Lots of different kinds.

So today I pulled out the ginger and the lavender bars for mom and me to sample.

The ginger was nice, kind of rich. I didn’t taste the ginger so much but mom did.

So next one block each of lavender. When I finally managed to open that packaging well for sure I could smell it.

But oh no one little block with all that lavender … Like eating powder/powder/cream. I wanted to spit it out and it was just one tiny little square.

We had to run to get something to blank out the taste. The mixed caraibe bar was nice.

But ew what to do with the lavender!

A preview, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Decadence!

Chocolate Heart of Darkness cakes!

This is the third time I made Marcel Desaulnier’s Chocolate Heart of Darkness cakes.

This is the only time I photographed it.

I think I made it much darker than I ever made it before.

Yummy.

Soon there shall be a whole long set on the whole making process but I decided to celebrate with a preview.

Enjoy!

An aqeeqah is the muslim birth ceremony. It is usually done on the 7th day after the birth…or some calculation like that. It can also be done on the 14th, 21st, 28th…and then if you didn’t do it after that…anytime…the sooner the better.

I believe my dad’s and his siblings aqeeqah was done all at the same time and after I was already born, maybe even brother (new father).

What is it exactly?

You sacrifice an animal and share the meat out to family, friends and poor.
Some people might have a function and cook some of the meat and invite people over. Some might just have the cook-up.

In addition, you shave the baby’s hair and collect it and weigh it and pay some equivalent in charity (yes! new parents are always so very careful and exacting in the collecting…but my daddy says it’s a new baby even with a full head of hair…it’s usually always an ounce; round up).

So Sunday was my niece’s aqeeqah.

They sacrificed a mutton and my mom cooked biryani with some by the in-laws. It was good (but too much meat for me…).

It was a huge pot! It was just a touch spicy (it should be spicier but not everybody can take spicy including dad). This picture is just the little pot it was served in. You can see my second helping here.

Now, I’ve been dying to bake all week. All week. Scones. Brownies. Mostly scones…and whatever else, I’ve forgotten. But even though I’ve been awake for whole days (8:30am to 11pm/1am), I wasn’t feeling well…and the sight of the kitchen and the ingredients being taken out just either got me depressed or extremely tired. From Friday (which is the only day in weeks I slept the whole thing through, with breaks for prayer, food and personal hygiene) to Sunday morning I was plotting how to fit in the hour or two to make brownies.

Sunday morning I coughed almost non-stop on the bed for who knows what reason. When dad told me when we were leaving to go to the in-laws (in a half-hour) I almost didn’t think I would make it. 15 minutes later I propelled myself off the couch and convinced myself to bathe. I think I spent more time choosing between a bright blue scarf or an orange one to match my gown…!!! But while showering, the idea came…

I packed the cocoa and old dark chocolate and After Eight dinner mints into my huge handbag and wrote down the amounts for the brownie recipe.

On reaching my sister-in-law, I spent most of the morning convincing her little sister to help me make brownies. Reassured she wouldn’t have to make them alone and basically I needed company to make them and she didn’t want to bake alone, we eventually did them after lunch.

Interestingly enough, when I said I had to take pictures of the brownies in STACKS! she went rummaging around for a plate and quite happily stacked all the brownies. And didn’t mind the shenanigans we were going through with icing sugar to make it “pretty”.

It was kind of fun.

And, since what I was suffering from was a “baking craving” I didn’t really need to eat any of them…or a lot of them. I just *needed* to bake!!! We put the dark (71% and 85%) chocolate in the brownies (chunks!) and chopped up the After Eight to top the brownies. I like mint! :)

Here is the stacked work of art (I think I crave stacked brownies…I think I saw it on TV once and it just looked like what a child would really want and I would know because then I was a child…).

Feel free to look at the remaining aqeeqah pictures! Lots of brownies :)

I’m sorry to disappoint.

AND a brazil nut!
I’ve never seen one before.
I can’t wait to see the nuts inside!

I also bought cream…HEHEHE

I’m cancelling my Thursday and Saturday classes.

