Chocolate fun raiser

CHOCOLATE HAPPINESS

Must be true that chocolate makes you happy, for everyone at the fund raiser was  quite happy after trying all the different varieties of delicious preparations. It was a chilly Kurrajong saturday night when Tom and I attended the fund raiser for Beatrice!

Umoja Centre

Two weeks ago, my dear friend Karen had a bright idea. We should put on a chocolate night to support a young woman who is at the Umoja Centre in Arusha Tanzania. Umoja has a program to give education and empowerment to youngsters who have not finished primary school and are unable to afford getting through high school. Beatrice, while doing the 12 month headstart program was found to be in need of surgery. The chocolate night raised $780 towards the $13,000 needed.

You can sponsor a student at Umoja Centre, just click this link

Umoja volunteers

Two people who have spent time in Arusha at the centre were there on the night. They spent months at the centre, teaching. They related their stories of the empowerment of the youngsters when they receive the opportunity that we regard as normal, a decent education and nourishing food. Ling was helping greet the visitors. I donated a free cooking class at the vegetarian cooking class at Earthcare as a silent auction prize. So, soon, some lucky person will be popping along to the Earthcare class on a 3rd Saturday class.

Flourless chocolate cake recipe

A gluten free chocolate cake, one of the popular tasty treats.

Ingredients

• Butter – 100g
• Fair Trade Dark Chocolate – 150g
• vanilla extract – 1/2 teaspoon
• Eggs – 4 large
• Caster Sugar – 3/4 cup
• Almond Meal – 200g

Method

• Grease your cake tin
• Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C
• In a small saucepan, add the butter, chocolate, vanilla and stir over a low heat. When it is all melted, set aside
• Separate the whites from the eggs. Beat the egg whites with half of the sugar until they reach soft peak stage.
• In a new bowl, beat the yolks with the rest of the sugar
• Now, fold the chocolate mixture into the yolk mix
• stir in the almond meal, making sure there are no lumps
• take 1/3 of the egg whites and fold into the mixture until just combined
• add the rest of the egg whites and continue to fold in until combined.
• Pour the mixture into the cake tin and cook for about 40 minutes

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Fair trade – our inter-dependence

Such is inter-dependence. Someone is harvesting those coffee beans in West Africa. The tough news about that which we saw in a video clip in a few minutes is that it is kids who are doing this work, 200,000 of them. And it is under a system of indentured labour that this occurs. Instead of school – process cocoa! Buying fair trade products makes a difference to that equation.

Here’s a way to put your $$$ power into practise.