The Worlds # 1 Chocolate Cake. Recipe For The Worlds # 1 Chocolate Cake.

Food Affairs of Barbados is proud to have recently catered an event at Sandalo, the lavishly appointed beach front luxury villa owned by John and Stephanie Hawkins, who also reside in Berkshire, England. Guests of honor were British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie and family, who have made Barbados their family holiday destination for the last four years. The relaxed pool side setting with a moonlit view of the sea, accompanied by the soft sounds of live entertainment provided the perfect backdrop for this casually elegant affair.

Guide – ‘Life is like a box of chocolates..

Among the delicacies served at Sandalo were our popular triple chocolate brownies, made with Bajan Mount Gay Rum. The Mount Gay factory is one of the best known attractions on the island, and these brownies certainly attracted a fair number of fans as well. This easy to make dessert is perfect for any occasion.

1 package fudge brownie mix (we like Ghirardelli)
1/3 c. Bailey’s Irish Cream
1/3 c. Mount Gay Extra Old Rum
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate pieces
1 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Guide – When you begin eating chocolate, make sure you do it one bite at a time. This is important.

Follow the directions according to the brownie mix instructions, replacing the water with 1/3 cup Bailey’s and 1/3 cup Dark Rum. Fold in the additional chocolate pieces and walnuts if using. Spread in a greased 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan lined with lightly greased parchment or wax paper, leaving 6 to 8 inches of paper on both sides. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the middle comes out almost dry but not completely dry. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 36 brownies.

Guide – In 1842 Cadbury’s in England created the worlds first chocolate bar.

Chef’s Note: After the brownies are completely cool, cover and place in the freezer for a minimum of 2 hours. Use the parchment paper on both sides as a handle to lift the brownies from the pan. Cut the brownies into squares and then diagonally into triangles for a unique presentation.

Guide – ‘It’s not that chocolates are a substitute for love. Love is a substitute for chocolate.

Spider Web Cake Ingredients

One pkg. Chocolate Cake Mix

One Can Prepared White Frosting OR
(1/2 cup white chocolate chips & 1/2 tsp. shortening)

Butter knife or Wooden Pick

For Spiders:

Large Black Gumdrop & Black Licorice Whips

OR

Peppermint patty & Red Licorice Whips

OR

Chocolate Doughnut Hole & Black Pipe Cleaners

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Making the Cake:

Bake the cake according to package directions. Let cool and remove both layers from pans.

Guide – ‘If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you.

Place first layer upside down on cake plate or cake board. Frost top of cake and place second layer right side up. Frost entire cake with chocolate frosting.

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The Worlds # 1 Chocolate Cake. Recipe For The Worlds # 1 Chocolate Cake.

Making the Spider Web:

Using white frosting, make 4 to 5 concentric circles from the center of the cake outward, starting small and ending about 1 inch from the cake’s edge. It should look like you’ve drawn a bull’s eye on the top of your cake.

Guide – ‘Life is like a box of chocolates..

Now draw a butter knife or wooden pick carefully from the cake center outward like the spokes of a wheel. This will pull the white frosting to resemble a real spider web. About 8 lines will make an authentic-looking web.

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Spider Web White Frosting Alternative:

Place 1/2 cup white chips and 1/2 teaspoon shortening (do not use butter, margarine, oil or spread) in small, heavy zipper-close plastic bag. Microwave at High 45 seconds.

Squeeze gently until all the chips are melted. Microwave an additional 10 to 15 seconds if needed. Make a small cut in bottom corner of bag; squeeze mixture onto cake as directed above.

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Making the Spiders:

Gumdrop Spider: Cut 6 one inches pieces of the black licorice whip. Poke 3 holes on each side of a large black gumdrop and insert licorice “legs”. Plop the spider on your wonderful web cake.

Guide – When it comes to chewing chocolate, a person must be very careful. Each bite of chocolate must be chewed no less than 12 times out of respect for the cacao seed that sacrificed itself for your toothsome treat.

Mint Patty Spider: Cut 6 one inch pieces of the red licorice whip. Place a small mint patty on your cake, pressing slightly into the frosting to hold. Add 3 red licorice pieces to each side of the mint patty. Pipe a little reserved white frosting onto the mint patty for eyes.

Doughnut Hole Spider: Cut 6 one inch pieces of black pipecleaner. Form each one into a rounded “L” shape. Insert 3 pipecleaner pieces into each side of a chocolate doughnut hole. Place spider on your cake.

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Cake Design Variation:

Instead of chocolate cake, bake a pumpkin spice cake, white or yellow cake. Color white frosting with orange food coloring. Simply add red and yellow food coloring to the white frosting a drop at a time until you have a nice deep shade of orange. Make the spider web with black decorating gel for a completely differently and unique cake presentation.

Guide – Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power. It is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.

View the finished Chocolate Spider Web Cake…

Guide – My favorite thing in the world is a box of fine European chocolates.

Sooner or later, everyone who’s made a New York cheesecake starts getting bored with the same old perfection every time. They start looking for variations, and frequently that’s where they start to go horribly wrong. The chocolate chip cheesecake recipe is one of the first most people try, and it’s one that can be fraught with peril if you don’t choose your recipe carefully.

The problem is that there are so bloody many sources for recipes these days. Years ago, most people got their cheesecake recipes two ways: They either whipped out their trusty Betty Crocker cookbook and used the one there or, if they were especially lucky, they got a time-tested recipe passed down from gramma or an old aunt.

Guide – In genearl, the shelf life for chocolate is a year. Chocolate that is refrigerated may not melt as readily.

Not so today. Go to your local bookstore and check the cookbook section and you’ll be staggered. Not only are there hundreds of “general” cookbooks that will take you from soup to dessert, but there are specific cookbooks just for dessert. Got your mind wrapped around that? There are even also cookbooks that specify just in cheesecake. That’s right. There are entire cookbooks devoted to cheesecake recipes, and you can bet there are at least two or three chocolate chip cheesecake recipes in each one.

Then, of course, there’s the Internet. The greatest information resource in the history of the world is also the greatest tiger trap waiting to trap the unwary cook and leave them with a bowl of useless ingredients that not only won’t make a proper cheesecake, but might likely release toxic fumes from being mixed together.

Of course there are some great ones, too. But how can you tell which is which? The best judge of a chocolate chip cheesecake recipe is comparison. Do the ingredients and process compare well to your classic New York recipe? They should, as you’re not really making major changes to the structure. If the steps and amounts match up fairly well, you’re well on your way to cheesecake success.

Guide – Choose chocolates sweetened with evaporated cane juice or barley malt. If the evaporated cane juice used is the unprocessed whole juice of the cane, it acts in the body like a whole food and doesn’t give a sugar rush.