Father’s Day is just around the corner and dads love chocolate too! A lot of the companies below offer expedited shipping, so if you’re just now realizing too that Father’s Day is only five days away, don’t panic!

See’s has a lot of great Father’s Day stuff this year. There’s the standard Seegar that’s been around for years, and they now have a Blue Ribbon Box filled with chocolate, a Father’s Day Scrapbook Box, and a Sports Dad Box.

Target has Good Fortune Father’s Day cookies, which are fortune cookies dipped in dark and white chocolate.

Father’s Day Milk Chocolate Bar Gift Box are from World’s Finest Chocolate and are chocolate bars wrapped in “Happy Father’s Day” wrappers and be personalized further for free!

Chocolate.com is offering a Happy Father’s Day Chocolate Chip Cheesecake that looks amazing!

By Nature (UK) has natural and organic chocolates and is featuring a chunky Father’s Day slab.

Phillips Candy has put together a Boston Red Sox Bucket that contains milk chocolate baseballs, freshly baked Phillips Chocolate Chip cookies, “ballpark” popcorn - and peanuts drizzled with chocolate, a Red Sox tumbler, temporary Red Sox tattoos & pencils and an adorable plush baseball.

You can find a bunch of Molded Chocolate Father’s Day gifts from The Chocolate Vault!

VirtualChocolate.com has a ton of chocolate-themed e-cards for dad, too, just in case you can’t get something else to him in time!

[image: see's product photo]

It’s National Donut Day! As Sandy points out, National Doughnut Day was established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to help raise funds during the Depression and to honor the Salvation Army workers who prepared doughnuts for thousands of soldiers during World War I. It’s always the first Friday of June each year.

Image details: Health Food Junk Food served by picapp.com

Did you know that? I didn’t!

Following is a recipe that I’ve used several times. Keep in mind, this is in no way any kind of gourmet doughnut. Don’t look at the can of biscuits and go “pshaw!” because that just means you haven’t tried it! I’ve made doughnuts from scratch before and they’ve turned out great as well, but when I want a quick treat for the family this is the way to do it.

I snagged this one from watching a Paula Deen episode and was thrilled to find I had everything already in the cupboard!

Chocolate Dipped Doughnuts

Peanut oil
1 can store-bought biscuits
1 (4-ounce) bar sweet chocolate (recommended: Baker’s German’s)
1/2-ounce (1/2 square) unsweetened chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat peanut oil to 350 degrees F.

Separate pre-cut biscuits. Make a hole in the middle with your hand and sculpt dough into a doughnut shape. Place doughnuts into fryer and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, flipping to fry both sides. Place doughnuts aside onto a paper towel lined plate to remove excess oil.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over very low heat. Stir in the sugar, alternating with the evaporated milk, blending well. Raise the heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture becomes thick and creamy, about 8 minutes. Stir in the vanilla then remove the pan from the heat.

Stick a fork through the doughnut holes and dip the doughnuts immediately into the chocolate mixture before the chocolate starts to cool. Place the doughnuts on a plate and serve when the chocolate on the doughnuts sets, about 5 minutes.

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While the chocolate is still somewhat wet on the doughnut, sprinkle with flaked coconut, chopped peanut, sprinkles, etc. A plain doughnut with just powdered sugar sprinkled over the top is yummy too!

My favorite month of the year! Ok, not really - but any month that you get to celebrate with candy is a good one.

Emily’s Chocolates, which I’ve written about before, are also celebrating candy month and the start of summer with their yummy dark chocolate-covered berries - strawberry, blueberry, and cherry.

The strawberries - my favorite - are especially sweet and we all know how perfect strawberries and chocolate are together!

[image used with permission from Emily's Chocolates]

Today is National Devil’s Food Cake Day! Yeah, I don’t know who comes up with these but I’m not going to complain!

Devil’s Food Cake is traditionally a rich chocolate layer cake paired with chocolate frosting and is thought of as the counterpart to Angel Food Cake. Makes sense, right?

