How to Make Chocolate Shards for Cakes and Sweet Treats of All Kinds

Getting into cake decorating? Want something sweet and a little bit special on top of a dessert that you’ve made for yourself or others? Then we’ve got the simple but delightful solution for you: chocolate shards! 

Right here on this page, we’ve got a short guide on how to make chocolate shards at home for all occasions, so you can get started learning to make your own as soon as possible. Get started and give all your treats and desserts a little extra fabulous, flavoursome flair today!

How to Make Chocolate Shards

To make chocolate shards, you need to begin by melting the chocolate and spreading it all out in a thick but even layer over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or wax paper. This can then be left to set at room temperature, or put into the fridge or freezer for a bit.

Sounds simple, right? This is because what you need to first do is make a chocolate slab, or chocolate bark, as it’s sometimes called. Luckily for you, we have the perfect guide on how to make chocolate slabs for any occasion, so take a look if you want to see a full recipe and get some tips and extra hints on how to make your shards pretty or even more tantalising. 

Once you have your slab, you can break it up to get chocolate shards. Easy!

How to Make White Chocolate Shards

There isn’t a secret to getting white chocolate shards. Like milk chocolate or dark chocolate, you can just melt some down to make a slab, leave it to set, and then any when it’s ready. 

How to Make Coloured Chocolate Shards

To make coloured chocolate shards, you’re going to need to use white chocolate. Milk and dark chocolate don’t show the colour up as well, and you can’t have that when you’re looking forward to making something bright and colourful, as well as sweet and tasty! 

You’ll also need to use powdered food colouring or an oil-based food colour gel. This prevents the chocolate from seizing, which is what would happen if you used something water-based.

For the full series of steps on how to make coloured chocolate, please take a look at our info here. 

Once you’ve had a look and followed all the steps to make your coloured white chocolate, you can make a slab out of it. Then all you’ll have to do is break it up, ready to use in all your cake decorating and treat-making.

How to Make Wavy Chocolate Shards

There are several different ways you can make wavy chocolate shards, or “sails”, as they’re also known. All of them require parchment paper or wax paper. We’ve taken just one recipe to demonstrate how it can be done easily at home.

To decide how big you want your wavy chocolate shards to be, you should take your chopped-up chocolate or chips (or even candy melts, if you’re using them) and put them down on the paper. Spread them around so you can see how much of the area you’ll cover – this will be the area that gets turned into the decoration. Then the rest of the steps can begin:

1. Heat the chocolate or candy melts on a low setting for 30 seconds at a time, so that they melt. Stir them until smooth
2. Once melted, spread the melted chocolate around on the paper with an offset spatula (for a nice, even layer). Try to keep the thickness the same all over and not lift the spatula too often – so that the surface stays smooth
3. Shape the paper as you want while the chocolate sets; the paper will become your mould and the chocolate sail will take on this shape. Make sure to do this immediately after you’ve spread the chocolate layer onto the paper so that it doesn’t crack where it’s started to dry
4. Ensure the different sides of your sail aren’t touching each other if you don’t want them to – they’ll stick together as they dry if not, and if you pull them apart it could damage the surface
5. Leave the sail to dry; it’s possible to let it dry upside down by carefully draping it over a glass or a bottle. You can either leave it to dry at room temperature or pop it in the fridge to have it set more quickly
6. Lift the parchment or wax paper up and gently peel it away from the sail
7. If there are any odd lines or leftover candy melts or chocolate chips sticking up above the edge of the decoration you can break them off with your fingers. Alternatively, you can dip a sharp knife in hot water and carefully run it along the edge to smooth the sail out
8. Keep on cake decorating and attach your new chocolate garnish as best suits your bake; for instance, if the cake has a covering of ganache on top, the sail can be pressed gently into that and it sticks

You can also make different textures and “fan-style” sails by folding your parchment or wax paper in different ways. It’s fine if they flatten themselves after you’ve made the folds, too – they’re just guidelines for when you want to use them.

It’s also important to remember that chocolate can break a lot more easily than candy melts. As such, it’s a good idea to use a thicker spread layer of chocolate when you want to make sails. If it breaks when you make it, just melt it back down and try again. Luckily you’ve still got the chocolate to use!

Want to Make Other Delicious Delights?

We totally get it if you want to make more than one kind of chocolate treat. We do it every day! So, if you’re interested in learning as much as you can about how to make other kinds of chocolate treats, why not take a look at some of the other tutorials we have available? 

You already know how to melt chocolate, how to make chocolate slabs and bark, and how to colour chocolate from the links we’ve already provided. But why not learn how to temper chocolate, how to make chocolate curls, or how to make hot chocolate bombs? You can even go all the way and learn how to make a chocolate tree! 

We also understand if this is too much once, and you’d rather just stick to one treat at a time. If this is what you’d like to do, you can always take a look at what we’ve got on our website instead. There’s a truly sweet selection for you to choose from, from Personalised Chocolate and Smash gifts to our famous Sweet Trees, so why not have some sent to you right away?

Order Tasty Treats Anywhere in the UK

Everything we have available on our website is easy to order, whether you’re on your computer or phone! Start by picking out all the gorgeous bits and pieces you want and adding them to your basket. Then, arrange a date for delivery, complete payment to place your order, and you’ll be done! That’s when our work begins, as we start bringing your chocolatey dreams to life – while you sit back and wait for the package to arrive.

Order all the sweet and delicious pieces you want from us today and they’ll be with you for you to enjoy in no time. You won’t even have to worry about making a mess in your kitchen, or doing any cleaning up. Not until the last of your treats have been eaten away and you need to throw out the box and the wrappings, anyway!