The perfect christmas gift - help me make this chocolate

[Mordax Praetorian]

Greetings All

When I buy christmas gifts, I want the recipient to know that I put a lot of thought into getting the gift right

Shopping for my Grandfather is easy, the things he likes are all very simple and easy to get, but this makes it difficult to get him something that really stands out as special

I have wracked my brains and come up with the perfect christmas gift for my dear old Grandfather, but I can't find anything approximating them, so I now want to make them myself

The idea is to have something that looks like an average gift chocolate from the outside, but when bitten into reveals a ginger biscuit base, and a dolop of real english custard

The tricky part here is actually assembling the chocolate, I can't figure out what order to do things so that the chocolate comes together with all the parts in the right place

The other constraint is that he is diabetic, so I need to know what qualifies diabetic chocolate as suitable for melting. I already to know to avoid ones sweetened with Aspartame, as this not only loses its taste when heated, but becomes quite carcinogenic. But any tips as to what else to look out for would be appreciated

There are 2 other things that would round it out as being absolutely perfect, but I realise that the 2 points below are probably impossible and I'm not expecting anything

Firstly, the ideal chocolate would be shaped like his favorite car, if anyone knows where to buy moulds shaped like old cars, then I'd appreciate being pointed to it so I can see if its there

Secondly, the ideal chocolate would keep its shape when microwaved, allowing the custard to come out hot, but I have no idea what I might add to chocolate to make it microwave proof, or if it would be safe to eat, or if such a product actually exists

If people are interested in following the project, then I'll come back and post updates on how my experiments are going, a recipe for the final finished chocolate, and of course my Grandfather's review when he tries them at christmas

thanks in advance

[cinabar]

I've seen ice cube trays in all sorts of shapes including cars, which could double up as chocolate moulds.
Secondly if you made the custard sweet enough (all be it with artificial sweeteners, which aren't to bad in a fondant), you should be able to get away with a really decent fine 90% cocoa chocolate coating.

I would recommend giving up on the hot custard idea - that sounds near impossible!

[Mordax Praetorian]

I thought the hot custard might be, but it never hurts to ask

I didn't think of searching for ice cube trays, so thankyou for that tip, I'll get searching

[cinabar]

I've never used this particular site before but it came up after a quick google search:
http://www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk/acatalog/Transport-Chocolate-Moulds.html

[oldspice]

You r grandad must be very special to have you go to so much trouble to get it right. I hope you get some answers to your questions.

[loulou]

My grandad lived to the age of 90 on a diet of cheese and bread and pickled onions on a sunday. He refused to eat anything else.

[Mordax Praetorian]

Well I finally have time to sit down and post about how it went

I couldn't find anything close enough to my Grandad's old cars, so I went for an ice cube tray as a mould instead

I got some 75% dark Orange chocolate to use, and melted it in a metal bowl over a pan of boiling water

I lined the edges of the ice cube cells with cling film so that I could get the chocolates out easier later and then put 1 spoon full of molten chocolate in each, and moved the tray such that the chocolate lined the edges of the cell

Ideally, I wanted to build up several layers of chocolate in this manner, however no matter how quickly I transfered the chocolate to a fridge, it still ran down the sides somewhat and settled in the bottom, resulting in very thin walls of chocolate, it was very difficult not to end up with holes

With a cup of chocolate in each cell, I then added some small chunks of ginger buscuit, and a dolop of custard, before covering the whole thing in more molten chocolate

I used enough chocolate to fill the whole of the ice cube tray, linking the cells together and resulting in an affect like a bar of chocolate where you break off cubes to eat

They turned out quite ugly due to the cling film, but there wasn't really an alternative because the chocolates just wouldn't come out in one piece otherwise

Overall, they were a success, my Grandfather was speechless for a while after he tried one and were it not for my Grandmother's intervention they'd have been gone by the evening, which would have been very bad for his diabetes

I wish I could have posted more throughout the project, however things became very hectic at work with the run up to christmas and I simply didn't have the time, I think more practice runs and more tips here would have helped a lot

All in all, they were passable but not perfect, hopefully I can keep practising and make another run for his birthday in april

[chocadmin]

Sounds excellent, did you take any piccies?

[oldspice]

This might not be much help, but you can make nice chocolate centres by combining equal amounts of melted unsalted butter with double cream to make a basic truffle base. To this you can add flavouring such as creme de menth. The truffle hardens and you can then coat them quite successfully in melted chocolate. You usually need to let the chocolate set, them give them another dip (use a fork or a cocktail stick).

You could try making a truffle base in the way described above and add crushed ginger biscuits or cyrstalised ginger. I've  done these using cocktail cherries. I mixed a little cherry juice from the jar with the truffle base, rolled the truffle into balls, pushed a cherry into the middle, then double coated them in chocolate. Mind you, this was years and years ago when I had more time!