August 06, 2008
Welcome to Chocolate Candy Mall's monthly newsletter,
Charmingly Chocolate. Try some sweet summer sensations before it's too late. The summer is almost over and that's a good enough reason to splurge. Let's splurge together!
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August 6, 2008 - Issue #15
Hi! I hope your 4th of July gathering last month was a great success. I notice some of you ordered the software to design your own candy bar wrappers that I recommended. I do hope you will take a few minutes and send me a photo of your clever party favor when you get a chance. I want to show it off!
I had a lovely visit with my family during July. Most of you know that my husband and I are serving as missionaries in Australia. I love it, but I do miss my family. I was blessed with a trip "home" to see them all.
It was wonderful. To top it all off, they threw me a surprise 40th birthday party! Yes, I am getting that old! My birthday isn't until the end of August, but they wanted to spoil me while they had the chance. I laughingly complained that now I have to be 40 longer than everyone else. I enjoyed their love and thoughtfulness so very much.
A Horse Shaped Cake For Angela
While I was there, I got to see some of my sister's birthday cake creations in person. It was Angela's birthday (my namesake) and she wanted a horse cake. My sister 'rode' to the rescue, of course. Here's what Heather had to say about how she did it..."I started looking on line for an easy and easy-to-please cake. I found a pretty simple one on Kraftfoods.com, they even had a template you could use to cut your cake. Our printer is on the blitz, but I found it pretty easy to make my own following their example."
"I used a regular 9x13 pan and cake mix for the cake. I cut out the pieces and then placed them together and used toothpicks as nails to hold them together.""I spread chocolate icing over the whole cake. I used licorice (cherry and chocolate) for the reins and mane. M&M chocolates and lifesavers made up the bridle, and 2 white lifesavers with M&M's were the eyes."
"Angela really liked her horse cake and so did the brothers and sisters because not only did they have cake and ice cream, there was enough candies on the cake for everyone to get some!"
A "Wacky Cake" Recipe
My dear friend, Susan, here in Australia (also an ex-pat) gave me this wacky chocolate cake recipe to share with you. She had the nerve to make it when she new I was coming over to visit. How can a girl be expected to resist such temptation??? Here's the recipe so you can try it yourself before summer is over.Lightly grease an 8” (20cm) square cake pan with butter. Pre-Heat the oven to 150 degrees centigrade.
Sift into a medium sized bowl:
- 1 ½ cups plain flour
- 1 tsp cooking salt
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¼ cup cocoa
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1 cup (scant) castor sugar (you can use regular white sugar)
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1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla in one
1 - 2 well-beaten eggs (or you can use 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar! It gives a different taste but it's alright. I prefer the egg though.)
1/3 cup vegetable oil in the third
Pour 1 – 1 ½ cups of cold water over the whole mixture. Stir together carefully and thoroughly with a fork. Don't beat it hard. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake at 350°F (150°C) for about 45 minutes. Test to see if it is done and bake a little longer if not (a tooth pick thrust in to the centre should come out clean, or if the sides have pulled away from the pan it is done).
Here are Some Icing ideas:
- Place chocolate melts on top of hot cake. Allow to become shiny then spread with a knife as icing OR
- Sift some icing sugar over the top of the cooled cake OR
- Ice with chocolate butter icing - you can flavour it with vanilla or peppermint.
Splurge On Gourmet Chocolates With Me!
Well, I'm always looking for a good excuse to splurge on some chocolate candy. It doesn't have to be 'that' good as almost any one will do. :-)The end of summer is as good an excuse as any to indulge a bit in some really special treats. I thought you might like to join me. Here's what I'm thinking...
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The shipping may be a bit more for those of us overseas, but it's well worth it. Apart from boxed chocolates, Thornton's
For those of us in Australia, we can indulge a bit by treating ourselves to a chocolate bouquet from
Finally, for everyone else in the good old USA, consider pampering yourself with your favorite filled chocolates from Nirvana Chocolates.
They'll let you pick the exact chocolates you want to fill your box. No need to poke the bottoms to find 'the ones you like.' They will ALL be the one's you like! How good is that?
Well, that's about it for this month. Don't forget, you can always pop on over to Chocolate Candy Mall for great recipes and other gift ideas if you want to whip up a batch of fudge or some other chocolate candy indulgence for your family or loved one. We are always adding new ideas every week or so. See you there!
With the economy being the way it is, I always want to take a moment to pass on this bit of information to any of you who have been thinking about the whole idea of working at home this year to make a little extra cash. I'm more amazed than anyone that I have been able to build Chocolate Candy Mall. It's been a challenge and a thrill to take it on and succeed.
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Also, if any of you are involved with or have an interest in network marketing, I'd like to suggest two resources that, I believe, would be a tremendous help to you. The first is some tips on how to turn network marketing into internetwork marketing. The second is an inspiring free book called The Seven Great Lies of Network Marketing. I'd be happy to discuss either of them with you if you like. Feel free to send me a note. I'll be glad to help out any way I can.
Once again, to ALL of you crazy Americans...
Enjoy your sweet summer sensations! I hope you do take a little time to indulge! Even if you don't want to go all out and order some special chocolate online, make something special yourself using one of the recipes at Chocolate Candy Mall. I'm sure there's someone you can get to indulge with you!
Blessings, Angie
I hope you enjoyed this issue of Charmingly Chocolate. If you have any feedback or comments you'd like to share with me, just reply to this zine and let me know. I'd love to hear from you.