Foodish Art: Art Opening and Silent Auction

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!

ECLIPSE CHOCOLAT hosts local San Diego artists for an exclusive TWO HOUR foodie-art event! Admission is FREE!

Why can't I seem to to make an announcement about an event on a Sunday without that strange car-demolition and/or monster truck rally voice starting in my head? Come on, you all know what I'm talking about! Or is that a Midwest thing?

Regardless of the voices in my head and what they are telling me, we are hosting an art opening and silent auction in two weeks of food-related art. 27 San Diego artists were invited to create "Foodish" art and donate their works for an auction. 100% of the proceeds will benefit an upcoming local youth photo art project organized by the San Diego Sugar Museum.

Foodish Art
Reception and Silent Auction:
Sunday June 8th, 4-6pm, Eclipse Chocolat

Guests to enjoy friends, art and food (we will be sampling lots of chocolate, including our Chile-Burnt Caramel and Artisan Cheese Skewers!).

FYI- Artwork will actually be on display beginning Saturday morning, if you can't make it on Sunday.

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes- Part Neuf

I came in on Sunday to do my Monday baking so I could enjoy a chocolate-free Memorial Day. Shockingly, Saturday evening was pretty busy around here. By the time I had called to check in on the evening barista, she said that we were completely out of all brownies AND cupcakes. That's a first, folk. Thanks for the business! For those of you interested in a slower weekend day at the cafe, try Sundays.

So after an oddly-paced holiday weekend, I'm back to the cocoa-grindstone (techincally the conch-stone for those of you who are initiated in the ways of chocolate refining). Continuing my exploration in all things cupcake, we're on with two more flavors today. That makes 18 Crème Fraîche Cupcakes so far! Crazy, no? Even I don't know how many more cupcakes will be debuted (24? 28? 36?), though I have decided to take a poll here on the blog to see which you're all most interested in and then pair back to the most popular 18. I guess that makes some of these limited edition. Better try them all now! Here are my new offerings today:

Muscavado Caramel-Dark chocolate-crème fraîche cake+smoky caramel filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+dark muscavado sugar.

Blood Orange Apricot-Dark chocolate-crème fraîche cake+dark chocolate-blood orange olive oil filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+dried apricot.

Espresso Walnut

Still recovering from Mom's Day! Can you believe it? We were out of a lot around here, and I've been making chocolate bars all week. And for all you guys who are jonesing for my Sea-salt Nib Bar, I swear I ordered new labels! We've been out for a month because I had to place a new printing order specifically for that bar. Who knew it was so much more popular than the others? We should be back with those in about a week. Until then, try the others... like this one:

So it's back to basics... and this is as basic as Eclipse gets. One of my first bars ever, Espresso Walnut, is pretty straight-forward and direct in flavor. Studded with toasted walnut pieces and espresso beans (locally roasted from Cafe Calabria), this 61% dark chocolate bar has got some crunch! Each bite is a little different as the texture fluxuates from dark chocolate to espresso to toasty walnut notes.

Our bars are $6 each, or three for $15. Stop in and try a few out!
-

Triple Chocolate Toffee

Back in 2004 when I was a young chocolatier with just a cocoa-nib glint in his eye, I started making truffles. Lots and lots of truffles. I was mostly working with wine bars, and Eclipse was very much a hobby. In my down time, you could easily find me pawning Le Creuset and All-Clad at the Fashion Valley Williams-Sonoma.

My "big break" was my first regular volume account. At the time, the W Hotel was having chocolate shipped out from Chicago and treating their VIP clients to Vosges Chocolate (take a look, beautiful site and Katrina was recently named Entrepreneur Magazine's Woman of the Year 2008!). Well, the W was all too happy to find a local option and my little hobby became a career.

One of the things that they requested was a toffee. My first thought was, "Toffee? Why? I make truffles!". You heard it here first, folks: I've been a bit close-minded and not open to feedback in my past (but I'm working on that, I swear!). So with a little personal persuasion, I set out to make an outstanding toffee. About a week later, Triple Chocolate Toffee was born.

