Chocolate Week - Day Four

By Corinne:

For those who know me, they know that chocolate is one of my favorite foods.  In fact, it borders on addiction.  Giving me chocolate is a good way to make me your friend (a good hint for all the single guys out there).  Like we said earlier this week, all of the recipes that we sell are recipes we have developed ourselves, and I happen to be particularly proud of our chocolate cupcake recipe.  It comes out perfectly every time.  Every single time.  It is wonderful.  These are some of the best chocolate cupcake recipes that we have:

The first one is the S'mores Cupcake.  The reigning favorite of our photographer, Tyson Rollins, the S'mores Cupcake has a graham cracker crust, chocolate cake, and is topped with a vanilla buttercream frosting, crushed graham crackers, and three toasted marshmallows.  No need to freeze during the winter to get your favorite camping treat, we'll bake these up for you year-round!

 And for all you chocolate lovers, we have the wonder of wonders: the Triple Chocolate Cupcake.  A dark chocolate cake is smothered with a semisweet chocolate ganache, and carries a smooth chocolate buttercream frosting.  A must have for any chocolate lover.

So those are a couple of my favorites.  If you try them I'm sure you'll be hooked, too!  Happy Chocolate Week, everyone!

Chocolate Week - Day Three

As chocolate lovers you've probably noticed that tons of our creations feature this fabulous ingredient, from cookies to whoopie pies and lots of cupcakes.  But one thing we do year-round that's a tasty chocolate indulgence is our Chocolate Covered Pretzels.

As lovers of the sweet & salty combo, we do salted pretzel rods (we also do large twist pretzels, but rods are much more popular we've found) year-round made to order.  They are sweet and simple... as most treats are.  We've featured them on the blog for holidays, but we also can make them with your choice of sprinkles or colored candy drizzle for any event.  

You can choose between white or milk chocolate and your favorite decoration.  We sell them in 3 sets of 4 pretzels each (math wizards will see this is a dozen pretzels) for $10.  Not bad for some crunchy and sweet, colorful treats.

Chocolate Week - Day Two

People ask us all the time where we get our recipes.  (We'll take that as a good sign that they like them!)  The answer is simple, although the process is not: our heads.  We develop all of our own recipes.  They usually start with an idea for something fun or something we want to master.  Then we play around on our "test kitchen" days trying to create our own recipe for something, whether it's something we've had or seen somewhere and want to put our own stamp on it, or something we've dreamed up and want to bring to life.  

They don't always work out.  Some recipes are wildly successful.  Others... not so much.  But the best thing about baking is that every step is fun.  If it turns out well you get to indulge in something sweet after cleaning the dishes.  If it doesn't, well, you have a fun time with your partner trying (and laughing at yourself).

Since we can't share the recipes we've created for How Sweet It Is, we thought we'd instead share a couple of Corinne's favorite no-bake recipes.  Here are a few ways to whip up something chocolatey and fun!

So here are the Corinne-approved chocolate treats-- the first is no-bake cookies.  While there are many different recipes, this has become her personal favorite.  And yes, it is much better if you use crunchy peanut butter!  The second is a recipe for a easy s'more.  Made with one of the best cereals and chocolate chips, this version of a campfire favorite is sure to please!

No-Bake Cookies
Ingredients:

· 2 Tbsp butter
· 2 Tbsp cocoa
· 1/2 c milk
· 2 c sugar
· 1 tsp vanilla
· 1/2 tsp salt
· 3/4 c peanut butter (crunchy is best)
· 2 c old-fashioned oatmeal

Directions:

Melt butter in a medium saucepan.  Stir in cocoa, milk, and sugar.  Stir to melt ingredients together.  Bring to a boil that spans the whole surface of the mixture (rather than just the edges). Remove from heat immediately.  Allowing the mixture to boil for even a few minutes will dry out your cookies, so watch it well!

Stir in vanilla, salt, peanut butter, and oatmeal until well mixed.  Continue to stir until mixture has thickened a bit.  Scoop heaping spoonfuls onto wax paper and allow to cool. (Or eat as soon as it has left boiling temperatures, either way is just fine!)

Makes about 2 dozen

S’more Please!
Ingredients

· 1 (12 oz) box graham cracker cereal (i.e. Golden Grahams)
· 1½ c semisweet chocolate chips
· 1 (10.5 oz) package mini marshmallows
· 4 Tbsp butter

Directions:

Place cereal and chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl and set aside.  In a large saucepan, melt marshmallows and butter over medium heat, stirring often.  Continue melting until a few small bumps remain, but the majority of the mixture is smooth and gooey.  Pour marshmallow mixture over the cereal and chocolate and stir to combine. The heat from the marshmallows will melt the chocolate chips.  Continue stirring until cereal is well-coated.

Pour mixture out onto waxed or parchment paper to cool.  Alternately, you can press the mixture into a 9 x 13″ pan and allow to cool.  Cut and enjoy!

Be sure to store in an air tight container or zip-lock bag.

Introducing: Chocolate Week!!

How Sweet It Is is excited for this week.  Why, you ask?  Because Corinne and Susan have deemed this week Chocolate Week.  We will be posting something each day through Friday about one of our favorite subjects of all time: chocolate!  We'll give you a little Chocolate 101, post some easy chocolate recipes, and show off a few of our favorite chocolate creations, ending the week with a brand new chocolatey cupcake.

