chocolate

It’s Chocolate City Again!

The Chocolate Layer Cake Event of the Year!

15 CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKES COMPETE

Download a single 8.5 x 11″ Flyer or a 4 x 5″ Double Flyer (2 on one sheet)

Tickets are available for the Semifinals for the Makes-Me-Wanna SHOUT! Chocolate Layer Cake Baking Challenge presented with Eatonville Restaurant. Admission is $20/person and includes a $15 donation to Martha’s Table, the 2012 beneficiary for the cake challenge. The Semifinals event will be held at Martha’s Table located at 2114 14th Street, NW.

Chocolate Cake lovers are invited to join the official contest judges in selecting the top 5 chocolate cakes for the Final Five at Eatonville Restaurant in April and a chance to win $500 cash award, $250 gift card from King Arthur Flour for their online catalog, their winning cake on the Eatonville Restaurant dessert menu and all the honors, attention and praise that goes with having the DC area’s best chocolate layer cake.

Semifinals Chocolate Layer Cake Menu

Malted Milk Ball Birthday Cake

Chocolate Trio Cake

Chocolate Almond Coconut Cake with Chocolate Almond Filing

4-Layer Chocolate Cream Cake

Dark Chocolate Chai Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream

Emma’s Labella Chocolate Cake

“Lucifer’s Revenge” (chocolate cake with Mandarin oranges and Grand Marnier)

Chocolate-Orange-Mocha Layer Cake

Dark Chocolate Cardamom Sponge Cake with Rosewater Buttercream

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Buttercream

Candi’s Spiced Chocolate, Coffee Caramel with White & Dark Ganache Cake and Toasted Spiced Pecans

Friendship Chocolate Cake (with Nutella filling)

“The Ora” White Chocolate Cherry Cream Cheese Red Bliss Cake

Rodney Mason’s Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Helen’s Heavenly Mocha White & Milk Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake with White and Milk Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

The Semifinalists: Luke Johnson (DC); Jaryl Alloway (Bristow, VA); Austin Brown (DC); Jennifer Donald (Accokeek, MD); Amy Eisinger (Kensington, MD); Valery Flood-Smith (Ft. Washington, MD); Sophina Gross (DC); Tiffany Hall (Brentwood, MD); Cristen Kennedy (Hyattsville, MD); Rodney Mason (DC); Christine Perez (DC); Kary Semborski (DC); Karima Simmons (DC); Adrian Turner (Haymarket, VA); and Daryl Wright (DC). Semifinalists’ “cake stories” will be posted on www.shoutbakingchallenge before the Semifinals.

Does Anybody Bake Chocolate Cake Anymore? ISO Contestants for Cake Contest

Eclectic types tend to keep their fingers in a lot of pies…and cakes. This blog, of course, being no exception. That’s why Eclectique916.com is helping the “Makes-Me-Wanna SHOUT! Chocolate Layer Cake Baking Challenge“ get the word out that the contest is looking for contestants with a passion for baking, age 18 years and up, and residing in the Washington, DC Metropolitan region to compete in the 2012 contest and support the work of Martha’s Table, the 2012 beneficiary. The contest is presented with Eatonville Restaurant, the Zora Neale Hurston-themed sophisticated Southern food sister to the Langston Hughes Busboys and Poets hangout in Washington, DC.

Entry forms are due February 1, 2012.

(Mailed entries must be postmarked February 1, 2012 and received by February 4, 2012 – P.O. Box 21204, Washington, DC 20009) That’s pretty soon, but the process is simple.

Got a chocolate layer cake recipe (like German Chocolate, Devil’s Food…anything with chocolate cocoa in the batter)? Just jot it down on the entry form after filling out all the contact information, tell the story of the cake (what inspired the recipe, who laps it up, who shouts about it etc.), check the signature box, and click the SUBMIT button. That’s it. No entry fee. No purchase required. No baking…at least not yet.

Up to 15 entries will be selected for the semifinals and judging event with special guest judges (cookbook authors, food professionals) March 24, 2012 at Martha’s Table. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Martha’s Table (www.marthastable.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping at-risk children, youth, families and individuals in the DC community improve their lives by providing educational programs, food, clothing and enrichment opportunities.

Five finalists go to the Final Five in April for a chance to win the first prize.

First prize: $500 + your winning cake on the Eatonville Restaurant dessert menu (the 2011 winner is still a best seller), and a $250 gift card from King Arthur Flour, one of several sponsors of the contest. The winner also gets the fame that comes from being #1! Read about Decoyise “Dee” Brown, the winner of the 2011 challenge in the Washington Post. Dee will be on the noon newscast of local CBS affiliate WUSA9 Friday, January 27 interviewed by J.C. Hayward.

For more information visit www.shoutbakingchallenge.com, email contest[at]shoutbakingchallenge[dot]com or call 202-939-0794.

You can also download and print a contest brochure (2 pdf docs) from these links and give it to a friend:
Cover
Inside/Entry Form

Eclectique Foodie News

I’m still baking chocolate chip cookies from the Christmas batch. Great idea to scoop the cookie dough, plop the balls into a plastic bag, then toss them in the freezer. I bake as the craving hits me.

This year I hope I can indulge in the National Museum of the American Indian’s annual “Power of Chocolate“ Valentines Weekend (February 13 and 14). Let’s face it, the world would be a dull place if it weren’t for the Americas.

Here’s a little factoid blurb from the website:

Theobroma cacao was for the Maya and the Aztec peoples, as its Latin name indicates, a “food of the gods.” .

Here’s some video from last year:

REALITY RESTAURANT AUDITIONS
This was in the Slow Food DC newsletter (February). I sent it to my sister. We had this idea of opening a cafe featuring homemade cakes, desserts, with something savory on the side. We don’t do food fights.

24 Hour Restaurant Battle-OPEN CASTING CALL

Food Network’s new restaurant competition series from the producers of The Next Food Network Star is currently casting the very first season and is holding an open casting call
on Monday, February 22, 10am – 3pm
Zentan Restaurant/Donovan House Hotel
1155 14th Street NW, Washington, DC

They are looking for:
Two to five person teams with pre-existing relationships (brother and sister, mother and son, husband and wife, etc.) who would love the chance to prove that they can run a restaurant.
A dynamic front of house and back of house duo. One person on the team will run the front of the house and the other person on the team will be the chef and run the kitchen. All levels of experience (culinary school trained to home cook, little or no restaurant experience to a lifelong career in restaurants) will be considered.
Lots of energy and charisma, personalities that pop!
If you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to contact:
Alena Jemas, Casting Producer,24 Hour Restaurant Battle
Food Network/CBS News Productions
Office: 212-975-4125
Mobile: 201-415-8843
Email: jemasa@cbsnews.com
or visit www.24hourrestaurantbattle.com.

If most people have never heard of the brand of vodka or rum you drink, then you’d enjoy reading Dori Bryant’s The Polished Palate newsletter. Polished Palate readers are not amateurs when it comes to fine and refined spirits and cocktails. There’s a lot of history in a glass of rum as we learned at the January Food and Folklore event at Eatonville Restaurant (mentioned in the recent issue). Hat tip to Daphne Muse, our Zojito mixologist who hipped us to Dori’s newsletter. Polished Palate’s 5th Annual International Rum Festival in St. Petersburg, FL is March 27th.

eclectique 916

chocolate

The Chocolate Layer Cake Event of the Year!

15 CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKES COMPETE

Semifinals Chocolate Layer Cake Menu

Entry forms are due February 1, 2012.