Chocolate Bar-B-Que Artisan Sausage Platter

If you haven't heard about our Five Course Chocolate Tasting Bar-B-Que this Saturday, you must have been living under a cocoa-nib. In case you missed it, here's the line-up:

Chile-roasted Corn on the Cobb with House-made Cocoa-nib Butter
Heirloom Tomato-Goat Cheese Brulee with White Chocolate-Balsamic Drizzle
Bar-B-Que Baked Beans with Cocoa-Glazed Bacon (veggie option)
Cocoa Nib-Smoked Pulled Pork Sammie with White Chocolate Slaw (veggie option)
Milk Chocolate S’mores with House-made Vanilla Bean Marshmallow

If you're a meat-eater, this is definitely a meal not to miss. Of special interest is the optional Artisan Sausage Platter by prepared exclusively for out event by local Knight Salumi. For $14 guests can enjoy a generous selection of three sausages in the following flavors:

Thai Basil and Ginger Chicken Sausage

Pork Mole with Red and Green Peppers

Smoked Beef Cocoa-nib

Rey, the fabulous salumi-maker, dropped off my custom order today, and I couldn't help but tear into a few and grill 'em up. Each is very hearty in portion and very different in flavor. My personal favorite is the beef, which has a very smoky flavor and substantial texture. The chicken is a close second, though, with refreshing pops of flavor from the candied ginger.

We still have a few spots left at the 11am and 1pm seatings. Tickets are $35 a person. RSVP required. Call 619.578.2984 or email today info@eclipsechocolat.com

White Chocolate Thyme Sauce with Frozen Berries AND Dark Chocolate-Rhubarb Mousse

I seldomly post on more than one food item at a time. In fact, this may be the first example of this. My work is crazy enough; I try not to overwhelm anyone. Technically these are related, so here you go. Either way, the post is a bit of a foodie frenzy.

Time is ticking away on our last Seasonal Dessert Tasting Platter. It was originally scheduled to take me through the end of this month, but I, in fact, have only a half dozen platters left. When they're gone they're gone, folks! Then we will debut our next collection. Here's a teaser of two of the four upcoming treats:

White Chocolate Lemon-Thyme Sauce with Frozen Berries-

[white chocolate sauce infused with vanilla bean, lemon peel, & thyme+frozen mixed berries]

Dark Chocolate-Rhubarb Mousse-

[chilled 61% dark chocolate mousse+rhubarb, red wine, & vanilla bean compote+dried pomegranate arils]

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Private Chocolate-making Party; AKA Par-tay with Eclipse Chocolat

Last night we hosted our first ever Private Chocolate-Making Party here at the cafe. The event was for 20-some lovely young ladies celebrating the 17th birthday of their good friend.

So of what does a Private Chocolate-Making Party consist? Well in this instance, each guest was invited to fill, glaze, and garnish a pair of Crème Fraîche Cupcakes (with their choice of fillings and toppings, of course), hand-roll a number of Exotic Truffles, and make a number of other chocolate temptations. Each place-setting at the table was complete with a White Chocolate Citrus Sparkler, a personalized favor in the form of a ribboned Lavender Sea-salt Caramel Truffle, and a few Asian Take-out boxes for guests to carry home their chocolatey wares.

Parties are limited to 10-20 people, come complete with a Chocolate Liaison (check out our own Charlie as host in this pic), cost $25 per guest, and typically last 2-hours. All other details are completely customizable! You invite your guests, show up and make some chocolate, and sing a song to the lucky recipient. We take care of the rest!

Please allow for two-weeks notice for reservations.

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes- Part Douze

If you were at our Mom's Day Brunch, you'll know that the Cocoa-glazed Durac Bacon stole the show. It was perfectly smoked, deliciously fatty, and tantalizingly crispy with the flavor of a chocolate glaze peaking through each bite. I can't really take the credit though; all we did was broil and glaze it to order. The real mastermind to this culinary concoction is Rey Knight of locally operated Knight Salumi. He doesn't have a website to link to yet (let's get on that, Rey!) but I can say he operates his new artisan meat company out of recently opened Urban Solace, just a few blocks from here at 30th and University.

