Chocolate Appreciation

This is my Chocolate Appreciation post, for reading a little about Chocolate & cocoa pods, and how we can use in our baking.  Known as 'Food of The Gods', this universally loved ingredient is a must have for bakers.

‘Food Of The Gods’

Everything Chocolate

Close shot of a tall 6 inch air fryer Black Forest Gateau cake with chocolate coated sides, and cream and cherry topped decoration.

Pink plate with chocolate truffles and pink napkin.

Slice of chocolate vertical Swiss roll cake showing showing 9 layers, with the cake to the background.

Stack of chocolate rectangularl sandwich cookies with chocolate fillinh, stacked on pink plate/

Close shot of 2 halves of British chocolate scones topped with jam and cream on whit eplate and pink napkin.

Our Love Of Chocolate

Chocolate is universally loved and devoured, on a daily basis, in different forms, and apparently by the bucket load 🙂 According to Divinechocolate.com, Britain alone goes through nearly 700,000 tones per year, that equates as an average of 11kg per person, per year!!₁ Please check out that Divine Chocolate Divine Chocolate website, as there is loads of information on chocolate & cocoa beans. The history of it, down to how it’s harvested and much much more. So I will only touch on a few things on this article.

Slice of Ferrero Rocher chocolate cake served, showing the edges covered in hazelnuts.

History Of Chocolate

Chocolate is loved for it’s taste, texture, and how it can make you feel. Full of vitamins and minerals, such as magnesium and calcium, it also is high in antioxidants, & believed to have relaxing and aphrodisiac properties.

Aztec’s believed those who ate cocoa beans would be blessed with spiritual wisdom. It was often used as currency and the first civilisation reported to have used the beans, was The Olmec, from it growing wild in central America, over 3500 years ago₂ . Only in the last 200 years has cocoa beans been used to make chocolate bars.

Detailed shot of a ripe yellow cacao pod hanging from a branch with green leaves.

The Cocoa Beans

Cocoa beans are a fruit of the cocoa trees, generally producing 2 harvests per year of about 50 pods in each. The trees can live up to 200 years, but only produce viable harvests for about 25 years.

In each pods is usually 40 beans. One pod can made 8 bars of milk (semi-sweet) chocolate bars, or 4 dark (bitter chocolate) bars₃. (I am assuming that to be 100g bars (3.5 oz). The cocoa beans start off as red, and when ripe are yellow or orange in colour. West Africa produce about 70% of the world’s cocoa, and Ghana 25%₄.

See Photo of the Cocoa Tree, where the pods are yellow, indicating they are ripe₅.

Extra close shot of a half eaten chocolate truffle with more to the background.

Chocolate In Baking

Now for bakers chocolate and cocoa powder, is a very special ingredient. It can be used in recipes in so many different ways, in the bake or on top of the bake for presentation. (Photo – cocoa covering truffles, see recipe below).

Bakers tip – add some coffee or espresso powder to your chocolate cakes & cookies, and the chocolate flavour will be accentuated! Only a small amount is needed to bring out the flavour, and has no coffee taste to the bake. You can also bloom your cocoa powder, in some warm water (or even coffee), again to bring the full flavour out.

Before we hit the chocolate recipes, here’s a little about the Latin for Cocoa – they named it “Theobroma Cacao”.

This literally means “FOOD OF THE GODS”!!₆ I think that say’s it all.

4 photo collage of microwave chocolate fudge with Baileys and Tropicak Cake truffles.

Chocolate Recipes

Extra close shot of a air fryer backed Black Forest Gateau cake.

Black Forest Gateau In Air Fryer

This Black Forest Gateau is filled with chocolate – 4 layers of chocolate cake made with cocoa and lots of chocolate shaving on the sides and on top!

Not only a tutorial for how to make everything from scratch, but the 6″ cake layers are made in the air fryer!

Black Forest Gateau In Air Fryer

4 photo collage of chocolate vertical Swiss roll cake decorated as a tree trunk in the woods setting with wooden rabbits, chocolate mini eggs and foliage, inside the cake and a slice served showing 12 layers.

Chocolate Orange Vertical Swiss Roll

Try another of my Swiss roll/cake roll tutorias, but this time a vertical Swiss roll!

Chocolate orange layers of cake, filled & covered in a chocolate orange buttercream!

Chocolate Orange Vertical Swiss Roll

Overheat close shot of a black small rectangular box open with 6 cake truffles in mini paper cases on a pure white soft napkin.

Tropical Cake Truffles

These no-bake cake truffles, don’t need buttercream or cream cheese to bind them and are simple to make.

