It's all about the cupcake

Alright chefs-in-the-making.  Scharffen Berger's Chocolate Adventure Contest is back!  This year's theme is chocolate and cupcakes.  An award winning recipe will get you $20,000 prizes.  The contest entry period ends January 2, 2011. 

Instant Crumble Desserts

Everyone knows I love Crumble desserts.  Apple Crumbles, Blueberry Crumbles, Raspberry Crumbles and so on.  All are amazingly delicious and relatively easy to make.  Originally, I was using a pre-made mix with cinnamon, sugar and oatmeal to make my crumbles. 

Howevever, I realized that using a flavored Oatmeals such as Quaker Instant Oatmeal adds a lot of flavor to a Crumble.  So,  I  decided to use one package of an Instant Oatmeal, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tbls of butter chopped into pieces and blended with a fruit of choice.  For this recipe, I used the French Vanilla Instant Oatmeal and one Granny Smith Apple per bag of oatmeal. Fresh whipping cream sweetened with honey was made to enhance to experience.

One Granny Smith Apple per packet of oatmeal.

Peel and cut the apple into small pieces.

Blend, oatmeal, butter pieces and cinnamon together.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Whipped up heavy cream with honey.

The final product.

Absolutely yummy!

Sweet scientific discovery in the world of chocolate

DNA sequencing for healthier chocolate on CNN.com

Low calorie hot chocolate recipes

Everyone should be able to drink hot chocolate!

Dagoba Saves the Day

Due to spending the last 2-1/2 months non-stop in airports, I've developed a craving for Starbuck's Vanilla Steamers.  Do not fret.  I am still obsessed with Hot Chocolate.  However, I've come to appreciate Starbuck's Vanilla Steamers.  After running my errands, I decided to lazily drive through the drive thru of my local Starbuck's location.  I ordered my favorite combo:  A tall Vanilla Steamer and a blueberry scone.  In my excitement, I decided to order a Grande Steamer versus the Tall.  Yahoo!  This was going to be a wonderful day.

Unfortunately, the scones were already gone.  However, the associate helping me found a blueberry muffin.  SCORE!  After paying for my order,  I hastily took off without sipping my drink.  I just assumed the beverage was correct since the cup was labeled Vanilla Creme.  Oh my joy was stolen when I arrived at the house to heat up my muffin and enjoy my Steamer.  Yuck!  It was a Vanilla Mocha. 

I tried and tried to indulge in this beverage, but anything with coffee traditionally is just horrible for me.  So, it was off to the pantry to select a Hot Chocolate to quench my thirst for something delicious. 

The chosen hot chocolate of the day is Dagoba's Authentic Hot Chocolate.  As an aficionado of their Xocolatl spicy hot chocolate, I knew this selection would be just as fabulous.

The Authentic Hot Chocolate has a subtle blend of flavors leaving a wonderful essence in your mouth. 

It blended together fine, but required a few extra turns of the spoon in both a clockwise and counterclockwise direction to ensure the cocoa powder and milk was mixed together.

In the end, Dagoba saved the day.

Hot Chocolate: Ainsley's Gourmet Express

Watch the BBC's Ainsley Harriott make hot chocolate with cinnamon, cardamon, milk and a bar of chocolate.