A Night out at The Chocolate Café to Shake off the Winter Blues

Monday night I headed to one of my favorite local food/drink establishments, the Chocolate Café in Grandview. As a regular attendee of these events, I made sure to get there early to secure one of the precious few parking spots (though there is free on street parking after 6pm).

As the time grew nearer our group began filtering in which consisted of three couples and three of us ‘single ladies’ (though I’m technically not, but as Andrew wasn’t present, I was single for the evening).

Lisa, the owner of the Chocolate Café came over and introduced herself and Catherine, her pastry chef.

The first order of business was to make a creamy, fizzy spring cocktail (not sure it has a name) consisting of a generous scoop of strawberry ice cream, a couple pieces of strawberry, and a generous amount of either Seltzer water or Prosecco, depending on whether or not you’re going for the virgin version.

I opted for the Prosecco and gradually poured in the entire (small) bottle. Someone suggested sherbert/sorbet would work equally as well.

What would a pre-Valentine’s celebration be without strawberries dipped in chocolate? We took turns going up in pairs to dip our strawberry in the chocolate melting machine they have behind the counter. I had previously used that when dipping my Buckeye flavored apple last fall.

Next on the agenda was learning how to make a bowl out of chocolate. We were given a small plastic cup, a generous piece of clear wrap, and some melted chocolate. We placed the bowl upside down on a plate, then stretched the clear wrap around the bowl and tucked it under the plate. Then we each took turns spooning chocolate over our clear wrap.

Based on my results, I would advise drizzling it more heavily around the center so you build up a solid base. Although mine looked pretty while it set, it literally broke apart when I separated it from the clear wrap (after it sat in the freezer for awhile). I wasn’t the only one with mixed results, and not sure many had an intact bowl afterwards. No matter, you still have some lovely chocolate to eat afterwards, or melt it down and try again.

Catherine brought out her icing bags and gave us a lesson in piping cupcakes using different kinds of nozzles and technique depending on what kind of a flower you want to create. To do a rose, you work from the outside in; to do a zinnia, you pipe individual peaks. Otherwise, you can start from the center and work your way around in a circle.

The lady sitting to my left (whose daughter is a chocolatier in Guam apparently) made a pretty design using different colored frosting for her zinnia, which I tried to copy, but mine didn’t look anywhere near as nice as hers.

I really enjoyed piping the cupcakes and would have been quite happy to do an entire cake. I think piping can be very zen-like if you’re not under time pressure (like the bakers on “The Great British Bake-Off” often are).

Lisa also shared some small rice krispie squares which most of us dipped in the leftover chocolate (and I added some to my spring cocktail). I’m glad she passed those around since I decided to take home my strawberry and cupcake (and broken chocolate bowl) to share with Andrew.