Spooky Creations for Halloween 2011

You have so many choices for Halloween, Sisters and Brothers. While food blogs every where are full of creative baking ideas what do you do if you don't have that time or skill of your own? Where can you turn if you want something more personal and completely chocolate for your party or a friend's birthday if they happen to be born near Halloween or simply love the creepy things in life? You can turn to custom made chocolate and we've never been privileged here to do a feature review on this very competitive and high-skill aspect of chocolate until now. The nice gentleman who runs Creative Chocolates down in San Antonio, Texas, sent us a tasting sample and an amazing creation for our Halloween Treat Challenge this year in the category of Novelty.

The details on the skull are amazing so as I describe the chocolate -- white and milk -- it is made out of I'm going to show you two more photos of it from the sides. One of the creepiest aspects of this skull is the size. This is like a child's skull at 3.5 inches across the base, just over 4 inches across the widest part across the eyes in front but almost 4.5 inches from the back to the little nose bone, and standing about 5.75 inches tall. It fits in the full palm of my hand like child's head would. I love how the two sides are not identical when you take the time to look at them. When I unwrap it I can immediately smell the creamy white chocolate, vanilla, and a hint of something cocoa in nature. I'm not breaking it before Halloween. I love you all, Sisters and Brothers, but I'm not doing that just of the review so I can't say if the milk chocolate inside will come exploding out when I do break it open. Perhaps I'll pretend it was moving and needed to be smashed or something to make it extra scary.

The tasting sample has the white chocolate with the inner layer of milk chocolate. You could also ask for dark chocolate I'm told but that should cost more. Personally even before I taste it I'd go for the darker for a deeper contrast in flavors myself but you all know what you like best. In some areas the white chocolate is much thicker than in other areas and you can see that along the jaw or the eye ridges for example. The chocolate makes a good snap when I take a bite. The first flavor is the creamy white chocolate but this has a kick of strong vanilla in it that I really like because I often find white chocolate too plain yet too rich for my tastes. The milk chocolate then starts to assert itself and it has a good balance with the white, actually holding its own very well for the most part something I was afraid it wouldn't be able to do. Molded chocolate runs the range from quality to junk (we saw some of that last week if you'll recall). This is certainly among the higher quality molded chocolate I've had and I am greatly pleased because while looks matter for novelty and custom made products, taste and texture matters, too.

The great thing about custom made chocolate is that often it can be shipped anywhere depending on what you want and the time of year you order it. Normally I do not recommend getting ice pack because I'm thinking of your pocketbook, Sisters and Brothers, but creative designs like the ones we've seen today from Creative Chocolates are well worth that effort. Their prices are so reasonable, I was amazed that the white chocolate with milk chocolate skull starts at just $22. I hope you check them out and if you do, invest in protecting what you buy. This is high quality chocolate and the molds and designs you'll find on their website make this a wonderful Sacrament for so many seasons and events year round.

Here are examples of other Halloween work that Creative Chocolates as done this year and last year because they are lovely to look at.