Now announcing the judges!!!!!!

I am very excited to announce the judges for DBC 2008!!! The library is very happy to have returning veteran judges Marcus Candinas (Candinas Chocolates, Verona WI) and Tracy Thompson (Sjolind's Chocolate House, Mt. Horeb, WI) join us for the third annual DBC. Joining Marcus and Tracy is newcomer, David Bacco. David is the pastry chef and chocolatier at downtown Madison's Cocoliquot. Cocoliquot is known as "Madison's premier wine and chocolate destination serving French bistro and cuisine, housemade chocolates and desserts, and over 50 wines by the glass" (http://www.cocoliquot.com/).

Stay tuned for more information about our judges (i.e. more in depth biographies)!

2008 Death by Chocolate Bake-Off date has been determined!

Get ready for Mount Horeb Public Library's third annual Death by Chocolate Bake-Off!!

The date has been set for Saturday, February 16, 2008. Tasting commences promptly at 6:30 p.m.

Stay tuned for the latest news and updates!

Soon to be announced . . . this year's celebrity judges . . .

Announcing the winners of the 2007 Death by Chocolate Bake-Off, Mount Horeb Public Library

Here are the award winners from last Saturday’s Death by Chocolate Bake-Off at the Mount Horeb Public Library.

People’s Choice Award Winner
Blue Sky Café’s Chocolate Cookie, #CK1

Judges’ Choice Award Winner
Davina Penne’s “A Piece of the Good Life” , #CA9

Category awards determined by voting tasters:
1st place Brownie: #BR3, Angel Stampfli’s Chocolate Peppermint Brownies
2nd place brownie: #BR2, Blue Sky’s Café’s Black Forest Brownies

1st place cake: #CA9, Davina Penne’s “A Piece of the Good Life”
2nd place cake: #CA1, Donald Peterson’s Chocolua Cake

1st place cheesecake: #CH1, Cheryl Heusuk’s “Al’s Awesome Chocolate Cheesecake”
2nd place cheesecake: #CH4, Joni Greiber’s Oreo Obsession Cheesecake

1st place cookie: #CK1, Blue Sky Café’s Chocolate Cookie
2nd place cookie: #CK2, Gail Van Haren’s Sand Dollar Doodles

1st place candy: #CY6, Hannah Zoromski’s Dark Chocolate Raspberry Hazelnut Truffles
2nd place tie for candy: #CY2, Ellen Wright’s “The Wright Chocolate Drop” ; #CY3, Kendra Sutter’s McDreamy Chocolate Covered Cherries

Judges Lysianne Unruh, Marcus Candinas and Tracy Thompson deliberated on 30 desserts looking for what Lysianne called
“that ultimate chocolate experience”.

Hannah Zoromski and Joni Greiber also won ribbons last year. Hannah Zoromski placed second last year in the candy category with “Last Minute Madness” and Joni Greiber placed second in 2006 in brownies with her “Killer Brownies”.

A total of 300 votes were cast by visiting tasters to determine the People’s Choice award and the category awards. People’s Choice and Judges’ Choice award winners took home a traveling trophy and $100.

Recipes for all of the competing desserts of both 2006 and 2007 Death by Chocolate Bake-Offs are available at the library for customers to photocopy. The top two winning recipes will be available through the library’s website, www.mhpl.org by late evening at the latest, Monday the 19th.

34 entries registered!

We have a total of 34 entries registered, which is just 1 more than last year. And that's great! If you have not registered yet - it is too late. Deadline was 8:30 PM last night.

If you didn't make the deadline for competition, come and vote on chocolate goodies at 6:30 pm Saturday.

Here are the total number of entries in each dessert category:
Brownies : 7
Cake : 9
Cheesecake: 5
Cookies: 5
Candy: 7

Bakers, please bring desserts between 5:45 PM and 6:15 PM for set up on Saturday.
And bakers and candy makers, please feel free to clarify points with me by email - mhplibrary@yahoo.com or phone 437-5021 ext 109.

Carol Gruba

Last year's dessert category winners and their recipes

If you want to see what kinds of recipes were entered last year, come to the Mount Horeb Library's Death by Chocolate display and look at the recipe binder.

Here are the bakers and recipes that won in each category in 2006. Ask these people what they're baking this year!

Bar/Brownie Category (this year it's divided into separate divisions!)
#1 Karen Lazar: Turtle Bars
#2 Joni Greiber: Killer Brownies

Cake
#1 Patricia Morris: German Chocolate Cake
#2 Sherry Tompkins: Death by Chocolate Cake

Cheesecake
#1 Ann Snodgrass: Chocolate Madness Cheesecake
#2 Karen Matyas: Life after Death Cheesecake

Cookies
#1 Mary Penninga: Cocoa Climax Cookies
#2 Susan Merklein: Our Big, Awesome, Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Candy
#1 Kaleidoscope Marketplace: Truffles
#2 Hannah Zoromski: Last Minute Madness

Death by Chocolate makes the Capital Times-Correction on Prize Amounts

Here's a great link to the Capital Times article printed Monday on both our event and a really neat trivia event called The Brain Games held in Mineral Point Sunday February 11th

I need to offer a correction to the article regarding prize amounts.
There will be fourteen Death by Chocolate prize winners.
Two contestants will win $100 each: the winner of the People's Choice Award and the Judges' Choice Award.
Additionally, each of the six categories of dessert, (cookies, brownies, etc.) will have a first place category winner and a second place category winner.
First place category receives a ribbon, a certificate and $20. Second place category winner receives a ribbon, certificate and $10.

Link to "2 Towns Fight Winter's Monotony with Fun Events", Capital Times, Mary Bergin
http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2007/01/29/0701290057.php

Kalscheurs is a Death by Chocolate Sponsor!

Drop by Kalscheurs Fine Foods and take a gander at the Death by Chocolate display by the magazines. It looks jazzier and has more sales every time I visit.