Cheese and crackers, peanut butter and jelly, milk and cereal, some things just go together so well that you can’t think of them apart. When you think of chocolate many different things come to mind, fruit, milk, peanut butter even wine but coffee? Chocolate and coffee make an excellent cake combination but I’ve never been to a chocolate and coffee pairing.
It was coffee week in London last month and Lindt and Delonghi held a chocolate and coffee pairing evening. I love both of these ingredients and was in heaven all night. I drank 6 cups of coffee and ate several bars of chocolate and I still managed to sleep like a baby when I got home!
My favorite pairing of the evening was Lindt Excellence Orange Intense paired with a Bolivia Copacabana bean made into a long black. Top tips on chocolate tasting from one of Lindt’s chocolate masters, smell the chocolate and savor the aroma before listening to the snap of tbe chocolate when breaking off a square. Let a piece melt in your mouth slowly. When you have finally swallowed the chocolate immediately take a slurp of coffee and note how the flavors combine with the chocolate you just tasted.
Good news you can find information about chocolate and coffee pairing as well and chocolate and wine pairing on Lindt’s website.
As mentioned my favorite Excellence bar was chocolate orange. I’m not usually a fan of chocolate orange but it had such a fresh orange flavor and the almonds gave the bar a nice crunch. I decided to use the combination in my cupcake creation for book club. In Hot Cakes, Bex makes a marmalade cake for the Eco Conscious Cupcake Company. I didn’t use the recipe from the book but I think my combo is more indulgent than her classic version.
I’m going to confess that I cheated and used a french vanilla cake mix on these. I was running short on time and I also had one box left to use up before it expired. I made a chocolate almond butter cream frosting from What Katie’s Baked. I filled the center with an orange marmalade.
I was invited to a chocolate tasting by Lindt and Delonghi and received a few a sample bars to try (Alex ate them all and I had to go out and by more).
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