Let's talk today about five benefits of dark chocolate.  There are some excellent reasons to eat a bit of chocolate a couple times a week!  Isn’t it nice to have an excuse?

1) Dark Chocolate is Good for Your Heart

Studies show that eating a small amount of dark chocolate two or three times each week can help lower your blood pressure.  Dark chocolate improves blood flow and may help prevent the formation of blood clots.  Eating dark chocolate may also prevent arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

2) Dark Chocolate is Good for Your Brain

Dark chocolate increases blood flow to the brain as well as to the heart, so it can help improve cognitive function.  Dark chocolate also helps reduce your risk of stroke.

Dark chocolate also contains several chemical compounds that have a positive effect on your mood and cognitive health.  Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), the same chemical your brain creates when you feel like you're falling in love.  PEA encourages your brain to release endorphins, so eating dark chocolate will make you feel happier.

Dark chocolate also contains caffeine, a mild stimulant.  However, dark chocolate contains much less caffeine than coffee. A 1.5 ounce bar of dark chocolate contains 27 mg of caffeine, compared to the 200 mg found in an eight ounce cup of coffee.

3) Dark Chocolate Helps Control Blood Sugar

Dark chocolate helps keep your blood vessels healthy and your circulation unimpaired to protect against type 2 diabetes.  The flavonoids in dark chocolate also help reduce insulin resistance by helping your cells to function normally and regain the ability to use your body's insulin efficiently.  Dark chocolate also has a low glycemic index, meaning it won't cause huge spikes in blood sugar levels.

4) Dark Chocolate is Full of Antioxidants

Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants.  Antioxidants help free your body of free radicals, which cause oxidative damage to cells.  Free radicals are implicated in the aging process and may be a cause of cancer, so eating antioxidant rich foods like dark chocolate can protect you from many types of cancer and slow the signs of aging.

5) Dark Chocolate is High in Vitamins and Minerals

Dark chocolate contains a number of vitamins and minerals that can support your health.  Dark chocolate contains some of the following vitamins and minerals in high concentrations:

• Potassium
• Copper
• Magnesium
• Iron

The copper and potassium in dark chocolate help prevent against stroke and cardiovascular ailments.  The iron in chocolate protects against iron deficiency anemia, and the magnesium in chocolate helps prevent type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.


Okay, okay... we know most of our goodies are much more about the sweet and less about the health.  But, like all things, chocolate anything is great in moderation!  And we're excited to show you a couple of yummy indulgences.  Check back throughout the week to see some of our favorite cocoa creations!

Worth a Thousand Words

That's what they say a picture's worth.  And while we're no Ansel Adams, we're pretty proud of some of our sugary creations and post pictures frequently on our Instagram account.  If you aren't following us yet, please find us @HowSweetItIsUT.  We're relatively new to Instagram and Twitter (same name on both services), but we're excited to gather some new followers.  Here's a few pics we've posted lately:

  

 

Another great reason to follow us here is that we'll be doing some future giveaways of our cupcakes and other sweets, and the random drawings will be chosen from our followers on social media.  So if you've got an account, please follow us.  And if you don't have one yet, what are you waiting for?

Suzy Sweethearts & Valentines Goodies

February 14th is the perfect day for baked goodies.  Why?  Because if you're in a relationship, both guys and gals love a yummy treat from their significant other.  And if you're not currently in a relationship, well, you deserve some sugar regardless.

All jokes aside, we have a fun new Valentines cupcake to offer you for next week, the Suzy Sweetheart.  Old Suzy Sweet Tooth fans will remember that one of our most popular cupcakes, the CocoNilla, is named after our co-founder Corinne.  So this new one is named after and created by Susan.  It's fitting, as Susan's birthday is also Valentine's Day, and we both love heart-laden goodies.

The Suzy Sweetheart has chocaholics in mind with a base of our classic chocolate cake and a layer of creamy semisweet chocolate ganache.  We frost it with our vanilla cream cheese frosting marbled in pink and white for the holiday, and top it with two hand-piped pink candy hearts (one heart for minis).  What could be sweeter than that?

 

Suzy Sweetheart Cupcakes

Also for Valentine's Day keep in mind our personalized goodies.  We do chocolate covered pretzels rods year round, in white or milk chocolate and your choice of sprinkles or a candy drizzle.  

Valentine's Day Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods

We also have plenty of festive Valentines sprinkles to choose from.  Any of our cupcakes can be decorated for your special someone in style!  Just let us know what you'd like when you order.

Please contact us at HowSweetItIsUT@gmail.com through Tuesday, February 12 for any Valentine's Day orders (and any other time for birthdays, showers, or any other festive treats you'd like)!  And thanks, as always, to TZRollins Photography for the beautiful photos.

Giveaway Winners

What a fun weekend we've had here at How Sweet It Is!  Along with a couple of orders, we were able to give away some cupcakes to people around town.  The winner of our drawing was Caitlin, who won a dozen assorted cupcakes.  Jamie also won a last-minute supplemental drawing and got 4 cupcakes for her family.

Our winners with their spoils

We also delivered some sampler trays to local businesses around Provo/Orem, including our two favorite salons: Shep Studio in Provo and Suggestions Salon in Orem.  

Suggestions Salon

We will be doing future drawings for cupcakes and other yummy treats, so keep your eyes peeled here on the blog as well as our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.  And if you work at a local business that would be interested in samples, please email us at HowSweetItIsUt@gmail.com, and we'll be sure to keep you in mind for our next freebie offer.