Keep an eye out for a post in a few days on the custom sausage work he's doing for us for Dad's Day. Thai Basil Ginger, Chicken Mole, and Beef Cocoa Nib anyone?

In the mean time, I've been daydreaming of ways in which I can sneak some of this left-over bacon into just about everything. I only have about 2 pounds left, and I removed them from the freezer yesterday when MelloPie (Eclipse regular, local super-foodie, and fellow blogger) suggested a new cupcake flavor. If you were following the Extravaganza post, you would have seen MelloPie's cocoa-crazy idea of a bacon and caramel cupcake. Well, Mello, today's your lucky day!

At this point, I bet you're thinking one of two things: "Bacon... Chocolate? Gross!" or maybe "Bacon... Chocolate... Yeah, I've seen it. Way to be original, Will". First off, don't knock it until you try it, and second... yes I suppose it was only a matter of time until I, too, fooled around with our porcine brethren covered in cacao. I can't quite figure out where it began (with chocolate-chip pancakes and bacon, I suspect), but in the past year Katrina of Vosges, my Chicago-based archnemisis, has stolen the national chocolate attention with her bacon and milk chocolate bar. While it's worth trying, I frankly think it has an odd "porky" aftertaste. Go figure. It is, however, her best seller.

(Editor's Note: Katrina and I have never met, though I did once stand next to her for a period of time at the Fancy Food Show and thought I felt some sort of psychic voodoo-mojo emanating from her general direction. Plus, I like the idea of having an archnemisis. Go find one, yourself. Makes life worth living!)

So Mello has suggested it, and I have delivered. Though, don't expect further meaty concoctions any time soon... I made the decision some time ago that Porky Pig wouldn't find his way into my retail chocolate line at any time in the foreseeable future.

Oh, and there's a pomegranate cupcake, too:

Pomegranate Rhubarb-Butter-crème fraîche cake+vanilla bean rhubard filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+dried pomegranate aril.

Crispy Bacon & Dulce de Leche-Butter-crème fraîche cake+crispy cocoa-glazed durac bacon & dulce de leche filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+maldon sea-salt.

If you're feeling apprehensive, you're not the only one. Though it contains absolutely no cornmeal, I ate one of these bacon-babies for breakfast (well, its pork, afterall) and I couldn't stop associating the taste experience with cornbread. Just think of it more as a muffin.

Cupcake Extravaganza Weekend

A very sincere thank you and appreciation to all of you out there that have so enthusiastically responded to my recent fascination with all cakes "cup". Back in October when I launched the cafe, no one could have told me that someday my crème fraîche demands would outpace my monthly investment in cane sugar. Even such statements that I have found myself saying in the past few weeks such as: "oh man, you should see my crème fraîche bill" and "do you sell crème fraîche in a drum?" don't seem to ludicrous to me anymore. Yet somehow I don't tire of it. If I kept it at home, it would still find its way into every savory dish I make. I suppose that's why I relegate it solely to the cafe. So much for taking one's work home.

22 flavors down and another dozen or so left to go. I'm officially taking requests. That's right... the haughty chocolatier is asking for feedback and suggestions. For a limited time only (jk! I'm always happy to hear suggestions!)

Seriously though. Drop me a comment here on some of your favorite dessert concepts and I will try to stuff them into one of these little cakes. It's officially a challenge. The only caveat to this is that the fillings need to be shelf-stable (so don't take it personally if I can't make a cake filled with pastry cream and such).

And now for the fun announcement of which this post is really all about: my upcoming Cupcake Extravaganza Weekend!

That's right. An entire weekend devoted to these little gems. July 4th, 5th, & 6th we will have all 30-some cocoa-crazy cupcake flavors available. Even better, they will be buy-2 get 1 free! All in efforts to discover which of mass will be destined to become part of the permanent "collection". We're inviting everyone to come in and try them out and offer us your feedback on your favorites. Each purchased cupcake will come complete with a review form (for feedback and score) and the top 18 cakes will be knighted as Eclipse-worthy.

BUT WAIT! There will be fabulous prizes, too. Each review is actually an entry into the crème fraîche-ist lottery ever!

