Case study · chocolate work
A chocolatier's praline tasting tray.
Twenty-four cavities, six different shapes across four repeats each, all on a tray sized to a specific chiller shelf.
Customer
A specialist chocolatier
A specialist chocolatier producing a monthly tasting menu wanted a single tray that would let them produce twenty-four pralines across six different shapes, all in one chill cycle. The tasting menu changed monthly but the tray footprint was fixed.
The challenge
What we had to solve.
Six different cavity shapes on one tray meant six different demould behaviours. Silicone hardness had to work for the trickiest shape (a dome with a defined shoulder) without being too soft for the easiest (a square tablet). Cavity spacing had to fit twenty-four pralines on one chiller shelf.
The approach
What we did.
We designed the tray around the trickiest cavity — the shoulder-domed praline — and confirmed all six shapes released acceptably with that hardness. Layout put the more delicate cavities in the middle where the tray had least flex; robust cavities to the edges where flex is greatest.
Outcome
How it works now.
The chocolatier runs the tray through every monthly tasting menu, and the cavity shapes have changed once (a new tray for a redesigned menu). The old tray still runs for the original menu range.
Details
The specifics on this build.
Product
24-cavity praline tray, six shapes, four repeats each.
Route
Hand-poured food-contact silicone, mixed cavity shapes on one tray.
Grade
Standard food-contact platinum-cure silicone.
Cleandown
Hand wash between menu changes.
Related services
How this fits our capability.
Silicone chocolate moulds, cast to your bar
Multi-cavity food tooling for higher yield per pour
Bespoke food-mould cavities, not a catalogue
At a glance
The idea in a picture.
How a production tray is laid out
Swipe to see the whole diagram
Something like this?
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