Don't You Feel Like Shakin Your Bon Bons

Almost everyone loves chocolate right? Well I have gone out of my way to find a great new sweet place for you to discover with me today! Shake Your Bon Bons has some of the most amazing bon bons you have ever seen. Aimee from Shake Your Bon Bons was kind enough to join us on the show, where we were able to discuss what inspired her to start creating these wonderful delights.

Aimee was raised in a family that enjoyed baking together. For each holiday they would bake and distribute their great foods, and she discovered her true joy in baking. Once she had kids, she really wanted to find away to stay at home with them, but still generate an income. Shake Your Bon Bons was thus created, bringing together her need to stay home and her love of making wonderful treats.

Starting from a simple recipe that Aimee had found calling for bon bons made from little cake balls coated in frosting and then dipped in chocolate, she found she was able to craft new and unique flavors to satisfy a variety of taste buds. Aimee spread from just the plain chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and dipped in plain chocolate, to making red velvet and carrot cake flavors. Then with inspiration from her first job, she expanded into new flavors that mocked ice cream flavors. This line of unique flavors she calls SnowBall Bon Bons uses great and unique old time ice cream flavors. The Black Raspberry Chip was the first one that started it all, inspired from a local ice cream shop near where she lives. These lighter and more intricate flavors remind most of the ice cream they got as a kid from the local homemade ice cream shop down the street, bringing back fond memories of their childhood.

Among her favorites to make are her Dark Mocha Bon Bons, which combines two of her favorite flavors, dark chocolate and coffee. Aimee selects the best coffee that is hand roasted by a local roaster, who makes each batch in small quantities, to ensure the best quality. Aimee describes the scent of these as “rich and decadent”. Her current favorite treat to snack on is her Cookies And Cream Fudge, which is available in very limited supplies and will be back up on her site soon. This is a white chocolate fudge with cookie pieces blended into it. I myself am more fond of white chocolate and the really dark chocolates, more so than the milk chocolate. It has only been recently that I my tastes have changed to this, so I find the idea of the cookies and cream fudge absolutely divine.

Shake Your Bon Bons is not just about the bon bons though, Aimee has some wonderful glass candies, and even some great chocolate boxes. She describes these as a take on traditional gift boxes, but with a twist. They are solid chocolate and can be filled with either more of her sweet treats, or with what ever you may want to give. There are several styles to choose from, but my favorite is the blooming rose, how wonderful would it be to give someone a gift surrounded by that wonderful treat!


Aimee also helps organize a local bake sale each year as a part of the Great American Bake Sale. It is organized nationally by a group called Share Our Strength’s. Aimee told us about how the increase in attendance and participation each year has really made her feel proud of all the work that has gone in. She also described to us how the first year was not as she had planned. As we all know heat, sun, and chocolate are not good friends. Aimee got involved in this event in part due to her own misfortunes growing up. When her father lost her job when she was young there was a time that she and her family had to rely on the food bank to get by. When the opportunity came up for her to be able to return the aid, she jumped on it. If you would like more information on the Great American Bake sale you can visit Aimee’s page about it on her website. What a great way to give back to the community that has helped to support you.

It was such great fun talking to Aimee, and I continue to look at all her items on an almost daily basis. Please stop by and check her out on her website, her Artfire Shop and her blog. You can also keep up with her on several other sites such as Myspace, Plurk and twitter. She also contributes to the Belly Garnish Blog and she is the Cincinnati Baking Examiner. Be sure to tell her how much you enjoyed the show!

Chocolate Covered Bacon-The best in independent food finds, airs Thursday’s at 6 PM EST on Blockhead Radio. If you missed one of our past shows you can listen to them in the Podcast On Demand section of the website. Tune in each week as we bring you the best that we can find in independent food.

--James~The Closet Creature, your Host

Luca Chocolate on Chocolate Covered Bacon

On April 30th we were fortunate to have Leslie from Luca Chocolate grace us with our first live interview on Chocolate Covered Bacon-The best in independent food finds. The show airs live on Blockhead Radio, on Thursdays at 6PM EST, 5PM Central. Just in case you missed it, even for those who didn’t, I would like to recap the interview for you. Also if you listened in I may have some more insights to Luca Chocolate, as I have some questions that I asked that never made it on air!