The first known recipe for Devil’s Food Cake in the U.S. dates back to 1905, and it’s called Devil’s Food Cake not only because of the inclusion of real chocolate in the recipe, but because the baking soda causes the cocoa to redden when baked!

Devil’s Food Cake
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Sift in flour, cocoa and baking soda. Stir to combine. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap cakes separately in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.)

Place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread with 1/2 cup frosting. Top with second cake layer. Spread top and sides of cake with remaining frosting. (Can be prepared up to 8 hours ahead. Cover with cake dome and let stand at room temperature.)

Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup (about) sour cream

Melt unsalted butter and chocolate in heavy small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Transfer to large bowl. Whisk in cocoa powder and vanilla. Whisk in 1 cup sugar and 1/3 cup sour cream. Whisk in remaining 1 cup sugar. Gradually whisk in enough of remaining sour cream to form spreadable frosting.

[image: flickr]

Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!

NCCD always falls on May 15th and is intended to celebrate the wonderfulness that is chocolate chips and their popularity in our cooking and baking. While there is no congressional record or proclamation that today is officially a “national” anything, it’s still a valid holiday in my book! And of course, there are ecards.

The above video gives you some great tips on how chocolate chips should be added to baked goods. I’ve always kept my chocolate chips in the freezer by default (they get too melty in the cupboard), so I was glad to see that mentioned!

What’s your favorite recipe involving chocolate chips? What is your favorite brand of chocolate chips to use?

My favorite recipe is my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and I prefer the Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips.

I totally spaced on yesterday being National Nutty Fudge Day! Did you celebrate?

Nutty Fudge

1 1/2 Sticks butter
1/3 c Evaporated milk
1/4 c Sugar
1 c Milk chocolate
1 c Semi-sweet chocolate
1 c Marshmallow cream
1 c Peanut butter chips
1/2 c Chopped peanuts

Blend butter, milk and sugar in a med. saucepan. bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 miniutes. add both chocolates and the marshmallow and blend. Let cool. Then add the peanut butter chips and peanuts. Place in a buttered and foil lined pan. Chill at least 1 hour and serve.

[image: stock.xchng]

Image details: Health Food Junk Food served by picapp.com

The Lifestyles channel is participating in the bloggy giveaways this week. I’m not because I’m not going to be around for the next week and won’t be able to keep up on it, but check out what everyone else is doing and see how you can win!

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Here are some of the giveaways going on right now! There will be more giveaways going on throughout the week, so you may wish to sign up for our channel feed.

Tree Hugging Family - Mothering Magazine Subscriptions - Big Green Purse
Mother Earth’s Garden - Let it Rot! The Gardener’s Guide to Composting - Leapin Lemur and Penguin Puffs
Simply Thrifty - Coupon Organizer
Offbeat Homes - Building With Awareness Guidebook on DVD
Hankering for Yarn - Butterfly Earrings
Junk Creations - EcoHangers
Stamping Mad - Stamping Hobbyists Gift Set
Jewelry and Beading - Artful Blogging Magazine
Layers Upon Layers - Art Doll Quarterly
Quilting and Patchwork - The Magic of Patchwork Book
Babylune - Hanes Gift Certificates
Tool Belt Tips - 2 Cases Thompson’s Water Seal
Tangled Thread - Tags and Tie Dyes Contest
Busy Family Meals - Asian Cooking Starter Kit
Blog Fabulous - Boogie Dance Giveaway
Thrifty Mommy - Honey Thyme Herb Farm, Recycled Bags, Cooking Light Cookbook - Towel Spa
Weary Parent - You’re a Good Mom Gift Set, Blume Girl Boutique Giveaway, Blog Design
Supernanny Rules - Skincare by Amino Genesis
Kettle and Cup - The Tea Table Book
Baking Delights - Hello Cupcake Book
Behind the Vine - Wine lovers will love Vacu Vin
Solo Mother - Sexy Dancing
Keeping the Castle - Hypoallergenic Pillow from Lands’ End
Career and Kids and GenBetween - 5 SanDisk Gator Cruzer 4GB Flash Drives - contest 1 - contest 2
Play Library - Melissa and Doug Birthday Party Cake Toy
A Child Chosen - Crystal and Pearl Earrings
One Book Two Book - Tessy and Tab Reading Starter Kit

Have fun and best of luck!