Also, the reciter for Qur’an this morning was Haafiz Abdullah. A Haafiz is someone who knows the whole Qur’an by heart. He sounded quite nice. What annoyed me tho, was that this 3rd Juz starts of in the second Sura (chapter – Baqarah) and continues on into the third Sura (Imran). So in the break between the Surahs they played their ads or ran their slideshow ads. They didn’t cut other people’s recitations. They’re in control and people won’t mind so WHY WHY WHY! They should’ve played the whole Juz.

Also, this reciter didn’t end with Saddaqallah … (I can’t transliterate well but it means Allah the great has spoken the truth). Once upon a time after a recitation we’d end with that. But there is no reason to. It is actually Biddah (Innovation) and frowned on. The second reciter, according to my mom, should’ve known better. She was happy to see this one didn’t end with it.

Well, we were all mixed up today.
We went downstairs to break fast in a daze.
I got out water and mom’s like get something to drink!
Or, I bought you banana soft drink and I’m like, to break fast???
So we had cake and dates again.

And then from out of nowhere she pulls out this container with wedding sweets leftovers…THE LAST NANKATAI (which she said she saved for me) and the last Lindt truffle. She took the truffle and then offered/gave it to me.

They tasted so good. I haven’t had a proper chocolate fix in awhile.
Neither has she.
She asked Chennette to buy chocolate for her on her way back to Guyana and i’m like so mom, you’ll forget to buy for yourself. So she said! She forgot! Chennette doesn’t have to buy anymore. I hope Chennette still buys because my mom is so frazzled she might forget.

I need some chocolate.
I’m so worried about the family.
:(

More pictures later but maybe this one will be good for now! :)

We followed the cookingforengineers.com website.

And my mom thought we should let our niece taste it because I opened the bag of butter truffles and was eating it or licking my fingers and she started smacking her lips and tasting/smelling the air.

So, my sister, who has resisted any thought of chocolate for my niece while this young let her taste a soft speck of chocolate.

I think she liked it! :)

I just said goodbye to the last two chocolate truffles.
It was very hard…! I’m like bank account…very receptive to deposits of chocolate, withdrawals are a completely different thing.
Ah well, thankfully I got a lovely email this morning me of oatmeal raisin cookies in my friends’ lab and it helped me to deal with the loss :-)
They are/were very good cookies … chewy and buttery and mmmm.

Oh, and I don’t have to pay rent for May!
I actually love my rental agency. They don’t bother me unduly!

Okay, I just really needed to get that out there. People need to know this.

Now, on with our story:

Truffles are pretty easy to make…well mostly.

Your basic chocolate truffle requires these ingredients:

• 1 lb of chocolate, chopped coarsely
• 1 1/2 cups of whipping cream
• 4 tblsps cocoa powder or icing sugar
• 1 1/2 lb of chocolate, chopped coarsely, for tempering

This will make about 60 truffles. I’m told you must get the little paper cups to put them in so that they look pretty!

Now the how to:
I’ll break it up into stages.

1. Making the truffle cream:
   1. Melt 1 lb of chocolate in a double boiler (or if you don’t have one…improvise). I think you have to make sure the water in the outer pot doesn’t touch the base of the inner pot (the one with the chocolate. Make sure it doesn’t burn and keep stirring.
   2. Boil the cream
   3. Now mix the cream and the melted chocolate together until it’s all chocolatey and well blended.
   4. Now you cover it securely and put it in the fridge or freezer for a few hours.
2. Making the truffle centres:
   1. Line trays with parchment paper.
   2. Take the truffle cream out of the fridge and use a melon baller (or fill a pastry bag and make mounds) to scoop out little mounds of chocolate. You can pick whatever size you’re comfortable with and put them on the trays.
   3. When you’re done, put them in the fridge or freezer again, covered securely, for a few hours.
   4. Take them out again and use either your hands or gloves for this. Dust your hands with cocoa powder and roll the mounds into ball shapes and put them back onto lined trays.
   5. Refrigerate again for a few hours
3. Tempering chocolate and coating the truffles:
   1. Melt two thirds of the chocolate in a double boiler and remove when done.
   2. Add the remaining third of chocolate in thirds to the melted chocolate, mixing well to ensure all chocolate is melted before adding the next batch. Voilà! Tempered chocolate!
   3. Take the trays out of the fridge and dip each truffle in the tempered chocolate, trying your best to evenly coat it and shake off excess chocolate. Then put them back on lined trays
   4. If you want to decorate them with something, make sure to do it before the coating sets, so put your beans, rinds, m&m’s on after coating about 4 truffles or so.
   5. Cover the truffles securely and put them in the fridge to set for about 15 minutes.
   6. Take them out and put them in the paper cups.
   7. You want to store them securely remember!