First, we would like to thank Leslie for taking the time to come on air with us. It was loads of fun to chat with her and to learn more about her wonderful products. I had never thought about how much went into making chocolate before. Leslie talked about how long it takes her to develop new flavors and she worked for nearly a year on the concept before Luca Chocolate even sold a piece of chocolate. It takes Leslie about 8 weeks to take a new flavor from concept to a completed product ready to sell. Leslie sure does put a lot into each product that is created! One question that I really wanted to know is where she got the name. Leslie told us that the name actually came from her horse, which I must say is a beautiful name, not just for the horse but for the chocolate too!

We discovered Luca Chocolate by doing a search for, you guessed it, “Chocolate Covered Bacon” on Foodzie. It is a great site filled with independent food producers from throughout the country. I discovered her Bacon Box and thought that I just had to have her on. The picture made me just want to nibble at the screen. What a great variety of chocolates in the box, including not only Chocolate Covered Crispy Bacon pieces dusted with Sea Salt, but also some Chocolate Covered Bacon topped Caramels. These just sound wonderful: the sugary sweetness of the caramel almost imitates the delectable flavor of fresh maple syrup that accidentally poured onto your bacon with breakfast. Top that with some milk or dark chocolate and you have a dessert made in heaven.

In talking with Leslie prior to the live interview I asked her two questions that she had no idea were actually intertwined. I asked what her favorite product that she made is and what her favorite scent is. Leslie’s favorite product to eat was the Vanilla Butter Cream Truffles, which not only look amazing, but sound divine! Her response to one of her favorite scents was vanilla, not the extract that you get from the grocery store, but the fresh bean pods that she has brought in just for her chocolates. I have to agree with her; if you have never smelled fresh vanilla you don’t know what you’re missing. Much like chocolate, there are many kinds of the vanilla out there with each one there tiny nuances that change the flavor ever so slightly.

It is amazing how much your sense of smell influences your sense of taste. For food artists their sense of smell is much like painters’ eyes. A painter finds it difficult to paint with out the use of their eyes much as a food artist finds it difficult to create without their sense of smell. As you create with your sense of smell you begin to learn just what to add to make your taste buds light up! Leslie mentioned when creating new chocolates your taste buds start to acclimate to the new flavors, and that the sense of smell helps to continue the creative process when this occurs.

Much of the inspiration for Leslie’s chocolate is from the fruits, nuts, and flowers of the season. She has a great limited supply of floral inspired chocolates just for Mothers day! Which is much like a bouquet of flowers for Mom, but mom can eat them! Her aim is to provide “classic flavor combination's with a twist”. She uses the knowledge of food science and the cooking techniques she learned by attending French cooking school. After many years in a traditional kitchen, she felt like being a pastry chef was more to her liking, and returned to school to get her education. From there she went on to create Luca Chocolate, and well that is definitely a good thing, otherwise how would we have found such great items.

In the next several years Leslie would like to get more involved with the wedding market allowing for a more steady flow of business through out the year. As a Chocolatier much of her business is during the major candy holidays. She also offers a chocolate of the month club that you can join, and she would like to see that grow as well. In the next year or so one of her close friends and her chocolate supplier is moving to making more of their own handmade chocolate, so she plans to switch more of her supply to his great blends of milk and dark chocolate.

Luca Chocolate is also available at several places outside of just being online. You can find a list of locations on her website. Want a sample? Keep up with her on her blog, she will tell you where she’s doing her live demos, possibly in your area. You can find Luca Chocolate online on Foodzie, Etsy and her own site Luca Chocolate. She will be looking into opening a twitter account as well, keep checking in on her to find out what she’s up to.

I hope you enjoyed the show and if you missed it: I hope you have enjoyed catching up on what you missed. Don’t forget to join us live on Thursday May 7th for our feature on LiberTeas of artfire and many other places too. Now head on over to one of Luca Chocolate’s sites and satisfy your cravings, and don’t forget to tune into Blockhead Radio to stir your own creativity!

--James – The ClosetCreature – Your Host