When I was in Rome for the first time, nearly 30 years ago, I paid a visit to the famous Bar Tre Scalini for their signature “tartufo,” a ball of chocolate gelato covered in chunks of dark chocolate, topped with a mound of whipped cream, and garnished with a “rotolo di cialda” cookie (a.k.a. pirouline wafer). Even though they are not from the real-life Gelateria Bocelli, I decided that these tartufi were a special enough memory to warrant making a miniature rendition for my dollhouse shop.
For the ice cream balls, I repurposed the polymer clay mix from my chocolate gelato and used the same chunks of “dark chocolate” that were in the stracciatella gelato. To give the tartufi the appearance of melted ice cream, I applied a few dabs of my versatile chocolate sauce mixture (translucent liquid Sculpey mixed with dark brown soft pastels) before baking again. For a subtle hint of shine, I glazed these spots with matte varnish.
The whipped cream was a mix of Premo white and translucent, softened quite a bit with liquid clay. For garnish, I topped each tartufo with a pirouline wafer. After baking, I applied a few random spots of matte varnish on the whipped cream.
For the display, I bought some acrylic plates and used my Cricut cutting machine to cut some scalloped circles out of cardstock covered in gold adhesive vinyl. To fit the gold circles into the plates, I ran a small ball tool around the inside rim to create a crease in the cardstock.
The display case only has room for four plates, but since the set came with five, I decided to make a fifth tartufo that is partially eaten. I tried to make this one look a little more melty.
Eventually I’d like to make some small gelato spoons and will put one on this plate.
Here are a couple more photos of the tartufi in the display case.
