The holiday is usually celebrated over two days, November 1st and 2nd, and it’s believed that over these two days it’s easier for the souls of the dead to communicate with those still living. A common symbol of the holiday is the skull, and celebrants use sugar and chocolate skulls to give as gifts to both the living and the dead, usually inscribed with the name of a deceased loved one on the forehead.

While searching around for more information on chocolate skulls, I came across a selection that Vosges chocolates has. Available in dark chocolate, milk chocolate and blanca (white), the 2.2 ounce chocolate skulls have black salt-coated eyes. The dark chocolate also contains ancho and chipotle chillies and Ceylon cinnamon, the milk chocolate has hickory smoked almonds and grey sea salt, and the blanca is a single-origin Venezuelan white chocolate.

All three skulls are available together for $21, or separately for $8 each.

To learn more about the Day of the Dead, check out Day of the Dead history, History & Origins, and Day of the Dead holiday guide.

[image: vosges]

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Oddly enough, the cake didn’t originate in Germany. The name actually comes from Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate, the brand used by a Texas homemaker in 1957 who used the chocolate to make her “German’s Chocolate Cake.”

The possessive “s” was dropped by General Foods, who subsequently distributed the recipe, and became the German Chocolate Cake we all know and love today.

Check out David Lebovitz’s amazing German Chocolate Cake Recipe, where the flickr picture up top came from.

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I had my first taste of it as a kid when my family went on a road trip to Indiana to visit relatives for the summer. It was the most amazing thing ever – chocolate ice cream, marshmallows, chunks of fudge, and nuts. From then on, whenever we had the opportunity to order our own flavor of ice cream, that was my first choice.

According to Wikipedia, the flavor was created in March 1929 in California by William Dreyer:

“…when he cut up walnuts and marshmallows with his wife’s sewing scissors and added them to his chocolate ice cream in a manner that reflected his partner Joseph Edy’s chocolate candy creation incorporating walnuts and marshmallow pieces. Later, the walnuts would be replaced by pieces of toasted almond.”

Having been created right at the brink of the Great Depression, the ice cream was actually given the name “rocky road” to give people something to smile about.

And, in honor of today being Rocky Road Ice Cream Day, make some of your own! If you don’t have an ice cream maker, simply allow a quart or two of chocolate ice cream to soften just a bit. Put it in a larger bowl or mixer bowl, and add marshmallows, chocolate chips and nuts and mix just enough that it’s combined, and refreeze.

Homemade Rocky Road Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half
1/3 cup sugar
dash salt
6 oz milk chocolate, melted
4 oz Egg Beaters, or egg substitute
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup toasted chopped nuts
¼ cup miniature chocolate chips
½ cup miniature marshmallows

Heat cream, half-and-half, sugar and salt in a small saucepan until sugar dissolves. Add melted chocolate and stir to combine. Remove from heat and place in a pan of cold or ice water to cool to room temperature.

Strain chocolate mixture into a blender or food processor; add Egg Beaters and vanilla. Process until smooth.
Chill until ready to freeze.

Pour into the ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions for freezing. About a minute before ice cream is finished, add nuts and chocolate chips and freeze for another minute. When ice cream is frozen, fold in marshmallows. Makes: about 1 quart

And, just because I’m very easily amused, here’s Weird Al’s music video for “I Love Rocky Road” – a parody of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll:”

[image: flickr]

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After a round of voting, Dum-Dums, the perfectly portioned little suckers, have announced two new sucker flavors for the coming year: Strawberry Shortcake and Banana Split.

The new flavors are pretty self-explanatory, and I have to admit I was pulling for the Strawberry Shortcake and Chocolate Caramel, so I’m glad at least one of them made it.

The Dum-Dums site has a neat little history page about the suckers, including a bunch of fun little facts. Now, I found this very amusing (it goes without saying that I’m easily amused):

Chocolate was the tenth sucker flavor added in 1955, but it was dropped in 1960 in favor of banana, which was dropped in 1966 when chocolate was re-added. Chocolate was then dropped again in 1975 in favor of raspberry and not re-added until 2002 before apparently being retired for good last year. Poor chocolate Dum-Dums!

What’s your favorite Dum-Dums flavor?

[image: flickr]

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It’s National White Chocolate Day! Though I’ve mentioned many times that I’m not a huge fan of white chocolate, I do accept that it has its good points – where would tuxedo strawberries be without it? It also contains no theobromine, so it’s acceptable to eat by those with medical or religious restrictions.

White chocolate actually didn’t hit the candy scene until the 1950’s when it was introduced to the US by Mars, who originally saw it made in Europe in 1954. It was then popularized by Nestlé in their Alpine White Chocolate bar, which contained white chocolate and chopped almonds. In Britain it’s distributed by the Cadbury company.

White chocolate is made up of sugar, cocoa butter, and milk solids, and actually contains no chocolate at all. It’s able to stay solid at room temperature and melts in the mouth like milk chocolate, which makes it popular in candy bars and other treats as a chocolate alternative.

The U.S. only very recently (2004) placed restrictions on the make up of white chocolate: it must be at least 20% cocoa butter (by weight), at least 14% total milk solids, at least 3.5% milk fat, and less than 55% sugar or other sweeteners.

Because of its lack of any actual chocolate a lot of people worldwide still don’t consider white chocolate to be chocolate at all. What do you think?

Celebrate today’s “holiday” by whipping up a white chocolate treat of your own!

~ White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cranberry Cookies
~ White Chocolate Peppermint Bark
~ White Chocolate Raspberry Tarts
~ Lavender Hot Chocolate
~ Chocolate Raspberry Martini

[image: flickr]

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With the discovery of radium by Marie Curie in 1898, many people began to tout it as a revolutionary health find. It was used by health spas in baths, treatments and procedures, and people were using it in everything from water jugs to toothpastes to suppositories! (I think that right there deserves an “OMG!,” how about you?)

As the video above illustrates, people of the early 20th century were quite taken with the supposed benefits of this pretty much unkown element and until people became severely ill (and of course, died) it was used indiscriminately.

It’s not surprising then that it eventually made its way into chocolate. The chocolate bar in that link was sold for its “its rejuvenation power” between 1931 to 1936 by the Burk & Braun company of Germany.

It makes you wonder – if you had lived during that time would you have fallen for the hype?

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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.

…

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!

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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]

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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.

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Arguably one of those most popular comedy bits of all time, the 39th episode of “I Love Lucy” featured Lucy and Ethel working at a chocolate factory, wrapping chocolates as they came down a conveyor belt. The episode is technically titled “Job Switching” but is better known as “Candy Factory.”

It was filmed May 30, 1952 and entails Ricky and Fred thinking that housework is much easier than earning money. Lucy and Ethel feel the opposite so the boys try doing the housework while the girls attempt to hold down a job at a candy factory.

[info via Lucy Library]

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