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The latest TikTok trend uses candle warmer lamps to melt chocolate, but this "hack" is more aesthetic than truly useful. hot chocolate melted chocolate
It seems that a new TikTok trend emerges at least once a week. The latest home accessory to be caught up in a rapturous TikTok trend: candle warmer lamps. This style of candle warmer is a tiny lamp with a fixed plate underneath. When a candle is placed on the plate, the concentrated heat from the bulb melts the wax and distributes the scent around the room without having to light the candle.
There have long been candle warmers with a heated plate rather than a lamp, but the latter offers an opportunity to further design one’s space, so it’s also a stylish accent piece. Now, candle warmer lamps are a stylish…kitchen tool?
In a recent TikTok video, creator @nataliemarceta fills a bowl with Hu Dark Chocolate Gems and a Lindt bar, then places the bowl on the base of a candle warmer lamp. Once the chocolate melts, she dips strawberries into the bowl for a tasty shortcut to chocolate-covered strawberries.
On one hand, using the ambient heat from the candle-warming bulb to slowly melt down chocolate is undeniably clever. TikTok creator @bekmarsden tried melting chocolate after claiming to have seen other people using the warmers to create queso dip, and the platform is replete with different culinary applications. The thing is, there are many different ways to melt chocolate that don’t involve using small appliances in ways they’re not tested or intended for. At the very least, anyone using a candle warmer to heat food should make sure they use the proper type of heatproof bowl.
Besides, are that many people more likely to have a candle warmer on hand than, say, a slow cooker, a hot plate or a mini fondue pot? And more often than not, a treat like chocolate-dipped strawberries or chocolate-covered Oreos is preferably served once the chocolate covering has set—in which case, it’s not necessary to keep the chocolate at a liquid state for any longer than it takes to dip the fruit or cookies. Melting, then, is as easy as turning to the microwave or the stove.
Remember, the word “hack” implies that there’s a secret, better way of doing something. This TikTok trend, meanwhile, is more about flair than genuine utility. The population of bakers who 1) own the right kind of candle warmer for this to work, 2) don’t have alternative means of melting chocolate and 3) require melted chocolate to stay melted for a prolonged period of time is surely narrow enough that this method isn’t worth changing the way you make chocolate confections.
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