Short and sweet!

When Stephanie suggested ‘chocolate’ for the theme of June's blogging party, I should have jumped for joy as chocolate is one of my favourite food groups but I ‘did’ chocolate for the Christmas dessert theme and also savoury bites are easier to conjure up as an alternative presentation to a meal or two I was going to have anyway. But I had a few sweet thoughts that I wanted to play with and then of course a pretty crazy couple of weeks got in the way. So I had the idea that if I delayed my chocolate canapé creation for a day, then D and I can devour the fruit of my chocolaty labours. My cunning ‘plan a’ was for D and I to meander and graze through the Taste of London event and then on returning home, whip up some chocolaty delights for the evening's finale. But I think you can see the problem here. We’d spend the entire evening consuming all these fabulous little goodies so the last thing we wanted to do on dragging our weary selves home was eat another morsel and also I’d kept D up past her bedtime so it would never happen. Therefore the rapidly emerging plan b was tuck into some chocolaty goodies early Saturday morning before we head over to Kensington for our lunch - yes more food-relating frolicking. But really I think D was humouring me; there was no way she was going to have chocolate for breakfast as she only wanted toast! But the dedicated, some say obsessed, food blogger in me made me determined that the show would go on. So it did! Firstly I had planned an individual chocolate fondue with some chocolate brownie portions to dunk into the liquid chocolate. I had intended on gathering some Gü brownies at the Taste of London but unfortunately the whole of London had a similar idea so their cupboards were bare, so plan c was looming. Not being to lay my hands on some suitable cakey dunker, I thought I try some cocoa dusted chocolate truffles impaled with my new crystal cocktail sticks (I just had to have them and hadn’t bought any cocktail sticks for an age!) and dipped into the unctuous rich chocolate fondue and apart from the truffles shrinking rather alarmingly in the hot chocolate mixture (which frankly just added to the richness) they worked very well. I made the chocolate sauce with some of the rather fabulous Hotel Chocolat Aztec Chilli Liquid Chocolat laced double cream. It says on the jar that a ‘gentle warmth tingles the mouth’, well maybe I’d been a little generous with my spooning as my liquid chocolate slapped you round the back of the head it packed such a punch. Tasty though a little violent!
D gave me that look that means that she thinks I’m being a tad fanatical fulfilling my blogging party commitments and still refused to indulge beyond toast. But the look turned to incredulity when I explained my proposal for gripping the wooden sticks of the mini Magnums (tiny choc ices thickly coated in either milk, dark or white chocolate) in a magnetic metal strip. It would have been a perfect scheme to line them up tantalisingly but they didn’t want to play and threatened to both melt and cover everything in their vicinity with chocolate and the rolling of eyes in the corner meant that I needed to switch the presentation to something less precarious, and quickly!
For a drink I wanted a homage to the Costa Coffee Double Chocolate Flake Frescato, so with the aid of a scoop of Haagen Daz Belgium chocolate ice cream, milk and chocolate sauce I made a rather intriguing iced chocolate drink, though I don't think Costa Coffee needs to worry!
For a rather wonderful edible coaster (surely what every party cries our for!) I designated D the task of slicing some chocolate bars into the required shape. Costa Coffee may have the edge on Frescatos (and they really do!) but I win on presentation, I serve mine in a lead crystal champagne saucer, and on top of a chocolate coaster!
So sorry Stephanie I'm tardy, again, and it's not as chocolate-tastic as I'd planned but my chocolate eating partner-in-crime was seriously doubting my sanity so I had to keep my 'amuse bouches' extravaganza short but sweet. Perhaps I should have chosen my fellow chocolate eater better, if I'd gone for E(D) as well I think the plates would have been cleaner. But despite D protestations, everything was rather yummy, I wonder what the theme is next month?