Lake Champlain Chocolates Blog

Well, it’s that time again. Halloween has officially ended and it’s time to move on to the next holiday.…Thanksgiving! More so every year, I feel this holiday gets skipped over. I swear Christmas items are placed on store’s shelves leaving Thanksgiving with no fighting chance.

With all that in mind, I decided to take a walk back in the factory to check out our renowned Chocolate Turkeys.  For those of you who have not taken our factory tour, I will do my very best to describe the process of making chocolate turkeys which is similar to many of our signature seasonal figures.

First, we hand fill the turkey moulds with our delicious chocolate.

Next, we assemble them on our Magnetic Tumbler (this is what makes them hollow on the inside!)

Once they are dry, we have someone “pop” each chocolate turkey out of their mould (no machine necessary here!)

Then we line them up like turkey soldiers so they can be transferred to packaging

Lastly, they are wrapped up with a festive bow and are ready to eat!

Luckily, we make these cute little birds in milk and dark chocolate so take your pick. They are great for place settings or if you really want to get creative you can turn them into an entire thanksgiving centerpiece scene! There goes my imagination, but seriously the possibilities are endless!

So please, I beg you, don’t forget about Thanksgiving!! It is an extremely important holiday of friends, family, food and giving thanks. Gobbling up our chocolate turkeys is just an added bonus! 

I feel I need to say up front that just going on first impressions, the two subjects of todays blog do not appear to be directly related but they are. I promise.

Earlier this week, I received a copy of Hobby Farm Home magazine in the mail. It’s a nice looking magazine, glossy cover with pretty imagery and inviting story headlines. Felt a bit like a Good Housekeeping or Family Circle with features about food and crafting. It’s descriptor says “True Country Living”. But I wasn’t expecting it so it took a moment to figure out why I had received this nice magazine. 

As I flipped through the pages, I came across a great write up and photo of our chocolate placesetting and centerpiece turkeys. They also mentioned our other autumn chocolates. What a treat! I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll say it again, I love when I see our chocolates in print. This was no exception! If you see Hobby Farm Home magazine in your bookstore, give it a read. It’s very nice.

Now, as I was doing just that, I came across a recipe. Well, I came across a number of them as there is quite a selection of delicious sounding recipes but this one caught my attention – Fall Harvest Cake. It read like a well developed Spice Cake and I decided I was going to attempt it. So, after baking it last night, I brought it into work and my co-workers said it tasted great. If only I’d had chocolate chips on hand, I would have definitely thrown them in. I think a little unsweetened cocoa added to the mix might give it yet another layer of fun.

At any rate, I want to share the recipe here, which I certainly hope they don’t mind. They have credited www.recipezaar.com with the recipe so in an attempt to give credit where credit is due, thank you Hobby Farm Home and Recipezaar.com!

Fall Harvest Cake
1 ½  cups sugar
½  cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
½  teaspoon salt
¼  teaspoon nutmeg
¼  teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
16 ozs. pumpkin
1 apple, cored, peeled, and chopped
½  cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to350°.  In a large bowl, mix the first 10 ingredients together; add flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Blend in pumpkin; fold in apple and pecans. Transfer batter to a greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes. Cool 20 minutes in the pan; remove and complete cooling on wire rack.

They also included a recipe for frosting but it was so good plain, I left it out here. Incidentally, I didn’t have a bundt pan so I use a rectangular pan and even had enough extra batter to make a small loaf as well. Enjoy!