Sea Shell Chocolates and a Tablescape

My Daughter Karin over at The Style Sisters has just put together an amazing tablescape using some of my  sea shell chocolates.
You can purchase these sea shell chocolates right here on my blog. I sell them for $1.00 each!

 I also sell the Sea Shells alone. Please email me for pricing joan@eatlotsachocolate.com I can do large or small orders. 

Easter is coming and wouldn't it be fun to have some of these chocolates around for your guests!

These make perfect wedding favors for your guests!

 I am selling these sea shell chocolates on the right side of my blog...I call them 

FRUITS DE MER (BELGIAN SEA SHELL CHOCOLATE IN A SEASHELL)

 If you haven't been over to my daughters blog hop over so you can see the rest of this "Under Da Sea" Tablescape!

More Chocolate recipes to come....

I am linking up to 

Tablescape Thursday

Sweeter than Chocolate

This is Ina Garten's  fabulous Ganache Cake

 

Grandma, I don't know what I love more

You or my chocolate cake

My precious grandson Turner... I

call him my sugar plum.

 










Chocolate Ganache Cake Recipe:

1/4 pound  unsalted butter at room temp 

1 Cup  sugar

4  extra large eggs- room temp

1  16 oz can Hershey's  chocolate syrup 

1  tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1  cup all-purpose flour

                                          For the Ganache:

                                     1/2  cup heavy cream

                                     8  ounces good semisweet chocolate chips

                                     1  teaspoon instant coffee granules or....

                                     ( I like to use 1 tablespoon cocoa powder) 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Butter and flour an 8 inch round cake pan, then line the bottom with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Mix in the chocolate syrup and vanilla.  Add the flour and mix until just combined.  Don't overbeat, or the cake will be tough.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake or 40 to 45 minutes, or until just set in the middle.  Don't overbake!  Let cool thoroughly in the pan.

For the ganache, cook the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and instant *coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally.

Note:  *When I use cocoa instead of the instant coffee I like to heat the cream till almost boiling, then pour over the chocolate chips and stir till creamy, then add the cocoa powder.   

Place the cake upside down on a wire rack and pour the glaze evenly over the top, making sure to cover the entire cake and sides.  You can tilt the rack to smooth the glaze.  Decorate with candied violets, if desired or crumble the gold leaf and place it on the center of the cake.  Do not refrigerate.

Sometimes I make this cake without the ganache (heaven forbid but it is lovely) and serve it with whipped cream and berries.  It's wonderful either way!    









These pictures tantalize me!!

I found them on hotpolkadot.com

Great blog!

OH MY, I DO LOVE CHOCOLATE!

Sweet Peas and Summertime

It seems like we went from freezing cold to hot, hot, hot!

But that is o.k. with me because now the flowers are coming on, like

my sweet peas. They are wild things that have squeezed in everywhere.I found this darling little house at Tai Pan when they had their

tent sale for $15. I just love it.

I am finally in the mood to get our patio in shape again for the summer.
I wish I had an arboretum that looked like this wee house. I do have a
gazebo but it is way at the back of our yard and we don't use it so
I think I will have my cute hubby make it into a little green house.
It would look similar to this miniature house.




We now have one of our 14 yer old granddaughters here for the
summer and I have been helping her get ready for girls camp.
Oh my goodness, I had forgotten all the stuff you have to do
to get them ready. But it has been great fun.




I wish all of you a sensational summer!

I hope you wonderful women check out the blog listed before this one
and go the site that is listed. It is tremendous.



I am participating in Centerpiece Wednesday

Centerpiece Wednesday

Getting ready for Memorial Day Celebration

I made this table cloth out of a J Crew sheetThis is my Christmas Berry Wreath that I stuck my Christmas

cake plate in and I placed the red berry napkin rings

around the base of the glass apothocary jar.

I love these oval white dishes that I found at Tai Pan several years ago

And of course, since I am in the chocolate business I had

to have some yummies in there somewhere. I filled this

apothocary jar with Holland mints and stuck a bunch

of American Flags around the mouth of the jar.

And......if you are looking for something clever to put around

a bowl or whatever you can order these wonderful napkin

rings from The Style Sisters.

I am participating in Centerpiece Wednesday

Just for us Girls

It's always fun to prepare a little lite lunch

for just the girls. My husband doesn't care for

scones and they are one of my favorite things.

Love serving a salad in a large seashell.

Fresh spinach with strawberries and avacado

plus candied nuts. Yummmy

I made chocolate chip and apricot scones and served them

with lemon curd



I found these blue goblets in New Jersey
at a garage sale 40 years ago and I still love them.
I think I paid about $3 for each one. I do love a bargain.