Made from an all-butter toffee, I add a healthy dose of extra-brute cocoa powder to the batch just before pouring it out to set. Each piece is hand broken before being dipped into 60% dark chocolate and topped with cocoa-nibs. The finished toffee is pretty intense, with a great crunchy texture from the nibs.

Dressed for success in our Asian Take-Outs, these babies are $8 each or two for $15 and make great gifts. Enjoy!
-

Lotsa Cupcakes & Thankyous

Holy crème fraîche! I don't exactly know how this happened, but I have run out of my first order of cupcake liners. I always underestimate holidays, and Mom's Day was yet another one that gave me quite a workout.

Somewhere in the past 30 days, I managed to bake 1000 cupcakes. I know what you're thinking, I honestly can't believe it either. When I first imagined the cafe in 2006, I wouldn't have believed anyone who told me that I would become known for my baking. And while I had no intention on becoming a part-time cupcake boutique, I'm certainly having a lot of fun with it all.

So with all the craziness that's gone on in my life in the past four months, it's about time for another round of thankyous. There are many people holding me up these days, and I fret to think where I would be without them:

Alice, Jonathon, Roger, and all the SD Foodies and Bloggers- For sending me so much support and word of mouth. It's very validating to see you all return time and time again!

Oreste- For being a solid foundation in my life and checking in regularly to make sure I'm not found up face-up in a chocolatey gutter (and to Kevin for lending me his boyfriend on a part-time basis)

Zach- For being a good sport these first few weeks and quite literally cleaning up my wake. I think you will fit in here quite well.

Michelle- For helping me divide my personal and professional life (for the sake of my all relationships!)

Charlie- For being an enthusiastic part of Eclipse.

Rich and Megan- For spreading the word. I smile each time you guys come in.

Mom's Day Brunch Pics

As promised, here are the pics from our recent Five Course Chocolate Tasting Dinner. This one was for Mom's Day weekend, and thus brunch themed. Pictures courtesy of Tyler and Amanda (the very talented and hungry foodie couple behind What We're Eatting), I treated them to a free meal in exchange for their photo services. Any bloggers interested in the same for our Dad's Day Chocolate Bar-B-Que?

PS, Tyler is a web designer, so hit them up for freelance work. Mouth-watering pics, guys. Thanks!

PSS, I'd love to see reactionary comments on the blog from people who attended!

Starter: Farmhouse Meat Platter, featuring Chile-Maple Links,

Sage and Cocoa Nib Sausage, & Cocoa-Glazed Durac Bacon

Course One: White Chocolate-Citrus Sparklers

Course Two: Dark Chocolate Chip Waffle with Maple Syrup

and Honeyed Creme Fraiche

Course Three: Cocoa nib-Corn Bread with Red-eye Gravy

Course Four: Quail Eggs in the Hole with Chile-burnt Caramel Hollandaise

Course Five: Azteca Buttermilk Cinnamon Roll
with White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Huit, AKA Babies Love Cupcakes

I came into the cafe today with the intent to bake off two more cupcakes flavors. All went as planned until photo-time approached when as I picked up my camera I discovered renegade pictures on my memory stick. It seems as though a two cocoa-craven babies snuck into my cafe, each stole a set of three cupcakes and proceeded to take a nap on one of my tables. Crazy, no?

Turns out they were not the operatives I thought they were, and instead were the adorable new-born twins of my very good friends, Autumn and Dan. Autumn has seasonally helped out with Eclipse back in its infancy until the time when she lost her professional freedom to her own infancy. Here's hoping she makes a return to EC some day in the future. If I haven't said it already, she and Dan are doing a wonderful job being new parents. Congrats, guys! In a year or two we can start training those buggers to wrap chocolate bars!

Until then, here are two more Crème Fraîche Cupcakes to enjoy:

Coconut Caramel-White-crème fraîche cake+smoky caramel filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+toasted coconut flake topping.

Lime-salted Caramel-White-crème fraîche cake+smoky caramel filling+white chocolate ganache glaze+lime-infused sea salt topping.

-