Chocolate extravaganza

Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the chocolate extravaganza for free...if you don't count the stress of having to make a chocolate sculpture to enter to the contest.

As part of one of my classes, we had to make a chocolate sculpture and enter it in the contest.

The theme was sports and we had only 2 days to make the sculptures.

There were several requirements that we had to meet, like height (16"), use of at least two colors, use of cut-out chocolate, molded and modeling chocolate.

I didn't put too much time into the planning and it showed on the final piece.

My piece had several "delicate" parts and I was adviced by my instructor to assemble it and put the finishing touches the day of the competition. I was told there was going to be tempered chooclate ready for us to use as glue, but there wasn't, and then... several parts of my piece broke. I guess it happens, and poor planning and execution add to the risk factors.

I don't think my piece was the best (far, far from it), but it wasn't the worst either.

I learned a lot and if I had to do it again I would change several things, but what can I do now, right?

Here's my piece. It's a soccer field with soccer balls ( I lost one and had to drop Mexico from the field), on top of each ball is a flag. Uruguay hosted the first world cup in 1932, USA hosted in 1994 and Germany hosted last in 2006. The next World cup will take place in 2010 and South Africa will be hosting.

The background was supposed to look like the logo for World Cup 2010, but I could not get all the pieces to stand right...I'm just happy that I had something to present. When the pieces started breaking, I told a friend that at least I had the big guy...and as soon as those words came out of my mouth... it broke!

I have no idea who won, but I'll update the post with a picture of that sculpture as soon as I know.

Tickets for the event were $25 and since we got to go in for free, we decided to walk around and get some of the freebies. My favorite was the Mayan Experience, it was delicious! it was like a liquid dessert, so chocolaty and decadent. Their Potion N.9 was also good, I can picture it with cookies, ice cream or as a very rich frosting on a cupcake.

There were lots of wine vendors giving free samples, but I didn't try them. I guess that If I had paid the full price I would have, you know, so it would be worth it ;-)

Have you had your chocolate fix today?