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BluemageKyle : Please don't be spammy and instead, contribute to topics.

Oldschool41 : Before I answer your question, I want to let you know for future reference, that we have a Food & Drink section where this type of post would be better classified.

Now I'm the type of person who would never make stuff professionally... just for myself and friends/family. Given that, I don't care about looks, only taste. I realize if you want to be a professional, that doesn't fly. People judge you based on presentation.

Could you provide a little more info? What's wrong about how the chocolate hardens and what methods are you using for coating the strawberries? Maybe from that, I can figure out what adjustments you need to make.

Crazy Li : Good point I'll make sure to add a sub topic to the threads I'm creating.

Back on topic: Well I've been using just regular Hersey's chocolate to melt down in a metal pan till it melts into a sauce. Once the cake is done cooking and I turn the oven off and start dipping the strawberries into the pan. Once all my strawberries are covered I store them in the fridge sitting them on the little green leaf part (or the front part of the strawberry facing upward) overnight to harden. When I wake up next morning to put the strawberries on, I notice that some sides of the berry don't have as much chocolate as another side (like you can still see the strawberry on one side, yet you can't on the other). I'm wondering if I should use a different chocolate to melt instead of Hersey's if the brand is the problem. Should I store the strawberries in the freezer instead of the fridge (thou I believe the berrys would suffer frost damage). Hope that gives you enough info to help me out?

Gravity. When you lay the strawberry on its side, the chocolate drips towards the side its laying on, removing it from the top, most likely. It won't harden fast enough to surround the strawberry before gravity does its thing.

You have two options:

1. Find a quick-hardening chocolate solution. I know they make chocolate for ice cream that quick-hardens. That stuff works at room temperature, but part of that may be from the cold of the ice cream. Not sure if it will quick shell on strawberries.

2. Get a mold to sit the strawberries in. This is the ideal way, I think. If you can get something vaguely strawberry-shaped and sit the strawberries in it so that it stays soaking in the chocolate as it hardens, you'll not have room for run-off.

Also, here are some other things for the process that I wanna mention just in case you over looked it:

-Dip your strawberries DRY. Yes, you wanna wash them off first, but make sure to dry them before dipping. Wet berries incur more run-off.

-Add a little butter to your melted chocolate, stirring it up to blend. This makes the chocolate smoother/creamier which makes for better coating in this case.

-Make sure you're coating the berry thoroughly to begin with. I typically stick it as far in as possible (I don't mind chocolate on the fingers, though it is hot so be careful). Shake off the excess and then see if you missed any spots before putting it back in. Swivel and tilt it around in the chocolate to get good coverage.

I hope some of this helps.

Crazy Li : Hmm I like the idea of a mold to sit the berries in. I wouldn't mind a quick-hardening chocolate solution; thou I bet it would cost a good amount of money. Maybe I'll try a thicker chocolate to melt I bet that would help out a little bit. But I agree with you that run-off and gravity might be influencing the hardening process.
Actually I'm wondering if an empty egg carton might work since eggs are about a similar size to a strawberry?

This is what comes to mind when I think of quick-hardening chocolate: http://www.smuckers.com/products/category.aspx?groupId=4&categoryId=8

Again, I have no clue if it works for anything that isn't Ice Cream. It's about $5 a bottle at the local supermarket here.

I've also heard people say that chocolate chips work well for the coating, but I'm not sure how that's any better than Hersey's.

You could also just dip it multiple times, alternating the directions that you allow it to dry in. I actually rarely hear of people dipping things in other things only once - it almost always has to be more than once, I think. But, of course - I can be wrong.

Have you thought about using that kind of chocolate that will harden fast when you put it on ice cream? I hope you know what I'm referring to. It will probably work a lot better than regular chocolate.

Eh, the thing about those kinds of chocolates is that they only work on cold stuff. (I should know; I've tried...) Otherwise, it doesn't free at all / it takes absolutely forever.