Ann Reardon

Chocolate Birds Nest

chocolate birds nest

Bird nests are so clever, it makes you wonder how our feathered friends actually get started. Patiently collecting and arranging twigs, leaves and other material to build a warm, secure home.  It reminds me of mums everywhere working hard to make family traditions and building a warm and loving home for their little ones.  But at this moment, my heart goes out to the mums of the 270 Nigerian schoolgirls who were kidnapped a month ago, forced from the safety of their nest.  It makes me sick to think of it, please join me in praying for their safe return home.

To make chocolate nests you will need:

Concentrated sugar solution made from:
436g (15.38 ounces) or 2 cups sugar 900 millilitres (30.43 fluid ounces) or 3 and 2/3 cups less 1 Tbsp water

200g (7.05 ounces) Tempered chocolate

chocolate nests how to cook that

To make 10 eggs:
60g (2.12 ounces) cake, crumbled
30g (1.06 ounces) chocolate, melted
rind of 1/4 of a lemon
squeeze of fresh orange juice
100g (3.53 ounces) white chocolate for coating
1/2 vanilla bean (optional, use if you want speckles on your egg).

 
You may also like to add chocolate feathers or chocolate leaves to your nest.

chocolate feathers

2014

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That

© All Rights Reserved Reardon Media PL 2020

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

36 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    Que bello trabajo

  2. […] enjoy chocolate work and was excited to try out some new techniques from Ann Reardon and her site How To Cook That. I could have gone the corn flake or chow mein […]

  3. Hi! I love these. And I’m planning to give them away as easter presents. Do you think I can make them this week and put them in the freezer for two weeks, until I give them away?

    • Hi Natascha, it is not a good idea to put chocolate in the freezer. Make them a week out at most.

      • Thank you for your reply. I’m really new to making edible decoration so I have little knowledge on how to handle the material. But your blog inspires me and there are a lot of things I want to try.

  4. Excellenttooooooo……….Perfectoooo

  5. Hi Ann,

    Due to the moisture from the sugar solution present on the chocolate as it sets, have you ever experienced sugar bloom with these chocolate nests? If so, is there a way to prevent this from happening once the chocolate has both dried and set?

    Thank you so much!

    -Ty

  6. Ann! I’m a twelve years old baker who loves baking. I love your videos so much and they were very inspiring to me. I created this bird nest for easter and it came our AMAZING! ? I placed it on top of the cake and got people asking for how I made this. Even my parents got amazed! you are one of the most inspiring people I will ever know!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

    • Well done Rose! Keep baking, you have done a fabulous job on this cake and decorations.

  7. Oops! My sugar solution is looks like slush. Did I freeze it too long?

    • Hi Amy, I would be guessing a little as we can’t see it but it sounds like it was in too long. You don’t want it frozen. 2-3 hours is usually plenty.

  8. I would like to make this chocolate nest with coconut and chocolate melt pieces. Is it possible?

    • Hi Marilyn, you could use coconut if you wished.

  9. Hi Ann
    How many chocolate nests does your recipe make please?
    Patricia

  10. Hi Ann
    I would love to make my grandson a small sports car cake. Can you make one please and put it on
    video.
    Thanks Patricia

  11. Nest did not stick to foil once took out of water it was not workable or bendable what was wrong?

    • Hi Mary Ann it sounds like that the chocolate had set. You need to work quickly while it is still soft enough to shape.

  12. I was just wondering if these bird nests could be made with candy melts?

    • Hi Sonja, You could use candy melts which are compound chocolate. They wont taste as nice and you may need to get a thinner to make the melts work well.

    • Is it possible to make nests with coconut and chocolate melts?

  13. Great video! Thank you I really enjoyed it
    Question; I have melted chocolate before and put it in a ziplock bag just like you did. When I tried to make the chocolate come out by pressing on it, the bag exploded. Probably because of the heat.

    How can I avoid that and how long does the chocolate stay melted… Since making the nests probably take a while to make.

    Thank you!

    • Hi Genevieve, make sure you use a good quality ziplock bag as the poorer quality ones tend to get too soft with the warmth and split the joints. How long the chocolate will stay workable will depend on the chocolate and the room temp.

  14. I love it. It is so nice and pretty

  15. If there is some tempered chocolate left, can I tempered and use it again?
    Can I storage the nest and leaves in the fridge?

    • Hi Mia, It should be fine to put the birds nest in te fridge. Any left over chocolate, can just be stored at room temperature (cool) in an airtight container. When you wish to use it, re temper it as you suggest.

  16. Hi Ann,

    I used compound chocolate to make this, however tried 2 times still can’t make it, the chocolate broke into pieces as I was lifting up the chocolate from the sugar water immediately after piping. Is there anyway to make the chocolate nest using compound chocolate? I want to make them for Easter, appreciate your help.

    Thank you.

    • Hi Cynthia, It should work with compound chocolate. Perhaps try using a bigger piping tip so the nest is not as fragile. Let us know how it goes.

  17. Thanks for talking about tempering the chocolate…. it has cleared my wrong behavior with the chocolate

  18. There’s an easy recipe on YouTube how to make fondant and it’s very easy and doesn’t need a lot it’s on all recipes.com

  19. Could you please do a green tea cake video? If not then could you do anything green tea related? Please and thank you so much

  20. Also I forgot it can’t have any fondant anywhere on the cake because I can’t get a hold of fondant.

    • Follow Ann’s rich chocolate cake recipe and put cherry in it. I always follow her chocolate cake recipe and always the winner, and for variation I put frozen raspberry in cake mixture before baking, but it will take longer time in baking. Make the cake a day or two days before and decorate the next day.

      What theme your sister ur like and what color does she like. What frosting does she like. When u have all that then you prepare all ingredients and tools that you need. I hope this help,

      Cheers

      • Thank you I will think about just depend but it helps a lot

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