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!