1 week prior to Gold Cupcakes

The cupcakes are for a 50th wedding anniversary. Because they are do on the same morning as another cake, I would like to get as much done ahead of time as possible.  For these cupcakes, I am going to make some chocolate leaves.  The first thing I did, was to send my husband to the florist on his way home from work to buy some lemon leaves.  I washed them with soap and water and let them get good and dry.  Chocolate and water do not mix!

Melt some chocolate (I used Wilton chocolate melts, but I think almond bark or chocolate chips would yield the same results).  I went with the dark cocoa - the plan is to cover them with some gold luster dust, I thought that would show up better against a darker chocolate.

I then painted some chocolate on the back of the leaves.  I did not fill the entire leaf, as I did not want my chocolate leaves to be that large.  This actually served well in removing the chocolate from the leaves as well.  After I finished one tray full I came back and painted a quick second coat to make them a bit thicker.  I learned this as I tried removing some of the one coat chocolate leaves that crumbled to pieces.

When removing the chocolate leaf from the lemon leaf, do it slowly and carefully.  These little guys are fragile!  I made twice as many as I needed.  If many break, I will have a lot of  extra...if they don't, I can double them up on each cupcake.  Lastly, I brushed a small amount of luster dust on each leaf.  Starting with a brush down the center vein and radiating from there.  The leaves on the left have luster dust, the ones on the right do not.  It was subtle, but I like the ones with the luster dust much better than those without.