A Chocolatey Thank You

One word conjures up many emotions and many phrases for me. Chocolate. Nothing says "I love you", "I'm sorry", or in this case; "Thank you", quite like rich chocolatey goodness. You may prefer milk chocolate or chocolate laced with nuts or my personal favorite; deep dark bittersweet chocolate!

Last weekend, I worked on the Regina Humane Society annual telethon, behind the cameras as floor director. With 4 active sets, a live broadcast and crowds of on-screen presenters it can be chaotic to say the least! The trick of getting people onto the right set at the right time, cuing them at the right time and trying to stay out of the way of four cameras is challenging, exhausting and rewarding. 

I get to meet some great people, doing great work. Two women from Sunday's event stood out with their professionalism, flexibility and great humor while I was yelling and shoving them around the studio! So I wanted to say a warm thank you to the women of CTV News Regina; especially to Kahla Buchanan and Heather Anderson who are fabulous role models for all the girls of Regina.

So the best way to say thank you is chocolate - oh and some espresso too! Plus I've been wanting to improve my skills with chocolate so practicing on these wonderful women seemed like the perfect combo.

For this dessert, there are 4 layers of chocolate and a layer of espresso/mascarpone italian buttercream.

I start by making mini chocolate cupcakes in a mini cupcake pan, cutting them into cylinders with a ring mold and enrobing them in a dark chocolate ganache.

I then let the ganache set until firm. This gives the chocolate band something to adhere to.  The chocolate bands are the tricky bit. I used transfer sheets to get a pretty pattern on the bands. I used purchased sheets but my next challenge will be to create my own designs by painting acetate with tinted cocoa butter. Let me know if you are interested in procuring any of these items in the Queen City because they can be tough to source locally.

You need to temper some dark chocolate and carefully spread it over the acetate that's been cut into sized strips. (I measured the ring mold I used and added a tiny extra on the end and enough in height to allow you to add filling atop the cakes). Then gently lift the coated strip , using a small offset spatula, to a clean spot on your silpat mat until it's just set enough to be pliable yet allow you to wrap your mini-cake. Wrap the cake and place in the fridge until completely set and cool.

Then remove from the fridge and fill with the filling of your choice. In this case I used an italian buttercream to which I added a bit of mascarpone mixed with a couple of tablespoons of cream that I had infused with espresso. Use a pastry bag with a star tip to fill. You can also use a stabilized whipped cream if you plan to serve them right away.

Photo credit:  Kahla Buchanan

For this one I topped it with a chocolate coated macadamia nut since I had extra chocolate from the bands and happened to have macadamia nuts on hand. As it turned out, the nuts were salted so I thought they went very well with the chocolate and the sweet filling.

I'm still pretty new to this and could use some more practice with chocolate - I just need to find some new victims on which to practice!