The chocolate wall, a miniature sculpture of the Great Wall, is being created as a display at the World Chocolate Dream Park, a new theme park in Beijing. The park will open at the end of January.
Here’s how the two walls measure up.
The Great Wall of China, one of the “7 wonders of the world”, took 2,000 years to build and is about 4,000 miles in length.
The great chocolate wall is made from more than 80 tonnes of chocolate that are formed into solid chocolate bricks and 560 chocolate Terracotta Warriors. It’s about 12 metres in length.
To some chocolate lovers, the chocolate wall may well be the “8th wonder of the world”!
Chocolateville! My kind of town! I’m sure all brownie lovers will agree.
Using 5,000 pounds of semi-sweet, milk and white chocolate, Ned Archibald, Executive Pastry Chef at Keystone Resort in Keystone, Colorado has created this incredible chocolate village scene along with his staff. It’s truly amazing!
There are chocolate houses, trees, a running waterfall, gondolas that go up and down chocolate mountains, two chocolate trains, and a giant white chocolate Christmas tree decorated with chocolate and blown sugar ornaments and surrounded by chocolate gift packages.
I don’t think any brownies were used in the creation of these chocolate fashions designed for the Salon du Chocolat (Chocolate Show) and modelled in Paris on Oct. 13. Just lots of chocolate! The outfits are pretty amazing.
A bonus for wearing one of these – you’d always be able to satisfy your chocolate cravings!
Zowie! Duncan Hines, the cake and brownie mix company, knows a thing or two about brownies.
Their online library of brownie recipes contains about 50 different brownie recipes that use their brownie and cake mixes. One visit and you’ll soon be in the kitchen making treats such as……
I recently bought this 13 x 9 x 2-inch (3.5 L) baking pan made by Wilton. Although I hardly needed another oblong pan, this one has quickly become my favourite for baking brownies or other desserts.
The reason is rather obvious!
Once the brownies are baked, the hot pan is easy to pull out of the oven because the oversized handles give you something to grab on to. No more thick oven mitt thumbs fumbling to grasp hold of the pan without it slipping and sliding, and (heaven forbid!) dropping! And no more oven mitt thumb prints accidentally left in a beautifully baked pan of brownies.
You’ll find the pan where Wilton baking products and equipment are sold.
Figure out your age using Chocolate Math. (All brownie lovers should know how to do Chocolate Math. I recommend snacking on a brownie or some chocolate while contemplating this math riddle as it will surely make it easier to figure out!)
1. Pick the number of times a week you’d like to eat chocolate. The number must be more than one but, sadly, less than 10.
2. Multiply this number by 2.
3. Add 5.
4. Multiply it by 50.
5. If you’ve already had your birthday this year, add 1759. If you haven’t, add 1758.
6. Subtract the four digit year you were born.
Abracadabra!! You should have a three digit number.
The first digit of this is your original number (i.e. how many times you want to have chocolate each week).
The next two numbers are your age!
Some versions of this riddle say 2009 is the only year this will work, but in 2010, if you add 1 to the numbers in #5 – e.g. 1760 and 1759, respectively (and so on for successive years), it should continue to work.
I’m not sure who has the time or inclination to create these kinds of riddles, however I’ve seen some versions of Chocolate Math attributed to Hershey’s.
Startcooking.com, created by former Home Economics teacher Kathy Maister, contains some excellent cooking videos and recipes for cooks, both experienced and novice. The videos aren’t the typical format. Instead, viewers are shown recipes or techniques in a fast-paced, stop motion style complete with sound effects.
The videos are informative, efficient, to the point and definitely have a more polished look than some of the down home cooking videos found on YouTube.
Here’s Kathy’s video for Chocolate Fudge Brownies.
And here’s the recipe for the brownies.
Chocolate Fudge Brownies
(Makes an 8-inch square pan)
14 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1- 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
Pinch of salt
1 cup walnuts, chopped
Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 F.
Line an 8″ x 8″ x 2″ baking pan with tin foil. Spray foil with cooking spray.
Cut butter into pieces. Place butter in a large microwave-safe bowl and melt it in microwave, about 1 minute.
With a whisk, blend in unsweetened cocoa. Add sugar and mix well.
In another bowl, lightly whisk together eggs and vanilla extract. Add egg mixture to the cocoa mixture and blend together. Whisk in flour and salt. Fold in walnuts.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes. To test for doneness, insert a wooden toothpick into the center of the brownies; when removed, it should have some moist crumbs attached to it. Do not over bake.
Let brownies cool completely on a wire rack. Then, flip brownies onto a wire rack and peel away the foil. Flip brownies onto cutting board to cut.
Wrap leftovers in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Brownies can be frozen.
Finally, here are Kathy’s directions for turning this recipe into Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes.
I recently bought this 13 x 9 x 2-inch (3.5 L) baking pan made by 
The Brownie Lover's Diary 