Orange Cream Cacao Bark

http://hotrawchef.com is nearing its last day of voting for the 2011 Valentine’s contest. Submit your vote, and get the recipe book after the contest is complete! Wow, I wish I’d known about this earlier – I might have entered myself! There are some great recipes from all over, mostly North America. This one I am going to serve at my VD day raw potluck party. (VD… doesn’t sound that romantic, eh?) It’s by Joy Houston. Sorry, no picture right now – I’ll add one if/when it becomes available.

BARK

ICING

TOPPING

Put all bark ingredients into high speed blender and blend until smooth. Spread mixture about 2cm thick onto a tray covered with cellophane or wax paper, or onto a dehydrator tray covered with teflex. Refrigerate until hard. For icing, in a clean blender put in all ingredients except the juice. Add in the juice last, gradually, so that you can control the thickness. Spread the icing evening on top of chilled bark. For topping, zest an orange right on the top, and sprinkle on the red coconut flakes, made that funky colour by tossing them in the beet juice and agave beforehand.

When I made this, instead of “bark” chocolate that would need breaking or pre-cutting before hardening, I made the whole recipe using wee silicon cupcake trays. Worked a charm!