I Love Easter And I Love Chocolate - Part 2

This is my favourite Easter chocolate presentation, it isn't sophisticated, it is full of fun and the joy of childhood anticipation. The Dutch Bakery makes their own hollow Easter chocolates and they have quite a variety of moulds.

The front window of the Dutch Bakery.

This is one seriously big Easter egg. The foil wrapping could have been done a little more professionally though.

Part of the window display as you walk into the bakery.

I love this footed silver planter with the rabbits chomping on carrots incised on the side.

Part of the counter display. I love marzipan. I love chocolate as well, but I do love marzipan.

This is just part of the Easter candy displayed for sale on the back wall.

More chocolate for the Easter bunny to deliver.

Easter eggs with colourful royal icing flowers.

Hot Cross Buns

This image is from a Victorian book in my collection called"Children's Songs With Music". The inscription on the inside reads "Dear Irene, with Grannies best love. Xmas 96.

This image is from "Popular Nursery Rhymes - Mother Goose Rhymes, with explanations and illustrations"

We have made these hot cross buns for a very long time now and I thought that I would pass the recipe on. It comes from an old cookbook published by the Vancouver Sun called "Edith Adams Bread Book". Edith Adams was a ficticious character and that is all that I know about her. Try them you may like them.

This image is from "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes" printed and made in Great Britain by Collins: London and Glasgow, third impression 1957 (first impression 1950) Illustrated by H.T. Cauldwell

Spicy Hot Cross Buns
Sift together 4 cups all-purpose flour with 2 teaspoons cinnamon, ½ teaspoon allspice, and ½ teaspoon cloves. Add ¾ cup washed raisins, 1/3 –1/2 cup of mixed peel, ½ cup chopped cherries (opt.) Dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in ¼ cup warm water; sprinkle with 1 package yeast. Proof for 10 minutes and then stir well. Heat 1-cup water; add 1-teaspoon salt, ¼ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons soft shortening, and 1 beaten egg. Mix well. When lukewarm add yeast. Pour into well in flour, stirring until liquid disappears. Form into a ball and knead for 2 minutes. Brush top with melted butter, cover with damp then dry towels. Let rise double. Punch down. Put ball of dough on lightly floured board; cover; rest 10 minutes. Cut in two; form into cylinders. Cut each cylinder in to 9 parts. Form into slightly flat balls. Put in 2 greased 9” square pans or 2” apart on baking sheets. Cover and let rise. Cut crosses in tops. Bake. After 15 minutes brush with glaze of 2 tablespoons sugar and two tablespoons of hot milk or hot water. Finish baking. Reglaze. Cool on racks. Frost in creases if desired. Makes 18 buns. BAKE: 375 deg. F for 20 – 25 minutes.

This image is from "Popular Nursery Rhymes - Mother Goose Rhymes, with explanations and illustrations"

My adaptation to the recipe.
I use whole-wheat flour. It does make them denser but they are very tasty. Any time it mentions sifting I put the flour and /or spices into a large bowl and incorporate them with a French whisk. Using a whisk to fluff up the flour is so much faster and tidier. I use ½ a cup not 1/3 of peel, plus I use candied citron. I make a quadruple batch of buns so when I measure out the mixed peel I measure 1 cup candied citron and 1 cup mixed peel. The raisins must be washed, it helps to plump them up when baking so that they are soft otherwise they tend to be hard. I do a mix of 1 cup golden raisins, 1 cup dark raisins, 1 cup sultanas, and 1 cup currants. I don’t like to use shortening so I substitute it with butter. We try to use honey in place of sugar. If you do use honey the oven temperature should be 25 degrees cooler or your baking will burn. The hot cross buns are baked in two large pans at our house. One pan is left unglazed and the other I glaze with the sugar/milk solution. I like the sugar for glazing. Have fun baking.

I Love Easter And I Love Chocolate

I mentioned Godiva Chocolates in an earlier post, but with the excellent chocolatiers in Victoria we can buy fresh gourmet chocolates right from the source. Since our visit to Switzerland our eyes and our taste buds have been opened to the delights of good chocolate. Gourmet chocolate is so incredible on the palate.

Guess what, dark chocolate is good for you. It has more flavonoids than blueberries. According to recent studies eating chocolate with 70% cocoa solids or more helps prevent heart disease, wards off diabetes, and reduces the risk of having a stroke. Do you need any more reasons to indulge in chocolate? I don’t.

Charles Rogers made his first chocolates in 1885 in the back of his grocery store in Victoria, British Columbia. The Roger’s Chocolates flagship store in Victoria was opened 1891. The interior is original Art Nouveau. The Victoria creams are big, about 2" across, about ¾" thick and really really good.

Here are some photos of the Roger’s Chocolates flagship store in downtown Victoria.

Counter display of Easter eggs and Easter chocolates.

Boxes of Easter chocolates, cardboard Easter eggs, and foil wrapped egg shaped Victoria creams.

Wonderful big boxes of chocolates inside the glass showcase.

I would love to get that giant chocolate Easter egg. It's also filled with chocolates.

One Easter my grandparents on my Dad's side gave me a chocolate egg filled with chocolates. I was not as impressed with it then. I wanted "Easter candies"! They were good though.

Some how the way I photographed this chandelier it looks like she has no head.

The lamps in this store are beautiful.

She is lulling you into the bliss of buying her chocolate. It works.

An old scale in the window display filled with chocolates. It shows the weight of the chocolates not your weight from over indulgence.

This machine in their window display is for rolling out hard candies

A Tasty Morsel of Godiva Chocolate?

My wife and I went for a walk early on in the year and I happened to look down on the ground and saw this beautiful piece of gourmet chocolate. I nudged it with my foot. I didn’t want to pick up an old piece of candy that someone had dropped and possibly had in their mouth. To my surprise it was a rock. Even holding it in my hand it looks like a piece of very tasty chocolate. This tasty morsel isn’t related to Godiva chocolates, but it does have pride of place in my studio.

Here Comes The Easter Bunny

Forget the Hallowe’en ornaments it’s Easter and here are two figural candy containers. 

Meet "Mr. E. Rabbit", he measures 15" high x 8 1/2" wide x 8 1/2" deep.

Here he is opened. He is available here.

and "Mrs. E. Rabbit", his lovely wife. She measures 14" high x10" wide 8" deep.

Here she is opened. She is available here.

Hello, I’m back.

Well that was an unexpected hiatus. For some reason my computer that was unbearably slow to the point of inducing either insanity or a coma has stopped doing what it was or should I say was not doing. It is somewhat slow but not as slow as about a month ago. I don’t know why it is not acting up the way it was but who cares I’m doing my blog again.

Here are some photos of some new Hallowe’en ornaments. Yes, I know Easter is on the way and I do have some photos of work for sale that would make the Easter Bunny proud but I just had to make these guys. They were going to be put up for sale but a collector friend bought the lot. Lucky her! The moulds were made last autumn. Each ornament is one of a kind. The arms are vintage bump chenille. Vintage chenille is so soft and fine compared to the modern bump chenille and the colours are incredibly beautiful. I am always on the look out for more. I wil be doing more of these ornaments. They won't be identical, but will have different colourations and different accessories. As they are made I will be posting them.

This guy is "Scaredy Gourd"

This is "Naughty Jack"

Finally we have "The Chinese Lantern Guy"