Here is one recipe that is perfect and uses ingredients that I already have on hand…

I prefer to make a graham cracker crust because I keep lots of graham crackers around in the summer for making s’mores.

I like to garnish with mini chocolate chips.

Enjoy!

If you are not familiar with s’mores, it is like a marshmallow and chocolate sandwich with the bread replaced with graham crackers.  First roast a marshmallow skewered on the end of a long stick or fork over the coals of a camp fire or grill. 

Meanwhile put a piece of chocolate on a graham cracker.  After the marshmallow turns a golden brown, you pull it off the stick, place it on top of the chocolate, and top with another graham cracker.  The warm marshmallow melts the chocolate and voilà! a s’more is born.

No one is certain when or who invented the s’more.  The accepted idea is that the Girl Scouts made “Some Mores” at Girl Scout Camp back in the 1920’s.

Here’s my theory:  someone forgot it was a bad idea taking candy bars camping during the summer heat and the whole lot melted before dessert time.  Because the dim-witted person was also frugal, there was a strong need not to waste the chocolate.

This is how chocolate and I get along in the heat…  If I purchase a gift of chocolate from my favorite chocolate shop during summer, I go into game show contestant mode.  The game is called “Get Home Before It Melts.”

If I succeed, I declare myself the winner and treat myself to some chocolate (go figure! ).   There is strategy involved.  I have to pick the most efficient route home, and I must place the chocolate directly under the AC vent on the floor of my car with it blowing full blast.  I yell at all the drivers to get out of my way as I precariously drive the line between speeding and simply going slightly over the limit.

Back to s’mores.  The real reason I bring this up today is because of an article I read from Global Exchange.  They remind us to use fair trade chocolate when making our s’mores this summer.  No, sad to say, Hershey is not fair trade, so what this really means is that you might have to step out of your flavor comfort zone and explore a new taste while supporting the fair trade initiative.

To learn more about their project, visit this website: www.globalexchange.org/smoresaction.

After eating my lunch, I elbowed my way through the crowd that had swarmed around the desserts.  I stared at the table.  <gasp> It had an abundance of cupcakes, the most diverse assortment of beautifully decorated cupcakes I had ever laid eyes on!

The first cupcake I enjoyed was a deep, rich, red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  My second cupcake was a dark chocolate with an equally dark and creamy chocolate frosting.

I better stop now.  I can’t tell you how many I had (and still respect myself)!

To my surprise, I learned the cupcakes were made by a friend of mine who turned her passion for making cupcakes into a booming Milwaukee business.  The Milwaukee Cupcake Company makes, correction, crafts scratch-baked cupcakes. 

There are a number of classic varieties available, but it’s the unique and exotic that I can’t stop thinking about…

Here are just a few of the sensational cupcakes to choose from:

The Botanical Gardens
Delicate lavender rosewater cupcake, with orange zest, topped with fluffy vanilla buttercream, and sprinkled with crystallized sugar and lavender.

The Hog
Dark chocolate cupcake with baked-in bacon bits, dipped in luxurious ganache, and topped with bacon bits.

The Lake Park
White chocolate cake with a raspberry reduction ribbon running through it, topped with white chocolate cream cheese butter cream, a fresh raspberry and a white chocolate drizzle.

The Rishi Matcha
Green tea cake made with Rishi’s Matcha Japanese Green Tea, which is antioxidant-rich and award-winning.  The light, fluffy, buttercream is made with Rishi’s Sweet Matcha powder, which produces a beautiful color and delicate taste. Then it’s garnished with crystallized ginger.

You can order all you want from the Milwaukee Cupcake Company website, but if you need instant gratification, and happen to be in the Milwaukee area, visit their new retail counter (opening in May 2010) at 316 N. Milwaukee St. in the Third Ward… in the same building as the Coquette Café and Petaluna Floral.

I can’t wait to show off these beauties at my son’s upcoming confirmation party.  All I have to do is resist eating the whole darn tray before the guests arrive!

The staff here at Chocolate University Online have created a special 100th anniversary edition of this book and released it in a PDF download format.

In addition to the original text and 138 recipes, the book contains an all new introduction by CUO staff.  We also took each of the pictures and moved them to the same page as their corresponding recipes.  It’s much more convenient to see the picture right there rather than looking at various photo pages to get an idea of the finished product.

Furthermore, we added a great new alphabetical index.  Now if you know the name of the recipe you’ll be able to find it quickly.  That makes the book much friendlier than the original which, quite uselessly, listed all recipes in page number order.

The new version is for sale and immediate download at our Chocolate Store page.  Enjoy!

One those desserts that will forever stand out for me was the Molten Chocolate Cake.

Wow…

Yum…

Sorry for the pause.  I might have lost consciousness just now thinking about it.

Molten chocolate cake is a popular and luxurious dessert.  It is a combination of flourless chocolate and soufflé.

Sometimes it is called Chocolate Lava Cake (or even Molten Chocolate Lava Cake).

There is some dispute as to the inventor of the molten chocolate cake.  On the one hand, a U.S chef takes credit by exclaiming that he accidentally took a chocolate sponge cake out of the oven before it was done.  On the other, a French chef argues that such a dessert already existed in France.

In my opinion, it does not matter who invented it.  The most important thing is that it was invented!

Butter, eggs, sugar, and chocolate are the four main ingredients of a molten chocolate cake.  Typically, the eggs are whisked together with sugar to form a dense, thick paste while the butter and chocolate are melted together.  There is a lighter version that separates the egg whites so they can be whipped into a foam to create more lift when baked.

