, Ο, Σ on individual coins.
Pouring the chocolate for the coins was also finicky, exhausting, and unbelievably messy. Chocolate is not cooperative. If it even looks at water, it seizes and gets chalky and won’t pour. I didn’t eat chocolate for a month after we finished. I don’t think we ever got the knack for tempering, but I think a few ended up that way by accident.
The feedback was great! We delivered them anonymously to a department get-together and they were a hit (except everyone mistook the rho for a P). I want to try to make them again with some new molds and a better idea of what I’m doing. I think my pictures from the first try are pretty sad, so I would hope to provide pictures from a second go-round.