Things to remember:

• You might need to use different lined trays or change the linings!
• If the chocolate gets too soft to scoop out, or too hard to coat the centres or just not right…you can always retemper them or rerefrigerate
• It’s chocolate! If you use good chocolate it’s not too hard to go wrong. Even if it doesn’t come out right…CHOCOLATE NEVER GOES TO WASTE

Now..clicky for pictures of me doing these lovely things :-)

This time, I made Dark Chocolate Orange Truffles by using Dark Chocolate with Orange Oils for the truffle cream.
I had some trouble in that, after I made the cream and refrigerated it, some cream separated on the top. But it still tasted fine, though they’re not for public consumption. You might notice them in a couple pictures. They appear speckled.
I also had some trouble with the coating…I’m not professional so it always gets messy and I don’t think I did the tempering well enough…but I just remelted it and it was fine…

People thought it tasted good…and as I said..chocolate! It doesn’t go to waste.

(I need to know how to do a photolog, not sure how this table will come out!)

	Me chopping chocolate!
	a “double boiler”, ie, a metal bowl over a saucepan with water
	Me, preparing to melt chocolate…see separate pots
	Boiling water to melt chocolate
	Me stirring chocolate while it melts.
	Chocolate is melted!
	Heavy whipping cream
	Wait for the cream to boil.
	Add it to the melted chocolate.
	Mix them together until blended..
	and you have truffle cream, for the centres
	Cover it up!
	Put it in the fridge.
	A few hours later, scoop them out with a melon baller or something.
	A few hours after that shape them into more ball-like shapes.
	Look at the centres! Don’t they look gorgeous? I think some people stop there! Silly them!
	Tempering chocolate.
	Tempered chocolate, now we must coat.
	Dump the centres into the tempered chocolate.
	Try your best to coat them.
	Take it out, shake it and..
	put them in the tray!
	A close up of them coated.
	Final product! Note the paper cup thingies.
	My messy fingers…

Please excuse any errors in html, grammar, spelling, instructions. It was a long post..so comment and I shall edit accordingly!

I’m not the greatest cake baker so it’s a box cake and a tub of bought frosting. But who cares.

Look!

feel free to click to enlarge :-)

Green & Black’s DARK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE

This rich, dense chocolate cake is incredibly easy to make but will always impress. It can be served with whipped cream, crème fraïche, Green & Black’s Organic Vanilla ice cream or simply on its own sliced into small fingers with coffee. It can also be made with Green & Black’s Dark, Milk, White and Maya chocolates either on their own or in a combination. If it is made the day before and then chilled over night it becomes even more dense, fudgey and wicked. The lack of flour in the recipe also makes it suitable for coeliacs.

MMM

Have I ever told you how much better the minis are than the regular sized? Well they are! They’re like the perfect ratio of chocolate to peanut butter unlike the bigger ones.

It’s just so weird!

Les voilà

Oh, and I’m certainly not a food photographer. Or maybe I just need practise…I wouldn’t mind being one!

I made a thumbnail but not sure where it is..
Got it to work! Click to see the slightly bigger version :-)

edit: what am i talking about! it’s one of my favourites…it’s not pure chocolate, but it’s like a chocolate covered wafer bar with caramel and for some reason it is AWESOME…and i’d always get whoever’s paying at pennywise (pennywise cosmectics, a chain back home in trinidad & tobago) to buy some…ooooo