I wish the weather would clear up and give us a little sunshine
I think my pictures would be a bit brighter if I had the right light.



These are some of our seashells that we sell at
Continental Chocolatier. You can check out
our web site at: eatlotsachocolate.com
It is still under construction but you can still view it.

I am a nut for yellow and blue. Love French Country stuff.
I added a bit of color with some of the material I had left
over from the table cloth so I just cut a short piece and
tied it around the napkin. Added a little ranuculus and there ya go



If you are interested in any of the seashell candies we
can offer you the wholesale prices if you can order
in the quantities listed on our website at - eatlotsachocolate.com

I am participating in the Tablescape Thursday

JUST DESSERTS AND A GIVEAWAY!!

At the end of this blog will be directions for the giveaway.

Don't you just love a dessert table? I always try to offer several different desserts, cake, pastry and chocolates ....of course. I love the hot pink and black together. I made this table cloth for my grandaughters baby shower last year, for her baby girl. She wanted black and pink and a French theme. I think we captured that pretty well and we had a fabulous time.I'm not certain you can see it but
I think the black eifel tower adds a great touch .

When my darling daughters were here during the holiday we all went shopping, of course, and we found this darling clock at one of our favorite shops in St. George. We asked each other, "would you like that for a Christmas gift?"? OH YES! So there you are, we each have one. It's wonderful shopping together because we all like the same things and love being together.
My husband and I arise about 5:45 each day and exercise for half an hour We have a "little" breakfast, because he, not me, (but should be), is on a diet and when he leaves for work I go out to feed the chickens. I love my chickens, but not necessarily my Chantecler (the rooster). Today he seemed to be a wee bit agressive and so I left without providing any treats. He had better shape up!! No more goodies for him.


Any way, I decided I need to make a cake for my table scape. (Oh I must tell you it is fabulous if you like chocolate, butter and pecans) I wanted it to fit on one of my pedestal cake plates so I had to put it in a smaller pan than what it called for, which left me with enough batter to make a 5" cake also.


I had a little problem with the lock on the springform pan but finally got it locked.......I thought.

As I was hustling about I heard this little click and thought, no it can't be, Pooh, it was. The lock had undone itself and there was cake all over the oven burning and smoking. I dang neer burned up a wooden spoon while trying to hold up the heating element and clean up the mess and still allow the larger cake to continue cooking. But I will tell you this........it was worth the mess. I will provide the recipe later. Yumalicious!! P.S. I like decorating the cake simply, just a CHOCOLATE Tortoise Shell for each slice.


The apple cake obove is also one our favorites. Simple but wonderful.
I just love these plates for serving desserts. They are just plain white with "Just Desserts" written on them and a simple picture of a cupcake, a cake and a layered cake. There are two of each plate making a nice set of 6.



Every dessert table should have a tart of some type and of course CHOCOLATE.
And I also like to offer a little CHOCOLATE sauce which you can add hot milk and have a little hot chocolate. I love this little chocolate pot I found at Tai Pan for a whopping $4.
This plate has 3 of our Tortoise Shells, 1 of our Petite Tortoise and a choocolate cup with ganach and a cherry which we don't ship because it is so fragile.


This cake recipe calls for a lovely icing but I like it plain so that I can

offer chocolate syrup (homemade of course) to pour over the top and a little creme fresh on the side



These are the plates I am offering for our GIVEAWAY. They are so darling.

Sometimes you just want a simple little dessert and here it is.

One PETITE TORTOISE

I am participating in Tablescape Thursday

Strut your stuff Thursday

Foodie Fridays

Frugal and Fabulous

Giveaway Roundup

Delightful Chaos

How to enter:

One entry: Leave a comment

Two entries: Blog about my giveaway

Three entries: Facebook about the giveaway

Random drawing will be on March 20, 2010

I will notify the winner March 23, 2010

Tablescape Thursday

I love this gorgeous blue with the sea shells. It helps me think about summer even though there is still snow on the ground. My darling daughter Karin at The Style Sisters gave me these blue dishes that she bought at Walmart! These authentic sea shells are filled with delicious

Belgian CHOCOLATES. If you would like to see more Sea Shells filled with other chocolates please go to my Website http://www.eatlotsachocolate.com/ (It is under construction) Here is my footed glass compote dish filled with apporx. 30 Petite Tortoises.
In this picture you can also see the Sea Fruits (chocolate sea shells) nestled on the left side of the compote dish that I also sell.

I am participating in Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday This is my first Tablescape!

I am participating in Foodie Friday