#chooclate

I started by baking a giant sugar cookie in the shape of a bean! Once cooled completely, I covered the middle in green buttercream icing. To create the grass texture, I placed the tip of a knife in the icing and quickly lifted it upwards to create the little raised bit, Once that hardened, I coated the edge in tan-coloured icing, which I covered in crushed up graham crackers.

Making the little Pokemon was fun, because I had gotten these cute little candy molds from Japan! They came blind-packaged as seen on the left, so you don’t necessarily know what Pokemon you’ll get! I really wanted Rowlet, and I got Pikachu and Litten first, but I got lucky on my second try! The package comes with a candy you can use, but I really wanted to make them with chocolate, so I melted some down and placed it in the molds and let it harden. I added a bit more melted chocolate, then joined the two halves together!

The chocolates are so tiny and cute! Some came out better than others, haha. You can tell they’re supposed to be lollipops from the stick bits on the bottom, but these helped me to stabilize them on the cookie.

This was my second time working with fondant! I made some marshmallow fondant for my surprise inside Oddish desserts, so I used the leftovers for the beanstalk! Huge thank-you to @prettycakemachine for helping me figure out how to attach the leaves using wire - I did my best, haha!

I also covered one of my cake boards in tin foil, and added a blue and white icing to create the sea. It was fun creating those waves!

Chocolate Walnut Ice Cream with Cherry Marshmallow Swirl 

Rocky Road is a quintessential American ice cream flavor. William Dryer was the dominant ice cream maker in California, which helps the claim that Dryer’s created the original rocky road ice cream. But the ice cream’s history, just like it’s name and texture, is rocky. 

Here is what we do know.  In Oakland, California, William Dryer, a German ice cream maker, and candy maker Joseph Edy, joined together in 1929 to open a ice cream and candy company. One of their first flavors together included walnuts and tiny marshmallows that were supposedly cut with Mrs. Dryer’s sewing scissors. Shortly after releasing it, they replaced the walnuts with almonds and called it Rocky Road, a nod towards the rocky times due to the stock market crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. The name was also designed to uplight the spirits of those eating the ice cream and perhaps attract more customers. Americans went from eating about nine quarts of ice cream per person every year, to only five quarts after the Crash. Dryer’s marketed the flavor with the slogan “Share a Scoop, Share a Smile.”

While this sounds pretty clear so far, the bump is that another California ice cream company also claims to have been involved in the creation of the popular flavor. To this day Fenton’s Creamery asserts to be the home of the original rocky road. Apparently, George Farren, a candy maker who worked for Fenton’s, decided one day to swirl in a walnut marshmallow candy bar into chocolate ice cream. Then, Dryer’s stole the idea, switching it up slightly by using almonds instead of walnuts.