chocolate Archives - Detroit Duchess

For the Love of Chocolate

March 25, 2015 by DetroitDuchess 3 Comments

Disclosure: I received a 2.5 LB chocolate bunny to give away in exchange for a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was recently invited to an evening of wine and chocolate tasting at Gayle’s Chocolates in Royal Oak. I had heard about Gayle’s and even passed the stores multiple times in Royal Oak and in the airport, but I never stopped in. I had no idea what I was missing.

I am a huge fan of successful women and Gayle’s story is no different. Gayle Harte started Gayle’s Chocolates in 1979 with one saucepan on a stove in Huntington Woods. Gayle started the business because she couldn’t find an intense enough piece of chocolate to satisfy her sweet tooth and decided to make one herself.

This is the real Gayle!

At this event, Gayle’s organized a chocolate and wine tasting led by Elie Boudt from the Elie Wine Company. I wasn’t familiar with Elie’s before the event, but was excited to hear that they have a store close by in Birmingham that I can visit to purchase wine and get personal recommendations. I have a feeling that I will be hitting them up for some future Wine of the Week recommendations!

The chocolate and wine tasting were very well thought out with different concentrations of chocolate paired with a variety of dry and sweet wines. I learned a few things to share with you:

Smell, true taste and taste sensation are the three important parts of wine tasting
We can only taste sour, sweet, bitter and salt
Smell the wine & chocolate before you taste to take in full flavor
If the wine and chocolate are too cold or warm you aren’t going to get an accurate scent
Don’t keep your chocolate in the refrigerator

After the tasting I got to check out all of the fun different in-store chocolates. I was literally a kid in the candy store! Gayle’s makes all sorts of fun chocolate items like chocolate pizzas, chocolate shoes, chocolate Eiffel Towers and more!

Gayle’s also has a little coffee cafe where you can get macaroons (my favorite)!

Since we are quickly approaching Easter, Gayle’s has a plethora of Easter treats to choose from and is giving you the chance to win your very own giant chocolate Easter bunny!

To enter please fill out the Rafflecopter below and Gayle’s will ship one of these chocolate beauties right to your home. This giveaway is ending on 3/25 at 5:30 p.m. and the winner will be announced that evening:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Detroit Tagged With: An Evening at Gayle's, chocolate, Easter, For the Love of Chocolate

Say HELLO with Lindt

October 6, 2014 by DetroitDuchess 2 Comments

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Lindt HELLO. All opinions are 100% mine

I was recently approached by Lindt, to talk about their new Lindt HELLO chocolates. Lindt HELLO is a new collection from Lindt of sinfully delicious premium chocolate inspired by classic American treats. Lindt HELLO is all about making connections, so I thought it would be fun to use this opportunity to reconnect with one of my friends and brighten up her day.

But first, say “hello” to the enticing flavors, of the Lindt HELLO collection:

Caramel Brownie: Discover the irresistible combination of smooth milk chocolate, hazelnut and caramel brownie filling
Strawberry Cheesecake: Satisfy your cheesecake craving with rich milk chocolate and a light, fluffy strawberry cream cheese filling.
Crunchy Nougat: Smooth milk chocolate,– now that’s yummy!
Cookies & Cream: Chocolate, cookies – and a crunch! Savor a chocolaty experience like no other, with chocolate chip cookie pieces and cream filling.

The Lindt HELLO collection can be enjoyed 3 different ways:

Sticks – The Lindt HELLO sticks are trendy treats designed for chocolate lovers on-the-go. With six tasty squares you can savor one by one or enjoy all at once, the sticks are just the right size for satisfying those afternoon cravings.
Bars – Lindt HELLO Bars are not your ordinary candy bars. The ten luxuriously filled squares that make up a HELLO bar – each covered in irresistibly smooth premium chocolate – are bite-sized packages of delight for your taste buds.
Mini-Stick Bags – Taste, share and love! Each bag is filled with bite size Mini Sticks – perfect for sharing with friends or spoiling yourself with the occasional (or daily) chocolate treat.

To help launch the new line of Lindt HELLO, Lindt Chocolate partnered with Ashley Tisdale to co-produce “It Started with HELLO,”a fun, new comedy digital series capturing couples as they make their first connections, and is inspired by the cheeky personalities of the new Lindt HELLO products. You can watch the series on Lindt’s YouTube channel here.