Have you ever heard the saying:  “A little too much chocolate is just about right?”  After eating a Molten Chocolate Cake, you’ll know what that means.

I should have purchased the recipe book from Royal Caribbean so that I could make their actual version.  But, alas, I did not.  Here’s another version that I hope you enjoy…

Enjoy!

What she failed to mention is that it was I who suggested the Pinot Grigio as a potential pairing with the cheesecake.

Having tasted several of the wines earlier in the evening, I knew upon the first taste of the cheesecake that we would have a winning combination.  Since the last of the Pinot was already in my glass I had to take it over to Bryn and tell her to taste the combination.

Somehow that experience developed into a crazy article about cheesecake and the Olympics.  Hmm.  Maybe the holiday stress is started to get to her.

Anyway, I thought this might be a good opportunity to share the recipe for the cheesecake.  After all, I am the cheesecake master in our house!

And, if you want to try something great, open a bottle of Pinot Grigio and sip along while you eat.

Well, thanks for asking.  Cheesecake is believed to have originated in ancient Greece and was served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 B.C.

In 1872, America dairyman William Lawrence, is credited with inventing modern day cream cheese.  He accidentally created it when he tried to reproduce a French cheese called Neufchatel.

William Lawrence started selling his new invention and called it PHILADELPHIA Brand Cream Cheese.  Today, cream cheese is by far the most popular cheese used to make cheesecakes.

I recently enjoyed eating one of my favorite cheesecakes; brownie marble cheesecake.  During this most enjoyable experience, I “accidentally” stumbled upon something spectacular.  I had a sip of a Pinot Grigio as I took a bite of my cheesecake slice and Bam!  The cheesecake/Pinot Grigio pairing was amazingly delicious.

I recommend you celebrate the Winter Olympics with a cheesecake and a Pinot Grigio.  Raise a toast to ancient Greece and accidental inventions!

Why is the cake called Devil’s Food?

Folk lore says that a group of Pilgrims that lived next door to a Chocolate House in Amsterdam in the late 1600’s, witnessed chocolate house patrons cavorting and making merry while they consumed chocolate.  The Pilgrims were convinced that chocolate was made from the devil.  They named chocolate “Devil’s Food.”   Later on, when dark chocolate cake gained in popularity, it was named Devil’s Food Cake for its sinfully delicious nature.

Devil’s food cake is moist, airy, and rich.  It is multi-layered and covered in lots of thick chocolate frosting.  Yum!

There are different variations of Devil’s Food cake such as Red Velvet, Red Devil, Waldorf Astoria Cake, and $100 Dollar Cake.

Red velvet cake has a more pronounced red color because the high concentration of baking soda caused a reddening of the cocoa powder when baked.  Today, red food coloring is sometimes used. 

Feeling a craving for Devil’s Food cake?  Here is a good recipe:

By the way, there is a National Devil’s Food Cake Day!  It is May 19.

If you enjoy baking cakes here’s a chocolate cake recipe book that might interest you.  It is published by Frances Moore of Painless Cooking.

By the way, the Devil’s Food Cake recipe above is not from this book.

For access to Frances time-proven recipes visit the Chocolate Cakes Recipes page.

The chocolate ice cream had little chocolate flavor and tons of sweetness which was not worth eating as far as I was concerned.  Over the years things have changed (thank goodness!!!!) and now I can enjoy a great tasting light icecream.

For example, after a couple BLT’s (with turkey bacon for less fat) and a glass of Pinot Grigio, I was in the mood for a chocolate dessert (what else?).  Dean’s makes a Country Churn Light Chocolate Ice Cream that is delicious and is a reduced fat version.

The cocoa used in this ice cream is processed with alkali (dutched) which is what I would expect in an ice cream.  Dutched cocoa is used to produce a deep brown color and reduces the acidity so that the cream (milk protein) in the ice cream doesn’t clump.

Although dutching reduces the overall chocolate impact it does impart a less bitter chocolate flavor which is quite compatible with the sweet creaminess of ice cream.

So, my impression of this ice cream is quite favorable.  I really enjoyed the formulation, but more importantly I did not have to sacrifice flavor to reduce my intake of fat.  As far as I am concerned no reduction in fat is ever worth loss of chocolate flavor, but when I can have flavor with less fat I am a happy woman!

First off I’ll point out that there is a sticker on the front of the box that we have that says, “Compare to Weight Watchers.”  That might normally be a warning to me, saying something like, “stay away, the flavor has been compromised.”  But, I’m not here to bash the product.  Actually quite the opposite.

These bars are each 100 calories, 1 gram of fat, 5 grams of fiber, and 15 grams of sugar.  Total protein is 4 grams.  Total carbohydrates are 24 grams.  There are even 150 mg of calcium.  OK, enough of the technical specifications.

The first thing I noticed when I took a bite was the good chocolate impact.  Bryn commented that they probably used good cocoa.  There are no artificial flavors listed so the cocoa is standing on its own.  Next I noticed the texture.  It’s really creamy and smooth.  No grittiness or icy feeling like you get from some frozen fudge bars.

The portion size is good too.  That made the overall experience quite satisfying.  I didn’t feel like I was getting ripped off by choosing a low calorie count.

Each package contains 6 bars at 4 fluid ounces each.  So if you’re looking for a nice cool dessert on a hot summer day, this might be just what you’re looking for.