You can paint your candy and eat it too. All across Long Island, families and friends are painting with chocolate. You've been warned: These chocolate masterpieces tend to disappear during the car ride home.

A class that's new to Long Island features a paintbrush, a colored-chocolate pallet and a dark chocolate canvas, while returning favorites allow candy artists to decorate truffles, chocolate bombs and more.

Úrsula XVII, second from right, views her customers' artwork at the conclusion of a chocolate painting workshop at her shop, Atelier Disset, in Cutchogue. Credit: Barry Sloan

If you’d like to create a gallery-style chocolate painting, go for it at Disset Chocolate. Store chocolatier Ursula XVII created this unique chocolate painting concept. During one of her workshops (for eight or fewer), you’ll enter a room with 10-by-12-inch slabs of dark chocolate set on easels around a table. These are chocolate canvases. Beside each, there’s a palette of red, blue, yellow and white melted chocolate, a paintbrush and a sponge to use for texture and layering. Sometimes, a local artist will bring an original painting to use as the subject. Ursula explains, "Other times, a bouquet of flowers will be the subject, or a cornfield of asparagus, dahlias, or a bowl of fruit. We try to do something different in each class. If people want to come back, they’ll know they won’t be doing the same thing twice."

You’re free to paint whatever inspires you. Ursula says, "It’s open-minded. Some people paint abstracts … I’ve seen others bite off the edges of their chocolate canvases and add the pieces to their paintings. I’ve never had a class where two people painted the same thing."

Ursula also offers holiday chocolate painting workshops. Guests are given hollow chocolate sculptures (a Thanksgiving pumpkin, a snowman, etc.), which are approximately one foot in height. They paint the sculptures, then break them open and devour Disset truffles and chocolates inside. No matter what the workshop, Ursula attracts a multigenerational crowd. She says with a smile, "Kids and parents come, grandmothers paint gifts for their grandchildren; we have bachelorette parties, people on dates, mothers and daughters. We get a little bit of everything."

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DETAILS: Disset Chocolate, 28080 Main Rd., Cutchogue; 917-603-5859; Thursday-Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Call for workshop prices and reservations. Classes start at $68. Chocolate painting kits are sold in the shop; dissetchocolateonline.com.

If painting on a mold is your speed, try it at Chocolate Works Plainview. There are well over 100 molds to choose from for birthday parties, baby showers, ladies’ night out gatherings, company get-togethers, dates, and more. When a chocolate party begins, each guest chooses a clear, plastic mold casing. It can be anything from a unicorn to a cellphone to an alligator to a rose. General manager Susan Cave says, "If there’s a party theme and someone wants a mold to tie in, I’ll find it."

After selecting a mold, each party guest sits at a table with a paintbrush and palette with six rainbow colors (made with melted white chocolate). Guests paint designs on the insides of their mold casings, then milk chocolate is poured over them and set in the freezer. Cave says, "When the molds harden, they come out. We flip them over, and the chocolate, colorful designs are on top."

DETAILS: Chocolate Works Plainview; 371 S. Oyster Bay Rd., Plainview; 516-252-3855; Open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; call for party pricing and reservations. Classes start at $25. Chocolate painting kits are sold in the shop; chocolateworx.com.

If you prefer a more deliciously gooey chocolate painting experience, you’ll find it at the Stony Brook Chocolate shop. At the beginning of each workshop, there is a plethora of molds to choose from, ranging from sunflowers to dinosaurs to skulls. The molds are immediately filled with chocolate and harden quickly. Next, the guests in the class are given squeeze bottles filled with 10 different colors (made with melted white chocolate and food coloring). They paint their chocolate molds by squeezing squiggly, drizzly colors from the bottles. Assistant manager Katie Farrell explains, "You can make designs using the chocolate squeeze bottles, and also use the chocolate as glue to hold decorations. Some people make tie-dye designs. Other people decorate their molds with candy from the store’s candy wall."

This fall, families can come in and pick out a ready-made 3D chocolate Thanksgiving wreath, a chocolate gingerbread house for the holidays, and more. The molds are already done, so all you have to do is paint.

DETAILS: Stony Brook Chocolate, 143 Main St., Stony Brook; 631-675-9366; Hours are Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Call for workshop information, reservations and pricing. Classes start at $15; stonybrookchocolate.com.

Avery Pence, of North Babylon, 19, decorates a cocoa bomb at Sugared Up! in Islip. Credit: Barry Sloan

If you’d like to paint "hot chocolate bombs" that will burst into cocoa, head over to Sugared Up! Chocolate painting parties and events are offered every week. To paint a hot chocolate bomb, you’ll begin with a small, premade chocolate sphere with a hole in the top. Fill it with chocolate, marshmallows and peppermints. Next, the sphere will be closed (using chocolate as the "glue") and it’s time to decorate it with a paintbrush and melted rainbow-colored chocolate. Lastly, place the sphere in a mug and pour hot milk or hot water over it. The sphere will burst into a cup of amazing hot cocoa.

Chocolate painting on molds is another popular party activity. Choose from football helmets, race cars, zodiac signs, ballet slippers and more. "Some people really take their time designing, and the chocolate molds come out beautifully," says owner Lisa Piazza. "They sit for almost 90 minutes doing the painting." Look for upcoming Family Chocolate Painting Workshops, where you’ll decorate a Thanksgiving centerpiece, a menorah, or a Christmas tree with train tracks around it.

DETAILS: Sugared Up!, 522 Main St., Islip; 631-44-1930, Hours are Friday, Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; call for reservations, event info and pricing; sugaredupny.com.

If you’d like to paint chocolate lollipops, pick up a kit at Chocolicious Chocolatier.

The chocolate painting kit comes with up to six lollipop molds, chocolate filler, four chocolate colors to paint with, lollipop sticks, a palette, brushes, and detailed instructions. The kits are themed, so you can paint snowflake pops, flower pops, even bug pops.

DETAILS: Chocolicious Chocolatier Inc., 74 Birch Hill Rd., Locust Valley; 516-671-6835; Hours Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday through Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Call in advance to order kits and pricing. Chocolate lollipop painting kits are $19.75 each; chocolicious.com.

If you don’t have the patience to paint with a brush, take a shortcut and dip your chocolate at Kilwins Chocolate shop in Port Jefferson. You’ll enter the shop’s kitchen and dip Twinkies, marshmallows, pretzels, cookies or Rice Krispie treats in machines filled with white, dark or milk chocolate. Decorate them with candies in the store, and chow down.

DETAILS: Kilwins Port Jefferson, 109-D Main St., Port Jefferson; 631-509-6555; Hours Friday, Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., Sunday, Thursday from noon to 9:30 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday from noon to 9 p.m.; Call or check Facebook for chocolate dipping event dates; kilwins.com.

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