Quality Needs to be Goal of Any Chocolate Kit

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to look at another chocolate mold making kit that is aimed especially at kids. Today we're going to look at one from Cool Baker that uses hot water instead of a microwave or a stovetop to melt chocolate. I was skeptical about how well this "magic" of hot water was going to work with chocolate or chocolate coating but I gave it a good try. In this photo you can see the kit setup so that the melting step can begin. Note the pinks and purple colors. While you might think this means it is only for girls, I'll have you know that my husband's two favorite colors have always been purple and pink; I think this is gaudy but he liked it so he helped me test it out. I received this kit through the Amazon View program in exchange for writing a review on that website; you get the bonus of a much longer and photo enhanced version of that review right here.

Because I was skeptical about this kit, I bought three types of Wilton candy melts (two of which have cocoa in them so that works on The Chocolate Cult). These melt at lower temperatures and are designed for molded candy work. Pure white, milk, or darker chocolates are less easy to melt and mold so let's see how these discs worked.

You take the pink melting try and fill it with hot water then insert the divider. Don't worry, the water is sealed in but you will likely need to wipe off water that will get on the outside of the tray.

You add the chocolate or candy discs and let it set for a minute then you start stirring.

After 5 minutes of stirring the candy discs looked like this.

After 10 minutes the discs were partly melted but let's be honest -- this is not moldable smooth yet.

Why isn't this melting well? First: Hot water even inside a cute pink container cools down over time. Second: The sections are very small and it is difficult to stir the chocolate which would speed up the melt process. The little pink spatula thing is pretty large compared to the two smaller sections. Ultimately this takes more time that I really felt it was worth it and made such a small amount of melted candy that I transferred to microwave bowls and did as I always do so I could test the molds themselves.

The molds make an owl, three small pieces of candy, and two candy pops. The molds are plastic so they need a bit of oiling to work well. They did work as promised in the directions but I think I like my silicone molds better because they do not require oiling and thus are better tasting and "healthier" as well.

You fill up the molds partly, trying to do details but to be blunt the detailing was a bit of a challenge even with the little pink "brush" they provided. As you'll see even though I've been making mold candies and chocolates now for a few years, these had a few problems. With practice I'll get better I'm sure.

One you have cooled this first filling in, you add in the rest of your chocolate or candy melts and put the mold in the spinner. I have no idea what this is supposed to do. You can't really spin it fast enough to force the chocolate out into every part of the molds. The support legs also required my hand to hold them down as I turned the handle. Those same support legs, handle and spinner were nearly impossible to disassemble making this kit difficult to store. ARGH!

Here is a closeup of some of the finished creations. Look at the little present piece to see evidence that the spinner step didn't work in pushing the chocolate out.

Here are the treats made from using all of the molds. I was hoping I could use disposal lollipop sticks but I don't think that would work very well given how you have to close the molds.

I can't recommend you get this kit as a gift for anyone but just in case you want it, consider using the link below. Part of what you pay for the product will be returned to us through the affiliate program with Amazon and help me find better products and chocolate so you can learn about them.