Couverture, chocolate or cake icing? How to choose like a chocolatier
Couverture, chocolate or cake icing? How to choose like a chocolatier
Cocoa butter, sugar or foreign fat: how to recognise the three and what they are suited for
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What you will learn
- Why chocolate stays thick when melted and couverture flows
- What you need couverture for and why it has to be tempered
- What is in cake icing and when it is the right choice
- How long white, milk and dark varieties keep
On the shelf they sit side by side: chocolate, couverture and cake icing. They look similar but behave completely differently when melted. Use the wrong one for pralines and you get a thick, dull shell. Cover a cake with expensive couverture and you temper for no reason.
The difference lies almost entirely in the fat. How much cocoa butter is in it, and has it perhaps been replaced altogether? Once you know that, you also know what each product is suited for. We explain it the way we show it in our courses in Adliswil.
1Supermarket chocolate
Perfect for nibbling, only partly suitable for coating.
Regular chocolate, the kind you find in any supermarket, contains significantly less cocoa butter than couverture and more sugar. You notice this straight away when melting it: it stays viscous and forms strands. Coating a praline with a paper-thin layer is very difficult or nearly impossible.
The difference is especially clear with milk chocolate. Melted milk chocolate stays thick, whereas milk couverture flows evenly and smoothly.
Chocolate is cheaper and sweeter than couverture. Use it for enjoying and for simple cakes where it disappears into the batter. We do not recommend it for pralines, bars or hollow figures.
2Couverture
Less sugar, more cocoa butter: the working material of chocolatiers.
Couverture contains less sugar and more cocoa mass and cocoa butter. Because these two ingredients are more expensive than sugar, couverture also costs more. In return you get a more intense chocolate aroma and a mass that flows beautifully. That is exactly what you need for bars, pralines, hollow figures and fine coatings.
One rule always applies: couverture must be tempered before use. Otherwise it turns grey, dull or brittle. We show you how in our Anleitung zum tempering.
Couverture is available as blocks, drops or shavings. We prefer working with drops: they melt evenly, can be weighed precisely and are ideal for seeding during tempering.
3Cake icing, fat icing and cake melts
Shines without tempering, but does not replace couverture.
Cake icing is a chocolate-like mass. The cocoa butter is left out entirely and replaced with another vegetable fat, usually coconut or palm fat. That is why you do not need to temper it, and it still shines.
Using it is simple: place the pack in lukewarm water until the contents have melted, then pour the icing over the finished cake. It sets firm and takes on a nice gloss. Because coconut and palm fat are cheaper than cocoa butter, cake icing costs considerably less. In taste, however, it cannot compete with chocolate or couverture.
In the confectionery trade, cake icing is used to coat cakes, sponge cakes, cake pops or confectionery. It is never used for high-quality confectionery such as pralines or chocolate bars: the flavour and melt are not sufficient for that.
4The three compared directly
| Chocolate | Couverture | Cake icing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fat | little cocoa butter | a lot of cocoa butter | coconut or palm fat instead of cocoa butter |
| Sugar | high | lower | depending on the variety |
| Melted | thick and viscous | flows evenly | flows evenly |
| Tempering | not suitable for pralines | essential | not necessary |
| Flavour | sweet | intensely cocoa | milder |
| Ideal for | snacking, simple cakes | pralines, bars, hollow figures | cakes, sponge cakes, cake pops |
| Price | inexpensive | higher | the most affordable |
5Storage and shelf life
Dark, cool and dry: this applies to all three.
Store chocolate, couverture and cake icing always in a dark, cool and dry place, ideally at about 18 °C. With cake icing, slightly warmer storage is less critical, because it contains no cocoa butter.
You can find more on how to store couverture correctly in our article on storage and shelf life.
| Variety | Shelf life |
|---|---|
| White | about 6 months |
| Milk | 1 to 1.5 years |
| Dark | up to 2 years |
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