Chocolate Cup with Orange Liqueur based Chocolate Ice Cream for Taste & Create

Another month has gone by and it's time for my favorite day, TASTE & CREATE !!!


TASTE & CREATE is a cultural exchange program for bloggers. Click on the logo to the right, but the premise is simple... Once you sign up, monthly, you are paired with another blogger. Hunt down a recipe that you find appealing and cook and post the results. You are introduced to a new recipe, and at the same time, because you dig a little deeper into a new blog, you find bits of personal information that gets you a new blogger buddy!


This month, I made a trip down under to the home of the Crocodile Hunter, Olivia Newton John, shrimp on the Barbie and the DRAGON MUSINGS blog of the Silvermoon Dragon herself!


Looking over her blog, I see an awful lot of wonderful kid friendly recipes.  She has three children of her own.  She is very enthusiastic about cooking with the young children, and devotes a day a week of her blog to spreading the gospel of kid cooks!  I also found this incredibly easy way to make a special dessert presentation.  The ice cream recipe is actually a suggestion i read of hers that had her wishing for a chocolate orange item... But I am ahead of myself.  Here's the Dragon's very easy to duplicate way to make chocolate cups...


Here's what she said...

To make chocolate baskets, melt chocolate, and spread in a circle on a sheet of plastic. Cut up ziplock bags work better than cling wrap because they are stronger and thinker, making it easier to work with. Once you have a large, even thickness circle, lift the plastic and drape it chocolate side up over a tall cup or glass. The width of the opening at the top of the glass will be the size of your base, so don't use a skinny glass like a champagne flute unless you are aiming for a chocolate vase and not basket. Likewise don't use a very large glass like a martini glass or your basket will look more like a plate.

And, here's what I did...

Set up a double boiler system for melting the chocolate... Big pan of simmering water, with a smaller pan floating in the water... add chocolate...

Works like a charm, always does.  I have had less consistent results using a microwave to melt chocolate.  This is a bit more time, but always is perfect.  I'll take consistent.

I laid out the ziplock bag (doesn't show in the photo, but trust me, it is there.  Then I spread out the chocolate...

And then draped the plastic over a glass.  One trick that i will remember next time is to trim the thick zip part of the bag off.  The thick plastic side did not drape as well as the other 3 sides.  But, it still worked...

These were never ever going to harden in hot, humid US Virgin Islands weather (poor me).  So, I popped them into the freezer for a day, which was fine, because I was going to be making a chocolate-orange ice cream that needs a full day to set up...


This is a blender recipe, just dump everything in, blend and freeze for at least 24 hours...

• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 1 nickel Hershey's Bar melted (at least they were a nickel back in my youth, now they were a buck fifty, but just the standard check out counter size)
• 2 Eggs
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup Cointreau Orange Liqueur (feel free to sub Grand Marnier)  

Like I said, blend everything, pop in the freezer and in 24 hours... ICE CREAM!


Spoon into the Dragon's Chocolate Cups and you have a pretty impressive dessert!

Thanks Dragon!