Chocolate Showpiece
Kachina

This picture of a chocolate showpiece represents a Kachina in the primitive style.  In fact, it is a conglomeration of several different traditional Kachinas.  When researching the various styles I selected appealing elements and combined those features to design this one chocolate centerpiece. 

This chocolate showpiece of a Kachina is made primarily from modeling chocolate stacked in four separate assemblies with a central support rod of chocolate inside each section which is then capped, bottomed and lined with melted chocolate. This method of construction is a very practical one in building centerpieces, allowing it to remain sturdy through the intrinsic integral strength of each piece effectively being "boxed". 

Individual elements were cut out of modeling chocolate and laid on the surface to illustrate the graphic design in monochrome chocolate, then sprayed with a fine coat of cocoa butter thinned melted chocolate.  The base is made of marzipan brushed with chocolate and cocoa butter to represent a section of Cottonwood root that would have traditionally served that purpose. 

While often referred to as "kachina dolls," they are actually religious articles, carved and painted with reverence by Hopi whose gift it is to create them for ceremony.  Hopi men adopt the mask and dress of a particular kachina and are believed to be inhabited by the kachina they reflect.  The original small, carved versions of kachinas (also called "katsinas") were effigies created to educate Hopi children to the different kachinas and their religious roles.

Kachinas are believed to be spiritual messengers  that visit Hopi villages during the year and return to the spirit world at the end of the planting with the prayers of the Hopi. There are more than 250 different Kachinas, each with its own separate attributes representing everything from animals to abstract concepts. The Hopi were the original Kachina Doll carvers, using a single piece of cottonwood root. The Navajo began carving in their own creative way, adding leather, feather, beads and turquoise. Early Kachinas were much more simple and graphic, as is the chocolate showpiece here, than some of the more elaborate and realistic styles of today.