Happy Valentines Day!

I got another calling on Sunday! See if you can guess by the description:
Hang up balloons, make 40 cupcakes, create chocolate sculpture, put chocolate treats into sample cups, taste aforementioned treats, count votes for best use of secret ingredient (chocolate) and the best tasting, put up tables and chairs, take down balloons, and thank Jill for a job well done!

Did you guess Relief Society Activity Committee? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! That's right I get to help Jill Revelli with the Relief Society Activities each month. Trust me, it takes a committee to pull off Jill's amazingly brilliant ideas!

This month: Iron Chef Chocolate!
We learned how to make homemade cocoa mixtures, how to make homemade ding-dongs (hence the 40 unfrosted cupcakes), learned all about chocolate and different types of sweeteners, had our own Hamilton Ward Iron Chef competition, and had loads of cocoa-fun! Leave it to Jill to come up with something so grand and yummy!

The taste testing was too fun. Each dessert was put in labeled sample cups with a designated number. We had judging score cards as well as paper to write notes. My favorites were Chocolate Orange Cinnamon Chile Truffles(Dave Revelli snuck in his creation...is it fair that a man won?) and the Better Than Sex Brownies (I am not making this up...That's really what the entry was called. Of course it was made by Ali Bowcutt our local professional caterer.) However I also enjoyed chocolate cherry cake, the best ever chocolate cake, chocolate pie, and chocolate dipped merengues. Oh who am I kidding...I loved it all! I even got to sport my new Hershey Kiss shirt for the occasion!

For the chocolate sculpture I entered my heart "ahem" cake. Well, it was more like a frosted and decorated pie tin but shhh...don't tell. I did win 2nd prize for my hershey heart. I started with a heart shaped pie plate and put mini hershey bars on it. I used my embossing gun to melt the chocolates and then spread it on to look like frosting. Next...the hershey kisses were the outer layer of the heart...then rolos...and finally the center of the heart was all pink m&ms. The sides had pink, red, and white m&ms. Voila! I plated my creation on my round stone covered in foil and added pink and brown bows to the handles. It really did look like a cake! However, I was competing against a professional caterer's wedding cake so I didn't win. Jill's rice-crispy treat car dipped in chocolate was the only other entry in that category.

Everyone had a cocoa-licious time. I love my new calling!