That is right, in honor of today being International Chocolate Day, I have decided to totally forget that it is Friday the 13th. It is officially Chocolate Friday!
Photo credit: aophotos from morguefile.com
My favorite chocolate cake recipe was my Mom’s but I was sworn to secrecy on that one, so this link to The Boat Gallery Recipe for Chocolate Upside Down Cake by Carolyn Shearlock is going to have to do.
Purportedly the first use of chocolate in baking dates to 1674 and a London coffee house that used chocolate in cakes and rolls for the first time. That was after the coveted product of the New World escaped from the royal confines where the French had tried to keep it for use only by the elite just as the Spanish had done before them.
Image by Luisovalles
Several forms of chocolate are thought to have originated in the Amazon and upper Orinoco River basins. But it was the Olmec, a pre-Mayan culture of Mexico that left the first evidence of using it as a food/drink. Of course from there the Spanish brought it to Europe.
In any case and no matter how it found its way into my life, I do love a cup of cocoa and a chocolate pastry. Truffles aren’t too bad either.