helen, one of our original chocolatiers, will be in mortons of galway this saturday (22nd may) giving samples of our chocolates. she would love to see any of you and has many tales to tell of setting out on dark mornings to farmers markets in cork and dingle and the highs and lows of early cocoa bean adventures!

pollenca

it seems such a long time ago but it was only last week that we were in this lovely town, glad of the sunshine after wild storms and floods.

this cafe sold cakes in its nearby bakery. On the corner of our table is one of their ensaïmada, a delicious spiral shaped pastry, eaten at breakfast.

our camera gave up after this photo so i don't have pictures to record our liver enlightenment, braised so perfectly in tapas sized robust stews.

having spent all yesterday grinding star anise for experiments with our christmas stars, i added star anise to braised steak and it was a great sucess! I also loved the cinnamon stick in with the chorizo and chick pea casserole i made yesterday. i always associate these flavours with chocolate since our early cocoa bean days, so think i am a bit beind in experimenting with spices in savoury dishes beyond curries.

and to mise - i added some yeast to chocolate and it was not unpleasant but it was dried yeast in solid chocolate. i imagine live yeast in a fresh , soft, dark truffle is more what you were dreaming up. it's now on my list of things to try. let me know if you have a go at it!

cinnamon sausage chocolate

i know. it sounds gross but i can't get it out of my mind! i am in the middle of reviewing our whole range: experimenting, inventing and dreaming. i am looking for something to go with a milk chocolate, maybe on the dark side of milk. i am also just back from a crazy, stormy, lovely spanish holiday where i tasted cinnamon salami amongst other delicious tapas dishes and it somehow shifted my soul. it won't work with chocolate so i should just leave it but it is nagging away there. what if i just use all the other ingredients and leave out the pork? i don't have the recipe so i need to do a lot of testing and tasting. watch this space...

chocolate cafe !

skelligs & cocoa bean chocolates have now opened our first chocolate cafe at 77, High Street, killarney - opposite Quills...the factory is currently closed to visitors while we under go some renovations on site - so apologies for any inconvenience caused, but our chocolates can be purchased from the skelligs chocolate cafe in killarney. if you visit, we would love to hear your feedback!

lard cake....mmmmmm

it's actually a gloriously oozy chocolate cake with a well of dulce de leche and topped with intense dark chocolate which i made for my husband's 30th birthday. on seeing it cut into though a friend screeched in horror 'is that lard?!' now i wouldn't say we are an entirely healthy family but a cake filled with lard isn't exactly our style.

i suppose that this was inspired by c's love of millionaire shortcake and my distinctly sweet tooth that is fairly uncontrollable at the moment.

the cake is a basic chocolate sponge, baked in a single layer star shaped mould. when cooled i hollowed out a 1cm deep well in the centre, leaving a border of about 1.5cm round the edge to retain the flow of caramel.

the dulce de leche is simple to make but a bit time consuming; several techniques are available to follow here - i used the 'in the can' method very effectively. carnation do a ready made version, available at most supermarkets, which is apparently good.

pour the caramel into the well, allow it a little time to flow into the nooks and crannies and begin to firm on top a little. mix a 100g of melted dark chocolate (a real bitter one holds up well here to counter the incredible sweetness underneath) with 25g butter and drizzle over the cake until a layer is formed. be delicate and patient with this dribbling it thinly over the dulce de leche; too much in one go will cause caramel displacement! allow the chocolate to set, decorate as you see fit - we went for very flamboyant silver ball designs and mini sparklers- and indulge!

despite still being a bit of a dark chocolate purist, i love the crazily sweet and addictive skelligs creation of mini marshmallows & honey comb in creamy milk chocolate. they are hand made and hand wrapped in our kerry workshop. in fact ,emily and i like it so much that it ended up looking very much like a cocoa bean invention wrapped in bright pink and orange. it's ours now colm - hands off!

shamrock cake

we are waiting for esme to get home from school so that we can start the party, decorate our tablecloth and eat the cake just before dinner - all worries about spoilt apetites thrown to the wind!

esme and elsie were very excited about going to school and nursery this morning in their flashing shamrock badges from their grandma and granddad. iris is sick and refused to be drawn into the girls' celebrations at first but has just woken up more in the mood for fun!

when elsie got home at lunchtime, we set about inventing a st.patrick's day cake. while i was working out whether to make a flag or a leprachaun, i spotted my four small heart tins that i got for christmas and realised we could make the perfect shamrock.

we creamed 50g butter and 100g caster sugar and then added an egg, a splash of vanilla extract and finally 100g self raising flour and a dash of cocoa powder. we spooned the mixture into the four tins and baked for 10 minutes at 180 degrees c.

the icing is 40g soft butter creamed together with 125g icing sugar and a dash of milk. colour it shamelessly green and eat it with a glass of red lemonade or a pint of guiness!

our girls looking unimpressed with aidan's cloak. . .