I love cocoa butter (my favorite cocoa butter is from Mountain Rose Herbs and this is my affiliate link) but I find myself avoiding using it because it's just so difficult to get out of the container. I find myself attacking the container with a knife, scraping and twisting, trying to get enough out! It's great if you are looking for shavings of plain cocoa butter but so far I've not had a use for that.
The other day I was using cocoa butter and this time I thought I would just put the container into a pan of water and let it simmer for awhile. I really intended to let it simmer just long enough to remove at a few tablespoons, and put the container back into the cupboard. Well, I ended up completely forgetting that I was melting the cocoa butter. Note to self: Next time turn on the stove timer! I'm just glad I found it before the pan boiled dry because I'm sure the plastic container the cocoa butter is in would have melted and then my cocoa butter would have been ruined.
When I saw that I had the whole container melted (about 8 ounces) I thought it was a great opportunity to rectify the problem I'd been having.
I came up with the idea that you see in the photo above. Just a few days ago I bought some of these ice cube trays with the intentions of making gelatin [affiliate link] cubes for my mom. They have a soft bottom to them so you can just push on them and the cube pops right out.
Each one held two teaspoons. After I had each one filled, I placed the trays into the freezer. About 15 minutes later, they were solid. They popped out so easily!!
I placed the cocoa butter cubes back into the container. Each “cube” holds two teaspoons. No more digging and scraping, or boiling and boiling the container just to get the cocoa butter out of the container. I think I'll be using my cocoa butter more often now that I have it in a more convenient form!