Show off your love for things retro and geeky with an edible armada of space invaders. This instructable will take you through the steps of making a simple chocolate candy using a silicon mold.
For Xmas last year, my better half surprised me with a spunky turquoise ice tray produced by ironic home goods designer FRED, inspired by the Taito arcade classic that we know and love. Space Invaders! After the novelty and enjoyment of freezing water, juices, coffee, and regular old liquids wore off, I set my sites on putting this gift to a higher purpose.
Chocolate.
That's right, after a few test runs and brushing up on some elementary chocolate making theory, I was able to pull off in time for V-day the perfect display of geek love - a chocolate 8-bit sprite.
For Xmas last year, my better half surprised me with a spunky turquoise ice tray produced by ironic home goods designer FRED, inspired by the Taito arcade classic that we know and love. Space Invaders! After the novelty and enjoyment of freezing water, juices, coffee, and regular old liquids wore off, I set my sites on putting this gift to a higher purpose.
Chocolate.
That's right, after a few test runs and brushing up on some elementary chocolate making theory, I was able to pull off in time for V-day the perfect display of geek love - a chocolate 8-bit sprite.
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Signing UpStep 1: Tools and Ingredients
The Mold
First and foremost, one needs to acquire a mold. I opted to use the Ice Invaders ice tray, but really any flexible silicone mold/tray could be used to shape chocolates. You could even use a clear plastic candy mold, but in my opinion silicone are more durable and easier to work with.
If you do plan on going the space invader route, you could try to find one locally or online. We bought ours in Japan, but I have seen them available on Amazon or at ThinkGeek (naturally). The downside of these is that they are on the small side so if you're going to make lots of chocolates you might need to pick up more than one to speed things along (there are 24 molds in each tray). Moreover, they don't match the original Space Invaders sprite to the pixel, but they do get the point across rather well.
And if you're wondering, I'm not affiliated with either site above or the manufacturer, FRED. I do appreciate the sense of humor they bring to their product design though, and consider this a quality product.
The Ingredients
1) Chocolate - For this 'ible I went with a Japanese dark chocolate that was available, but any type will work. Milk, Dark, White - go with your personal preference. Remember, better quality chocolates will make for a better tasting Space Invader.
Pictured are two 58 gram chocolate bars (roughly 2oz each). To fill the entire mold I would recommend at least 3 bars of chocolate, and if you're making solid chocolates possibly 4 (8oz or 232 g)
2)Filling - For the sake of simplicity I went with solid dry ingredients: almonds and dried blueberries.
If you were to use a creme filling, caramel, cordial, or a truffle ganache it would require a bit of a different method (painting a shell and so on). Since this is my first attempt at confectionery, I thought the Invaders would be too fragile to hold up that well as a shell. I decided to stick with fillings that will provide a strong structural center. Blending in flavourings such as vanilla, sea salt, and chili pepper work well too. Get creative and adventurous.
The Tools
Here you have plenty of freedom to improvise, but this is what I had to work with:
1) Cutting board (flexible is a plus)
2) Sharp kitchen knife
3) Silicone spatula (rubber is fine too)
4) Squeeze bottle (thinner spout the better) - alternatively you can use a pastry bag.
5) Stirrer (I used some disposable chopsticks)
6) Microwave (or double boiler) & microwave safe bowl (ceramic is a plus as it retains heat well)
*If you have one on hand, an electric kitchen thermometer is helpful, but not really necessary.
Now that you have all of the items assembled, go find a cool dry space in your kitchen to get to work.
First and foremost, one needs to acquire a mold. I opted to use the Ice Invaders ice tray, but really any flexible silicone mold/tray could be used to shape chocolates. You could even use a clear plastic candy mold, but in my opinion silicone are more durable and easier to work with.
If you do plan on going the space invader route, you could try to find one locally or online. We bought ours in Japan, but I have seen them available on Amazon or at ThinkGeek (naturally). The downside of these is that they are on the small side so if you're going to make lots of chocolates you might need to pick up more than one to speed things along (there are 24 molds in each tray). Moreover, they don't match the original Space Invaders sprite to the pixel, but they do get the point across rather well.
