Announcing the contestants and the winner

I am hereby announcing the contestants of Battle Chocolate

September 2010

There has been a lot of interest and 5 bloggers came forward

with their chocolate temptations!
As they came in, I was thinking of how to pick the winner.

I will now present the contestants in no particular order,

and tell you how I chose the winner at the end.

Treat'n'trick made Cocoa shortbread
I like the way you almost used the recipe, but not quite

Thats my cup of tea, and the way I do a lot of my cooking!

(when I use recipes at all, that is)

And how did you know I am a sucker for shortbread!

Then there was

chocolate and vanilla trifle with blackberries and chocolate syrup

from ChezWhat
Trifle is one of my favourite desserts!

You cant beat mixing chocolate with blackberries

and the levels with different taste

really speaks to me!

Next up was the Chocolat-inspired chocolate cake

from Girlchief

Dark, with chile and coffee

and inspired by my favourite film: Chocolat!

The cake being "adult-tasting" suites me well,

buy the kids a Marsbar, and leave the cake to us!

There was the Chocolate rasberry cheesecake from

Grumpy Granny

Again the Chocolate and berry combination, but this time Cheesecake!

I usually make cheesecakes cold (no bake)

and I've never tried a chocolate version,

but I can just imagine the mild chocolaty cheesy creamyness

together with the sweet and tangy rasberries!

Finally there was Chocolate tamales with Ancho chile fudge sauce

from At home with Rebecka

This was a whole new world for me,

I've never made nor eaten tamales

and I never thought you could bake like this!

The Chile versus Chocolate-thing, well you already know I've discovered that connection!

I now totally understand why Christo chose to draw the winner

because how on earth do you pick one from these!

I told my son Little Chef I was going to throw a dice

to decide who should win!

He said it wasn't right, and frankly I would be a bit of a coward if I did it like that.

It was my Battle, My theme

I should pick the one that spoke loudest to me.

So I went through them again..

Before I tell you who I picked

The price is A modern version of the Norwegian invention:

The Cheesegrater

I'll send it off together with a

culinary curiosity from Norway.

Finally, this is the post that spoke the loudest to me, and made my heart jump:

Chocolate Tamales with Ancho Chile Fudge Sauce

Congratulations!

Remember you are the host of the October Culinary Smackdown 2010!

Last Chance

This is the last call for The September Culinary Smackdown!

Boys and girls,

post your entry on your blog,

and leave me a message

(post a comment on my blog)

Tomorrow I will present to you

the winner

the contestants

and the Price!

Chocolate truffles with a hint of chile

These sweet babies

have a friend: Chocolate

Hot chile from New Mexico

in 1 dl cream

Warm up til just boiling

add 200 g dark 70% chocolate til melted

and maybe a drop of coffee
Leave in the fridge until next day

Handroll to the shape and size you want

but fast and cool your hands if it starts to get too sticky
Put them in a box with a bit of cocoa powder

make sure they get cowered with cocoa

One mouthful of this

is dark and wonderful heaven!

One week left until the

Culinary Smackdown September 2010

Don't forget!

Pink Princesse 17 years old

This is the little Pink Princesse

17 years ago

Mommies little

Plum
Always mommies little sweet Plum, even if she is taller than me!
Seventeen years ago my life changed for ever
when I became her mum.

Cabin life and chocolate

My husband enjoying his egg, toast and bacon

5 degrees Celcius in the morning

so we had to put a log on the fire
Jumping frog competition

my sister won

She didn't brag much about it!

Flower in the sun

On it's way down but still pretty

Applecake when we came home

with apples from the garden.

That more or less sums my lovely weekend up!

And now my friends

Don'd forget my challenge to you

in the Culinary Smackdown September 2010

The theme is Chocolate

I do love it!

Check out this

or this

or even this