And they do look better than your first one in small ways. But it's amazing how good the first one looks. It came out looking pretty neat, but I'll certainly improve upon it the next time I make it. I will make it again, as it's mocha and chocolate flavored with buttercream. Our group was also assigned the task of tempering four pounds of chocolate.
Tempered chocolate sets up quickly and with a nice smooth shine on it.
It's not a trivial task when you do it the way we were taught. The problem is that it takes a while to happen, because the chocolate has to cool from 110 degrees down to 90 degrees. In the past, I've always tempered chocolate using a marble slab. I asked the chef if I can use that method tomorrow, and he agreed. I have been taking snaps of all of the finished cakes, however, and hopefully they turn out well.