About

I have been passionate about baking ever since it was my duty to "clean out" my mother's mixing bowl and lick the wooden spoon.  As a small child, I proudly spooned the jam into the tarts - convinced that it was me that had produced these delicious treats.  Later on as a teenager, I did all of the household cake and biscuit baking at home and some of the bread baking too.  To earn extra pocket money, I occasionally worked in the local wholefood cafe where it was my job to make the bread rolls amongst other things.  When I was at university I would fill up my mother's freezer with goodies for her during the holidays so she had something to offer guests in my absence.  I was the only student I knew who baked their own bread.


But life moved on and I got busier and couldn't seem to find the time to do much more than bake the odd cake for a special occasion.  As for bread, I stopped baking that all together.


I started this blog back in Feb 2009 in an attempt to get me back into baking more regularly and to increase my repertoire of recipes.  It's been an enjoyable journey.  I had no idea that the world of chocolate cookery would turn out to be so vast.  No risk of running out of new things to try for some time to come.

Who doesn't love chocolate and what could be better than having a blog completely devoted to it? I decided to pursue a chocolate theme, as like many people I am a chocoholic. This is such a ubiquitous and familiar ingredient, yet is so often abused.  Industrial scale production and associated cost cutting exercises has resulted in poor quality, overly sweet and distinctly unhealthy chocolate and related products.  This food of the gods otherwise known as Theobroma cacao deserves better than this.

In my experience, cooking with good quality and preferably organic ingredients is the key to making good food. I try to buy ingredients locally from small suppliers who show integrity - it's a shame chocolate doesn't grow in the UK! I grew up in a wholemealy household so am used to the different properties of wholemeal baking and in fact I'd never used white flour at all until recently. I want to continue and build on the tradition of delicious, wholesome and hearty food that I learnt from my mother. I very rarely follow a recipe exactly and sometimes make up my own. Although I do have the odd mishap, I've never had to throw anything away. That said, I am keen to try new things and improve my presentation skills.


I review products relevant to my blog and relish the opportunity of trying unfamiliar ones.  I am an enthusiast but will always give honest feedback. I will also accept sponsorship for products in keeping with my blog's ethos.


I welcome all of your feedback, contributions and comments and will always try and answer any questions. I have already gained so much in the way of information and friendship from other bloggers and look forward to continuing the journey.


I can be contacted via e-mail - choclette8 @ gmail.com


Choclette - October 2011