And if you're wondering, I'm not affiliated with either site above or the manufacturer, FRED. I do appreciate the sense of humor they bring to their product design though, and consider this a quality product.
The Ingredients
1) Chocolate - For this 'ible I went with a Japanese dark chocolate that was available, but any type will work. Milk, Dark, White - go with your personal preference. Remember, better quality chocolates will make for a better tasting Space Invader.
Pictured are two 58 gram chocolate bars (roughly 2oz each). To fill the entire mold I would recommend at least 3 bars of chocolate, and if you're making solid chocolates possibly 4 (8oz or 232 g)
2)Filling - For the sake of simplicity I went with solid dry ingredients: almonds and dried blueberries.
If you were to use a creme filling, caramel, cordial, or a truffle ganache it would require a bit of a different method (painting a shell and so on). Since this is my first attempt at confectionery, I thought the Invaders would be too fragile to hold up that well as a shell. I decided to stick with fillings that will provide a strong structural center. Blending in flavourings such as vanilla, sea salt, and chili pepper work well too. Get creative and adventurous.
The Tools
Here you have plenty of freedom to improvise, but this is what I had to work with:
1) Cutting board (flexible is a plus)
2) Sharp kitchen knife
3) Silicone spatula (rubber is fine too)
4) Squeeze bottle (thinner spout the better) - alternatively you can use a pastry bag.
5) Stirrer (I used some disposable chopsticks)
6) Microwave (or double boiler) & microwave safe bowl (ceramic is a plus as it retains heat well)
*If you have one on hand, an electric kitchen thermometer is helpful, but not really necessary.
Now that you have all of the items assembled, go find a cool dry space in your kitchen to get to work.
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sauce pot filled about 3/4 to half full of water + stainless steel mixing bowl set inside the sauce pot.
Heat it up so the water is just under a boil.
add the chocolate & watch it melt.
I have been able to get chocolate down to a good liquid and it wont burn.
I see their stuff in the oddest little shops, so you can just keep an eye out for them. Shop owners may be able to special order it for you too.
I've also created a little custom made box to put them in (12 chocolates in total). The template of it can be found here:
http://meddigo.deviantart.com/#/d35kl5h
For the brits reading this I got the ice tray off of amazon.co.uk and used Tesco's own chocolate from their baking aisle. Pack with a melty middle muffin on the front. It work perfectly, no blooming, melted easy and it tastes pretty good ;)
Thanks again!
I thought this would go into how the mold was formed... Not simple "melt the chocolate and pour into molds" directions.
Still, nice idea when most people would have just used this for ice-cubes.
Still, only an idea with directions, not really an instructable.
The mold was bought, so he probably has no idea how it was made.
I think its an awesome idea.
If you want to have a look: http://bit.ly/t4thAe (it was a present).
Hey, I got a silicone heart-shaped icecube-tray, I guess I should make these not later than valentines next year. Great 'ible, I like the informative photos.
Here in Brazil it's impossible find geek mold like this ... :(
My vote is yours!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/b51f/
Okay, it can be easily ordered online, but not cheaply. Actually, very very very expensive.
It'd be possible to make your own mold. There are some excellent instructables on molding gummies from legos and making cornstarch candy molds. I would think that the concepts would transfer well to chocolate molding, and the plus side of the lego method is that you could make a true pixel sprite of a Taito space invader.
I've ordered my ice tray.. my mates are gonna love this for xmas.. nice one :)
Thanks so much for the tutorial!!
Thanks very much!
Great instructable!
I have that same mold, bought from here, UK site - http://www.red5.co.uk/Ice_Invaders.aspx
I never thought of filling them with chocolate, time to give it a go!!
I couldn't help be a little disappointed in the invaders mold because they're of course not allowed to use the original authentic character shapes without royalties - they don't actually match the game characters except in pixellated goodness, but then if they did match, the ice cubes wont stay in one piece anyway - diagonal pixels you see!
Still, close enough.
Excellent 'ible, many thanks!