Chocolate-Champagne Trifle with Passion Fruit Curd

Passion fruit, chocolate and champagne. Hearing even just one of those ingredients would instantly make you think of anything romantic. They’re just dreamy in their own right.

This recipe may entail a lot of work, considering you have to prepare the cake, the passion fruit curd, and the champagne cream separately. But they’re actually a breeze to make, and they will combine to be the most decadent and glamorous dessert.

You can find passion fruit puree in your favorite supermarket. For the most part, they're in the aisle with other Hispanic ingredients.

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Eat Chocolate, Live Beyond 100?

Edna Sandys, 105, recently celebrated her birthday at the Elizabeth Scott Community assisted living and nursing home in the Springfield Township of Ohio. She says her history is already a little hazy, but she feels great.

Mrs. Sandys claims that eating chocolate and drinking hot chocolate have a lot to do with her long and healthy life!

Son, Tom Sandys, along with his wife, Kathleen, said Mrs. Sandys loves healthy living. She has always been healthy, according to them. Being sickly is not her game. Tom Sandys can even imagine his mother living for five years more.

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Chocolate Almond Pound Cake

You should know that this cake is, as a matter of fact, weighty. Deeply sorry I had to use such word play. In any case, the cake was named for the ratio of ingredients it is made of: 1 pound butter, 1 pound eggs, 1 pound flour, 1 pound sugar. But we won’t stick with those measurements!

Long story short, despite the original pound cake's sparse number of ingredients, it is packed with flavor. Pound cake is described as a dense cake with a compact, buttery crumb. The butter and eggs are to be thanked for its richness.

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Bourbon Balls

I love hot chocolate, and any chocolate drink, for that matter. I can't stress it enough. Not gonna lie, I also have this intense love of alcohol drinks. Among the top of my list: bourbon drinks. I love bourbon with citrus, bourbon with ginger, bourbon with...well, just about anything.

According to Wikipedia, bourbon whiskey is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name derives from the French Bourbon dynasty, although it is disputed whether its namesake Kentucky county or New Orleans street is the source of the whiskey's name.

Turn it into a dessert, and I'm a happy camper!

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Brush Your Teeth With Chocolate!

Crest Be is introducing some new and groundbreaking toothpaste flavors like lime spearmint zest, vanilla mint spark, and mint chocolate trek.

Fret not, your dentist will not disapprove. The executives of Procter & Gamble are quick to point out that Be has the "foundational benefits needed for oral health including cavity protection, cleaning, fresh breath and whitening."

They are expected to hit the shelves first week of February in the U.S., then in Canada shortly thereafterCrest Be - Mint Chocolate Trek

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Swedish Chocolate Balls

Kids in Sweden understand that the chocolate ball, known as "Chokladbollar", is an amazing treat.

Not only does it taste great, but it can be made by kids too, without the use of knives or hot pans and ovens.  That's right, no baking or cooking needed. Just mix then ingredients, and then roll into balls. What kid wouldn't want that for dessert?

Chokladboll (literally "chocolate ball") is a popular Swedish confectionery. It is a type of fridge cake. Historically, the original name was negerboll (literally "negro ball"). However, nowadays, this older name is deemed controversial due to its association with a potentially racist term. 

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Mini Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Cakes

Aside from chocolate chip cookies, I have this deep undying love for thin mint cookies! These are thin, mint-flavored chocolate wafers dipped in a chocolate coating. I tend to exclusively associate them with the cute little Girl Scouts, so when I happened to come across this recipe, I was delighted! I couldn’t wait to share it with you guys.

This is how it was diligently described: "Like a Thin Mint cookie and an ice cream cake had a delicious baby, these single-serving cakes are a delight to the eye and to the mouth! Fluffy dairy-free chocolate cake is sandwiched around creamy mint chip coconut milk ice cream, coated with crunchy peppermint-infused chocolate, and topped with whipped coconut cream. A bite-sized treat perfect for parties, no one will believe you when you say they’re dairy free."

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No To Child-Slavery Laden Chocolates

While we all claim to love chocolate, many of us aren’t even aware of the heavy use of child labor in West African cocoa farms, where about 70% of the world’s chocolate comes from. More than 109,000 children are nearly enslaved under “the worst forms of child labor”, according to the US Department of State.

In an attempt to cut costs, cocoa plantation owners get children to work against their will. To add insult to injury, they work for hours on end without any pay.

In response to this madness, activists, NGOs and international organizations started to campaign for awareness about child-slavery laden chocolates. By doing so, they expect consumers will take some initiative to demand change.

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Peppermint Chocolate Granola

Granola is something else! Always has been, always will be. And it can be delicious, especially if it's not made up of too much mysterious organic stuff that some dude tripped over while hiking some prairie lands.

Here's a yummy twist on the Granola concept that you can use to get rid of some of those extra candy canes lying around after Christmas.

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Chocolate Coconut-Filled Almond Cupcakes

Ah, Christmas. 'Tis the season to reunite with family and friends. Time to catch up with all the loved ones. And then suddenly, it's the new year!

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