Using colored cocoa butter is a great way to add detail and pops of color to your chocolate confections. This week Tomric System's Chef Brian Donaghy shares the basics of using colored cocoa butter and answers five common questions that he gets asked all the time.

Since Chef Brian first learned how to use colored cocoa butter with chocolate confections in a master class taught by Norman Love of Norman Love Confections in 2002, colored cocoa butter products have improved and the techniques have exploded exponentially. The process, however, is still fundamentally the same: (1) an emulsion of fat- soluble color and cocoa butter is applied to the inside of a mould (2) the cocoa butter is allowed to partially crystallize (3) tempered chocolate is placed in the mould and the chocolate and cocoa butter crystallize together, so when the chocolate piece is unmoulded it has shine and color. The process is fairly simple, but requires a process.

What equipment do you use? “I use an Iwata Smart Jet airbrush compressor set to around 50 psi and Badger 250 airbrushes and I use separate airbrushes for each color. A laser thermometer is another “essential” tool for this process.”

How do you temper cocoa butter? “I melt my cocoa butters to 93° F/ 33.9°C and then seed them with cocoa butter "silk" from my EZ Temperer.”

How do you achieve an even layer of colored cocoa butter?

“Prior to spraying in the mould, I always spray away from the mould first—this ensures that the cocoa butter is spraying correctly.”

What’s an easy method for taking your airbrush technique to the next level? “I have taken to masking my moulds so that the color does not coat the entire mould—this makes for an interesting effect.”

How do you make colors pop against chocolate? “Spray white colored cocoa butter last to ensure that we can see the colors in dark chocolate. For some colors, like red, I will spray black last, because it creates a beautiful finish.”

Whether you’re interested in using colored cocoa butter for the first time or you’ve already perfected your techniques, we hope this post helps inspire you to take your decorating skills to the next level.

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