Coat in in cocoa powder, coconut, or dip in your favourite chocolate!

Tropical Cake Truffles

INDIVIDUAL CHOCOLATE TARTS

Try my super simple recipe for indulgent chocolate tarts.

white wooden table with blue plate and halved chocolate tart served with strawberries.

Go to my Chocolate Tarts recipe or watch the video below:

More chocolate cakes – mini chocolate bundts with surprise inside. Hazelnut bundt with chocolate filling & topping

Overhead shot of mini chocolate bundt cakes decorated, on a wire rack and Easter eggsdecoration around.

Close shot of a caramel coloured slice of bundt cake, with a centre of chocolate spread filling, served and bundt cake behind, cropped.

Close photo of slice of chocolate Victoria sandwich cake with piped cream and cherry jam filling, and the whole cake to the background.

Slice of chocolate devils food bundt cake up close served.

Close shot of a black slate with chocolate cupcakes with coffee buttercream piped on top in various ways, with 3 forks to the back and yellow flower.

Close shot of a plate with a 2 layer chocolate and cream cake with berrie son top.

Healthier Banana bread muffins scattered on table

Hand around mug of hot coffee & chocolate spotted pumpkin muffins, around AUtumn decorations.

Overhead shot of white table with large red roses, tea cups and chocolate coconut long Lamington cakes.

Extra close shot above a chocolate pumpkin patterned bundt cake cooling on rack.

Close shot of a chocolate courgette/zucchini cake square, on a pink plate with fork, and mor eof the traybake to the background.

Close shot of the end of a double chocolate Swiss roll, Yule Log, with ganache on top as bark, showing the perfect swirl end.

Chocolate ganache topped chocolate cake with caramel drips.

Overhead angled shot of a chocolate and cream swiss roll/jelly roll with cream and bluebrries, showing the swirl.

Close slice of choc chip slice of banana bread with cream and syrup.

Easy Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Let me show you how to easily make, perfect gooey chocolate brownies and not just another boring chocolate cake. The secret is whisking the sugar and eggs for 5 minutes till mousse like, very pale in colour and with a noticeable increase in volume size. Try one of the variations below.

Brownies & bitesize on a biege round plate on a pale blue background with yellow flowers and green napkin.

Close shot of plate with brownie slice with hazelnuts.

Overhead shot on black backdrop of a wooden paddle with 3 black tile squares housing 3 different Halloween brownie squares, with Halloween decorations and titled Halloween Brownies.

Extra close partial shot of mini egg brownies.

Photo of a chocolate tart with raspberries on top.

Close up of stacked praline crackle showing the texture and layers.

extra close shot of dark chocolate and beige candy melt coated chai truffles.

Angled, close shot of pink baking sheet with flower parchment paper holding chocolate coated almond truffles with various toppings.

Biscuits & Cookies

Extra close shot of a stack of chocolate chip cookies with 3 haves stacke don top, showing the chocolate and texture.

Autumn/Fall biege shades and straw decorations, surrounding white plate on white bright table setting with coffeec ups, and plate of Scottish shortbread round cookies, half coated in chocolate and coconut.

Dark photo of large bat shaped chocolate sandwich cookies, on a large round wooden board, with black background and tiny pretend pumpkins.

Close shot of pink gloved hand holding piece of double chocolate sandwihc cookie showing texture.

Stacked thick chunky dark coloured chocolate cookies with crumbs around.

Easter shaped chocolate cookies with cutters, mini easter eggs and flowers.

Other Chocolate Treats

4 photo collage of liquid ganache, firming, whipped and labelled 'liquid, medium firm, whipped & hard set'.

Table with Christmas baubbles and ribbon in the background of pink plate of plaina nd chocolate dipped honeycomb pieces (sponge candy).

Photo of microwave chocolate fudge pieces with nuts and cranberries, in a small white reacup, with miniture Baileys Irish cream bottle to the side.

Close angled shot of biege ribbed small bowls with chocolate coated almond truffles, with one showing texture.

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Happy Learning & Baking!

Caro x

References

_{1, 2, 6 – Divine Chocolate, Chocolate Facts and Figures, (8 July 2019), https://www.divinechocolate.com/resources/chocolate-facts-and-figures}

_{3 – Bitter Sweet World Of Chocolate, book by Nikki Van Der, Troth Wells, New Internationalist (06 Dec 2007)}

_{4 – ICCO (International Cocoa Organisation), https://www.icco.org/, (2012)}

_{5 – Photo of Cocoa tree with ripe cocoa pods from Public Domain Pictures, https://www.publicdomainpictures.net}

Chocolate Appreciation – ‘Food Of The Gods’