Guest Blogger Suzanne Arruda's Chocolate Glaze

Again my worlds collide: Crime Fiction and Chocolate. Today I welcome Suzanne Arruda, the author of the historical Jade del Cameron mystery series, set in 1920’s Africa. For more information, visit www.suzannearruda.com and drop by her weekly blog at http://suzannearruda.blogspot.com

Guest Blogger: Suzanne Arruda:

I have to confess something straight off – when it comes to chocolate, I have gone to the “dark side,” so much so that I find milk chocolate to be bleah. It all began with innocent chocolate chips, those semi-sweet morsels of joy. Mom always let us snitch a couple when she made cookies. The trend developed when I discovered I didn’t much care for ordinary chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I preferred a deep devil’s food cake and a fudgy topping. And now to my ultimate delight, I find that dark chocolate has health benefits. As one who justifies having milkshakes for supper as “dairy food group night,” I can easily justify eating a bar of dark chocolate as “health food.”

Chocolate can save a person’s life. In book 5 of my Jade del Cameron mystery series, Treasure of the Golden Cheetah, Jade is climbing the icy slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, searching for a murderer and her pet cheetah. Chocolate was the mountain climber's best companion. Not only could nibbling some give the climber energy, it could be melted into a cup of canned milk for a hot chocolate beverage – one that would warm and revitalize a person succumbing to the cold and the altitude. Talk about “dying for chocolate” or rather, not dying because of chocolate.

One of my writing friends has used chocolate as a reward to herself. She says that she gives herself a small treat for finishing a proposal or a chapter. I tried it. It didn’t work for me. I kept lowering the stakes to get a chocolate fix. I began with a little square of dark chocolate for writing a chapter. My chapters immediately got smaller. Next the goody came just for outlining a chapter, then for a page. A sentence (chocolate) a word (chocolate) a thought (chocolate). Before I knew it, the bag of treats was empty and I suddenly lost my incentive for writing.

I considered rehab but I would have rewarded myself for going by having a dark chocolate, possibly with blueberries and cocoa nibbies in it.

Now I’ve managed to isolate my chocolate from my writing. It’s hard to write a murder when one has a mouth full of happy so it’s for the best. Now chocolate has been delegated to celebrations. I think National Punctuation Day is coming up August 22. Maybe chocolate is good for “the colon.”

Silky Fudge Glaze to cover cookies, cake, ice cream.

2 TBSP butter
3 TBSP Cocoa Powder
2 TBSP water
2 cup confectioner’s sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

Melt the butter over low heat in a small pan. Remove from heat. Add cocoa and water and stir or whisk until blended. If it is not already thickened, place over low heat, stirring until thickened.

Remove from heat

Add confectioner's sugar and vanilla. Stir

Try to save it for icing something and don't just devour right then and there.

I love it over a Boston Cream Pie.