Chocolate, part two

Today I made my mother-in-law's chocolate icing.  She has the best chocolate icing in the world, hands down.  You could make the crappiest cake in the entire world, slap this icing on it, and ppl will love you forever.  It's a thick, dense, fudgy icing, and ridiculously simple to make.  Hubby will not eat any cake with chocolate icing unless it's his mother's icing.  Well, he may eat it, but he'll complain bitterly the whole time.  Since his birthday is on Tuesday, we celebrated today.  I made a "yellow cake with chocolate icing".  He asks for the same thing every year.  I also made lobster tails, filet mignon, roasted asparagus, and baked potatoes.  Everyone said I should have taken a picture of the food plated for the blog because it looked so colorful, but I passed.  You'll just have to use your imagination.

I also went to Roots Market  today to see what kind of weird chocolates I could find.  I guess their buyer had a moment of sanity, because there weren't as many odd flavor combos as there was the last time. My kids and I plan to taste test them tomorrow.  I also thought it would be fun to compare the chocolate company's description of their product versus reality.  Let me bring up that Chocolate/Bacon combo from yesterday's blog...Vosges writes, and I quote:

Breathe…engage your five senses, close your eyes and inhale deeply. Be in the present moment, notice the color of the chocolate, the glossy shine. Rub your thumb over the chocolate bar to release the aromas of smoked applewood bacon flirting with deep milk chocolate. Snap off just a tiny piece and place it in your mouth, let the lust of salt and sweet coat your tongue

I am laughing as I type this.  Really.  I would write it more like this:

 Open the wrapper, smell the strong aroma of bacon.  Anticipate a marriage of salty and sweet.  Instead the bacon overwhelms the senses with the chocolate a pale second, detracting rather than enhancing the cocoa flavor.  The taste lingers on your palate as your taste buds frantically recoil...You notice the glossy shine of bacon grease on your fingers.  You crave some sweet-smelling hand soap...

Ok...I'm a little harsh.  I realize that obviously some people love this combo, but I can't see how.   I tried it more than once too, thinking perhaps the first time I was too hasty in my decision.  I wasn't.

So, see the fun and hilarity that may ensue from this? Especially if we take pictures!  I may have to spread the tasting out over two days - I think I bought about 8 bars - we'll have reviews on chocolate with maca; chocolate with chili; chocolate with rose and ginger, and a few more weird combos, as well as some "regular" unadulterated chocolate (Salazon!!!)

Now, I did promise you a recipe, didn't I?

Grandma T's Chocolate Icing (printable recipe HERE)

•  1/3 cup butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (that is a 6 oz package if you are curious)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Combine the milk and butter.  Melt in the microwave.  I find 1 minute at 60% usually does the trick.

Add the chocolate chips and vanilla, beating with an electric mixer til' combined.

Add the confectioner's sugar.  When combined, beat at high speed until the icing is smooth and glossy.  The icing may be a bit thinner than what you are used to.  This is NORMAL, because the butter and milk are warm.  The icing WILL THICKEN upon standing. I gave this recipe to a co-worker once, who wound up adding about 2 additional cups of sugar because it was too thin LOL because I forgot to tell her that small little detail.  The icing at this point is perfect for icing a bundt cake, or the second layer in your two layer cake.

You can let the icing sit for about 20 minutes to "harden up", but if you're used to working with it thinner, then go for it!  This recipe will ice a 9 x 13 sheet cake, an 8" round 2 layer cake, 12 cupcakes, or a bundt pan cake.

Enjoy!