One lucky winner of the raffle AND the person who purchases the 2000th cupcake will receive a VIP Eclipse Pass good for one complimentary box of 9 cupcakes each week for 2 months! There will be a number of smaller prizes allotted, too.

So read up on past cupcake posts, offer your suggestions for new flavors by commenting on this post, and start fasting now to ready your tummies for that fateful weekend at the end of the month.

And for those of you who aren't regular visitors, here are all the cupcake posts at your convenient perusal:

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Onze
Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Dix
Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Neuf
Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Huit, AKA Babies Love Cupcakes
Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Sept
Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Six
Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Cinq
Even More Crème Fraîche Cupcakes
Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Trois
Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Deux
Crème Fraîche Cupcakes

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes- Part Onze

Dulce de Leche- it's super tasty and time consuming to make. So why bother with it yourself when you can find it packed into a little cupcake here at the cafe? My friends Alex and Steffi (the lovely maker and designer of all things furniture here) have finally been vindicated in that they have been requesting me to make this culinary ambrosia for months. Seriously, months. Alex is from Argentina, it's birthplace, and apparently a good dulce is hard to find here. Well wait no more, guys!

If you've never had it before, an all-natural Dulce de Leche should be made with just whole milk and cane sugar, but I add vanilla bean for added depth and flavor, of course! This simple mixture is very slowly simmered until it caramelizes and becomes very rich and creamy. The process can take a few hours and the final volume is only 20% of its original mass. All the goodness of dairy, sugar, and vanilla packed into a tight little caramel. How can you go wrong?

And that banana filling is super, super tasty. Aren't those the exact words I used in the last post? I can't possibly pass up on using it again. This time with a different cake and a different topping of course! Two more comin' at ya!

Macadamia Dulce de Leche-Dark chocolate-crème fraîche cake+vanilla bean-dulce de leche filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+toasted macadamia.

Espresso Banana-Butter-crème fraîche cake+brown sugar & banana filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+espresso bean.

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes- Part Dix

Initially, my agenda with the Crème Fraîche Cupcake line was to offer a selection of dense and rich pastries that rotate daily. Something familiar and accessible, yet different... get me? Alice Q Foodie recently referred to these babies as "a plated dessert posing as a cupcake" on her blog and I'm proud to say that I think they have a pretty intense impact, too. I had planned to stuff each one with different caramels, sauces, and fillings that were already in use around my kitchen. Common sense for a professional foodie: if you're taking the time to make a quality component from scratch you might as well use in more than one application.

Well, I'm closing out this week with 20 total flavors and I'm officially out of multitasking ingredients! Bit of a double-edged sword, really- I no longer have convenient fillings at my disposal so I need to invest more energy in creating new options. Though while I need to start making fillings specifically for cupcakes, I am no longer hindered by existing parameters. In short, I'm expanding my cupcake vocabulary.

This conundrum has resulted in something particularly delicious today- an incredibly yummy banana compote.

I've been looking at Sheri Yard's pastry cookbooks for sometime, specifically her first one: The Secrets of Baking. It more or less reads as an encyclopedia of all things pastry, conveniently organized into master recipe concepts and variations. If you're interested in taking your personal baking to the next level, I highly recommend it. It has certainly proven personally useful over the past few years.

One particular recipe in her book is for a cake filling she calls banana schmutz. Doesn't sound very tasty, eh? Trust me on this one. It's not a complete dessert, but a component for something larger, and as such I never really found a use for it since I don't do layered cakes. Rummaging around the shop in search of cupcake fodder today, my mind quickly flashed to her recipe. Using her formula as a springboard, I pushed and pulled the ingredients here and there, omitting and adding, until I found something a bit more "eclipsey". The finished filling is made from ripe bananas, dark muscavado, dark rum, and browned butter. Super, super tasty.

I may have to find more applications for this culinary treasure. Until then, you can enjoy it in center of one of our little square cakes:

Banana Cinnamon-Dark chocolate-crème fraîche cake+brown sugar & banana filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+vietnamese cinnamon.

Hazelnut Aniseed-Dark chocolate-crème fraîche cake+toasted hazelnut gianduja filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+aniseed.
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