Since I am an old married lady, I wanted to take this opportunity to say HELLO to my friend Amanda. You may remember her, from our trip to Seattle, where we went to her wedding this past May. Her husband is currently deployed and I wanted to say HELLO and cheer her up while she is missing him. This was perfect, since Amanda LOVES chocolate. The cool thing about the new Lindt HELLO line is that you can buy them in stores nationwide, Lindt Chocolate Shops and at Lindt[dot]com. Since she lives in Arizona I can ship them right to her!

I was looking for a photo of just us two and found this one from a few years back when we rushed the field after a Michigan game.

It was so easy to say HELLO to Amanda and brighten her day by sending her some Lindt online. I can’t wait to see what she says when her treat arrives!

I want to challenge you to say HELLO to your friends and loved ones with Lindt. Who wouldn’t want a sweet treat to brighten their day? Once you’ve done this, you can also enter the Lindt HELLO Sweet Connections Sweepstakes for a chance to win a sweet experience from Lindt Chocolate.

To enter the sweepstakes, visit the Lindt HELLO Sweet Connections Sweepstakes Landing Page and enter your email address. Entries can be made daily for additional chances to win the below prizes.

Week 4: Sweet Staycation (10/1 – 10/7)

• Lindt HELLO treats you to a pampered night in – movies, books + chocolate!

Week 5: Besties Reunion (10/8 – 10/14)
• Reconnect with your bestie at the spa for a day + Lindt HELLO chocolate to sweeten the deal.

* No purchase necessary. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. & D.C., 18 years or older (19 in AL or NE and 21 in MS). Void where prohibited. See Rules at for weekly sweepstakes entry periods, prize descriptions, odds and other details. Ends Noon on 10/14/14. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: Lindt & Sprüngli (USA) Inc., One Fine Chocolate Place, Stratham, NH 03885.

I would love to hear how you used Lindt to say HELLO to someone.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: chocolate, Lindt, Lindt HELLO

Heath Bar Trifle

June 21, 2013 by DetroitDuchess 4 Comments

We celebrated my Mom’s birthday recently and she asked me to make her a Heath Bar Trifle. I didn’t know this, but when we were little my Dad used to pay our neighbor to make it for my Mom’s birthday every year because she loved it so much. My Mom got the recipe and asked me to make it for her this year. She even bought me all of the ingredients and gave me her trifle dish to use so that made the whole process really easy.

Heath Bar Trifle Ingredients

1 Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake Mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups water
5 cups milk
1 large box chocolate pudding (3.4 oz.)
1 small box chocolate pudding (5 oz.)
1 tub of Cool Whip
6 Heath Bars
3/4 cups of Kahlua

Trifle Ingredients

The first step is to make the Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake Mix by following the directions on the box.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the cake mix, water, vegetable oil and eggs together.

I used two 8″ round pans so I wouldn’t have to cut the cake later.

Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes.

In the meantime you need to crush up the Heath Bars.

I unwrapped them and put them in a plastic bag so I could crush them without making a mess.

I tried crushing them with a rolling pin, but that didn’t really work, so I ended up using a glass to crush them.

Voila! Crushed up Heath bars:

The next thing you need to do is make the pudding mixture. Stir the pudding mix, milk and Kahlua in a medium saucepan.

Bring the mixture to a boil and make sure that you stir it constantly because it will stick to the bottom of the pan.

After I brought the pudding to a boil I transferred it to another mixing bowl to cool down and thicken.

The cakes should be finished by now, so take them out of the oven and let them cool.

Once everything has cooled you can start layering your trifle. You want to layer cake, pudding, Cool Whip and Heath Bars.

Then do a second layer of cake, pudding, Cool Whip and heath bars. My trifle dish was a little small so if I make this again I will get a bigger dish.

I kept this in the refrigerator until we were ready to leave. I need a trifle dish with a lid because my awesome husband held it all the way across town so it wouldn’t get messed up. He is the best!

The trifle turned out great and everyone loved it! I will definitely make this for my Mom again, it was a great birthday treat. Let me know if you have any questions about how I made this.

I thought this would be a great inspiration post to share on House of Rose’s Inspire Me Please Weekend Blog Hop. Make sure you head over there and check out all of the other great DIY ideas.