I am Ann Reardon

Today we are making this chocolate mushroom garden complete with chocolate soil and chocolate

mushrooms obviously and chocolate leaves.

The first thing we need to do is make our chocolate soil. Now for this we need to melt

come dark chocolate, it doesn't need to be tempered just melt it.

And then we will stir in some maltodextrin powder a few tablespoons at a time. If you

can't get hold of maltodextrin you can put oreos or chocolate biscuits into a food processor

and blitz them until they look like soil.

When you mix in the maltodextrin powder it stays as a powder and absorbs the oil so we

can use it to turn the chocolate into a chocolate powder.

The quantities that you need for this recipe are of course on the website howtocookthat.net

and there is a link in the description just below this video.

The more powder that you add the finer chocolate powder you will get so if you add a little

bit you'll get a lumpy mixture but but if you add some more you can get it finer looking

more like sand. As it get thicker you can blitz it in a food processor or just tip it

into a bigger bowl and rub it between your thumb and your fingers. Once it is a consistency

that you are happy with then just set it to on side.

Next for our mushrooms.

Take a muffin tin and place some foil over the top. Gently push it down about a centimeter

while holding it at the top firmly with your other hand.

Run your finger around the rim of the indent to make it smooth and rounded at the edges.

Repeat that to make six more indents.

Melt some white chocolate and fill each cavity

Check the ingredients on your chocolate if it contains cocoa butter then you will need

to temper it so that it will set firmly. if it contains vegetable oil then it is fake

or compound chocolate and it can just be melted it will reset fine.

Then take a spoonful out of each one. I am doing this so that the rim of chocolate is

higher than the filling in the middle so you get that edge that mushrooms have.

Once they have firmed up take a sharp knife and make an indent around the mushroom coming

into the middle.

Remove them from the foil then you can decorate it how you like, for some these I have dabbed

milk and dark chocolate over the top using a paintbrush. But the method I prefer is to

rest the top on something stable and then pour chocolate over the top of it. You can

pour just one colour and you could use milk chocolate to white chocolate or you could

pour two colours onto the one to give some variation and use your brush to make the under-colour

show through.

To make the little bell-shaped mushrooms we are going to use fondant to make a mold for

the chocolate. Push something rounded into a lump of fondant to make an indent then push

that out around the top edge to make it wider at the top.

Then use your finger and rub a small amount of oil onto the inside of that fondant mold

to stop the chocolate from sticking.

Then using your thumb and finger pinch it around the top edge bringing it towards the

middle.

Then fill it with melted chocolate. I have coloured this chocolate using some red oil

based food colouring. And you can get that from most cake decorating stores.

Tap the mold to get rid of any air bubbles and leave that to set.

While that is setting choose some white icing circles, your could use dots of white chocolate

on your mushroom or some white sprinkles instead for this or you could leave it plain.

Remove the chocolate from the fondant and then add the white dots to the toadstool.

To make the stems there are a couple of different methods you can use The first way is to roll

a cylinder out of non-stick baking paper and tape it into place. I rolled mine so that

it was fatter at one end.

Then put your white chocolate into a plastic bag, cut off the corner and drizzle it into

the tube.

Tap the base of it to ensure that the chocolate goes the whole way down and then fill it up

to the top. And then leave it upright to set. I just stood it in the corner

Once it is firm take off the paper then decide if you want the stems to be white or if you

want them brown. If you want them brown roll them in some melted milk chocolate, add some

texture by running a knife around the stem. You can dip the knife in dark chocolate to

give a bit of variation. Or you can just wipe the brown chocolate off so you've just got

a smear of brown chocolate on it just play with it until you get it hot you like it.

Once that is set you can use a knife to break it into smaller stalks.

Another way of making stems is to take a coupler from a piping bag set or a large piping tip

and fill that with chocolate.

Use some melted chocolate to secure the base of the stalks into place on a platter and

more chocolate to attach the lids.

If you want the mushrooms on an angle then cut the bases on a slight diagonal.

For the white chocolate ones you can leave them plain or add some colour by brushing

on luster dust over the top. I'm using a mixture of some pink luster dust and some silver on

top of this one.

Add your stems for the toadstools and then add the toadstool tops onto those.

Then mix some softened butter into some melted dark chocolate. And spread that onto the base

of the platter where you want the soil to be.

Sprinkle the chocolate soil over the top. The chocolate that we spread underneath will

keep this soil in place and the reason we added butter to it was to stop it from setting

hard. So when people are taking spoonfuls of soil it will be easy to scoop it off the

platter.

If you like you can leave one the mushrooms upturned on the side

then add some chocolate leaves

and a chocolate butterfly.

You will find the video instructions for making the butterflies and leaves on the channel

just click on how to cook that to go to the channel and you'll find them there in the

chocolate playlist.

Cut some little strips of chocolate to make grass and poke them into the soil.

Then serve it to the dinner table and give your guests a plate and a spoon and let them

dig in.

Subscribe to how to cook that for more chocolate cakes and desserts.

And thank you to all of my lovely subscribers this year for clicking like, for sharing the

videos and for all of your beautiful comments. I really have appreciated your support this

year and I hope you have a safe and a happy new year.

[music: the boat song by youtube.com/setsailtv used with permission]