chocolat

Probably since the first time I watched Chocolat I've harboured a secret belief that I was the main character in a previous life and that given the right set of circumstances,  the inate talent that I possessed would emerge and all my dreams of being a master chocolatier, dating Johnny Depp, and wearing my hair in a sassy bob would come true.

Nobody likes chocolate more than I do, and I firmly believe that (I am eating some even as I write this), but a couple of weeks ago I signed up for a chocolate making class with Rachel Dunn chocolates in Concord, and let me tell you, if anyone likes chocolate more than I do, it is Rachel.

Rachel has been making chocolate since she was 17, her chocolates are world famous, and she owns her own company that does nothing but make chocolate every single day. They say if you want to be successful in business, you need to do what you're passionate about, and Rachel is passionate about chocolate.

She stood up in front of the class and introduced herself, and you could tell that she was thrilled, absolutely elated, to be sharing the art of chocolate making with a new group of people.

She could barely contain herself as she lamented the lost art of candy making, shared every single thing she knew about chocolate and candy making, and expressed the fervent belief that we would leave the workshop and share what we had learned with all of our friends and family. She truly loves chocolate, and wants other people to get the same joy from it that she does.

The class itself was great, it was 2 hours long and we made about 15 different kinds of candy, including truffles, chocolate dipped strawberries, English toffee, peanut butter cups, and a ganache tart.

It was really fun and informative, and the candy we made was delicious. The best part is that she sends everyone home with recipes for all of the things we made in class, so you can make them at home for your friends and family. Or eat them all yourself when your husband is gone to Mexico for a week. There is no judgement here.

World famous candied applies

I may have gotten slightly carried away with the peanut butter in my peanut butter cups

I am practically a professional strawberry tuxedo applier. That's probably a real job.

pinata.

I've been seeing recipes for Pinata cakes for a few months now, so I decided to make one for my brother-in-law's birthday. It was a bit tricksier than I thought, I had to make 4 cakes just to get two that I could use, because brownie mix and cake mix look remarkably similar, and also because baking a cake in a bowl apparently takes a lot longer than it does in a pan, and if you don't bake it long enough, and then you flip it upside down, you get something that looks a little like this:

Luckily it still tasted fine, so I ate it.. you know, for research purposes

Finally, two good cakes

The stuffing. I wanted to put in little bottle of booze, but I couldn't fine any. They don't sell them at Safeway, weird right?

Cut off the tops of the two cakes so they are flat, and then follow out the bottom cake

Fill it up with candy, or whatever, and put icing on it to seal the two halves together

Sharks colours are optional

Cake anddd candy. What more could you ask for?

Here are some tips if you're thinking of doing this:

1. Make sure you bake the cakes for at least an hour each, and then check them to make sure they are really well done, you can't really go by the baking time on the cake mixes

2. I didn't hollow out the top of the cake, because I wanted it to still be a cake, and not be all candy, but if you want more of a pinata effect where the candy falls out, you can hollow out the top

3. Do a crumb coating on the cakes first, before you ice them

4. And this is important, make sure to spray the baking bowls with non-stick spray to make your life a lot easier when you try to take the cakes out of the bowl

That's it. Happy sugar coma!