The Second Annual AirBake Extreme Cookie Challenge, sponsored by Wearever, was at FAO Schwarz in New York City last week, with a “Cookie-Off” hosted by Heroes actor Noah Gray-Cabey. The five finalists have been chosen and two of their recipes were sent to me to share with you!

Extremely Chocolatey Beaver Huts
by Jessie Grearson & Eleanor Sapat from Falmouth, ME

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup Quaker instant oats
1 Tbsp. cream or half and half
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup white chocolate chips
¾ cup dark chocolate chips
¼ cup chopped walnuts
One Hershey’s kiss
5-6 Tbsp. Nutella
1/6 bag thin stick pretzels, some broken, for decorating huts

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. In large bowl beat together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.

3. In another bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, oats, baking soda and salt; stir into the butter mixture and add cream slowly, just enough to form a stiff, but well-blended dough.

4. Fold in chocolate chips and chopped walnuts (we think of these as rocks and stones).

5. Roll by large tablespoons into rough balls, about the size of a ping-pong ball (these are your mud huts) then hide a chocolate kiss “beaver” inside one cookie.

6. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes on an ungreased AirBake cookie sheet in the preheated oven until set (watch carefully).

7. After cookies cool, spread a small amount of Nutella as muddy layer over each hut and have fun adding pretzel “sticks” to the outside of each beaver hut.

Makes 20-24 cookies.

[image and recipe used with permission from Wearever]

These chocolate gift ideas are, of course, my own personal preference! I’m trying to keep a budget in mind and not going too extravagant. Feel free to comment with any additions you’d make!

1. I have a soft spot for the See’s Signature Red Heart. It’s such a classic, timeless Valentine’s gift and one that’s sure to please just about anyone. My mom liked it so much that we still have a “vintage” See’s heart box from the mid-60’s tucked away into storage! The satin-covered box holds two pounds of milk and dark chocolates, including Soft Centers, Nuts & Chews, Marzipan, California Brittle®, Almond Square, and Molasses Chips.



2. Hotel Chocolat has a seasonal Goody Bag that makes a fantastic gift. It comes with a Raspberry Crème chocolate mini slab (don’t let the dried raspberries scare you off - it’s delicious!), 40% milk chocolate mini slab, six seasonal chocolates, a bag of Caramel Canapés (which are my new favorites), and a milk chocolate dipper. It’s packed with so many goodies that Valentine’s will last a lot longer than just one day!



3. You may not be able to eat it but a theobromine molecule t-shirt is still one of my most favorite chocolate items! YellowIbis created this one especially for this month’s contest, but if you don’t want to wait or don’t want to enter, you can purchase one for yourself and a loved one (think how cute those would look layered over a long-sleeved tee!). They’re available in three colors — raspberry, brown and pink — and can be worn long after Valentine’s Day is over!



4. Emily’s Chocolates dark chocolate covered strawberries. They also have dark and milk chocolate covered fortune cookies (be still my heart) and you can choose friendly fortunes or love fortunes.



5. A chocolate of the month club! Now, I have no experience with this and haven’t tried the chocolate, but of course I love the idea. You can sign your loved one up for three months, six months or a full year. You’re billed monthly so it doesn’t kill you wallet in one fell swoop, and what’s better than getting chocolate delivere right to your door?

I was excited to find an email in my inbox this morning saying that Chocolate Bytes has been entered into the Death by Chocolate contest at Culinate.com, and prompted me to choose a chocolate-related entry to submit.

I chose to do the Hershey’s Moves to Mexico post from last summer since it’s still the most popular entry here, and has garnered a lot of impassioned responses and opinions, to say the least!

So, go forth and vote and I will love you forever and send you a lifetime supply of virtual chocolate! I’d offer the real stuff but we all know it would never make it to the post office.