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Saturday, October 22, 2005

The Special Dark Effect and Cupcakes

Dark Chocolate Babycake with Crunchy Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate Drizzle
Throughout my delicious life, I have consistently observed an interesting phenomenon. I call it the Special Dark Effect. It has to do with Hershey’s Miniatures chocolates.

A bag of Hershey’s Miniatures probably has a fairly even ratio of the four different types of chocolate. In alphabetical order, to show no bias toward any single one, they are Krackel, Milk Chocolate, Mr. Goodbar, and Special Dark.

What if, hypothetically, the actual bag that holds the Hershey’s Miniatures were not clear plastic, but were actually opaque? What if, for the sake of argument, people had to blindly put their hand into the opaque bag holding the Hershey’s Miniatures? What if, theoretically, people had to randomly pick a piece out of the bag like a bingo number and they were not allowed to put G-27 back in the bag and pick again until they came out with Krackel? Then, of course, we could surmise that the fairly even ratio of each of the different types of chocolates with which we started this little experiement would stay the same until the bag was empty, and you’d have some very pissed off senior citizens at the nursing home on Sunday night. The ratio’s consistency has something to do with chance and randomness in a theoretically perfect world of probability and opaque bags.

But that is theoretical, and in the real world, the bag is clear.

And who the hell picks Hershey’s Miniatures randomly?!?!

When you open a bag of Hershey’s Miniatures, these four different types of chocolate get eaten at all different rates so that one type is always long gone before the others, and one type lingers in the bag until someone opens one up, recoils from its full bloom and throws them all away. Don’t pretend like you don’t know. Don’t pretend like you don’t hold the bag up to the light and shove your hand down through all the other chocolates to get to the last two Krackels left in the bag. That’s right, Krackel always goes first. Sometimes, Mr. Goodbar edges out Krackel, but very rarely, like when some invisible cosmic force aligns the moon and Lohan actually eats something. Milk Chocolate is third, and dead last all the time, it’s the seven or eight Special Darks that, as mentioned earlier, will bloom pristine white into next Easter until someone finally decides to throw them away, bag and all.

This is the Special Dark Effect. It is undeniable evidence that not too many people like dark chocolate. It is also undeniable evidence that after elimination, I have too much time to think. LOL!

dark chocolate cupcakes with crunchy peanut butter frosting and chocolate drizzle
princesses don't do peanut butter
I am one of those “not too many people” who likes dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate. I am the antidote to the Special Dark Effect. In fact, I love dark chocolate so much that when the responsibility of providing dessert was imparted to me by the BS committee (that’s the new BS committee for Baby Shower, not bridal), I was more than happy to act like it would be an enormous burden to get to Sprinkles, but secretly rejoice at the prospect of baking itty bitty dark chocolate babycakes myself.

These are dark chocolate babycakes with crunchy peanut butter frosting and chocolate drizzle. They are - I can't feign modesty here - they are awesome. LOL! Unfortunately, they don't quite match with the already planned strawberries and cream that are perfectly pink for the little princess to be. *sigh* I'll have to save this Reese's combination for a bake sale or Halloween party or something I guess. We're going to lose the peanut butter and re-accessorize with fluffy, prissy, white chocolate frosting. Oh, alright, it's still frosting.

Baby shower cupcake practice also happened to coincide with Sugar High Friday. The cupcakes are a little late for the no. 13 Dark Chocolate edition, but this is LA, so I don’t know how to be anything but fashionably late. ;)

Next month, next baby, better planning, I swear. And maybe a short lesson on the extension of the Special Dark Effect that I call...the Fritos Phenomenon. I bet you can't figure out what that's all about. ;)

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14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

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10:26 PM  
Anonymous abraxis said...

Heh. At my place, the Mr. Goodbar minis are always the last. They go in this order:

Krackle
Special Dark
Milk Choc (that old standby)
and Mr. Goodbar.

Goodbar may not disappear as quickly as the rest, but they disappear before they turn white...

Now if you want dark chocky, how about some Scharfen Berger? They make it good.

Or that Angelina's cafe in Paris that does the liquid chocky that Starchuck's does the version of now. I know it's not dark, but boy oh boy!

1:09 AM  
Anonymous grace said...

sarah, i LOVE dark chocolate too. i make sure to eat some dark chocolate every single day. (;

oh, and since i was so disappointed with leda's and surely will be disappointed by all other cupcake bakeries.. should i just put in a special order to you? LOL. i'm only half joking. =P

1:42 AM  
Blogger Stephanie said...

That's frighteningly accurate, actually!

When I was kid and my grandparents would get a bag of mini's for the candy dish, we'd all pick through, until it was mostly milk and dark chocolate left. And we'd all say "we're saving the Special Dark's for (Aunt) Kathy; she loves them".

I'm convinced it's an age thing, because 25 years later, I'm the one who gets the dark chocolate now!

7:47 AM  
Anonymous sarah said...

anonymous: thanks for the compliment :)

abraxis: mr. goodbar comes in last?! no way. i wonder - is it the peanuts?!

grace: let's talk bidnezz. i'm only half joking, too ;)

the happy sorceress! hi stephanie! here's the funny thinkg - i like special darks even when i was little. i swear i think it's the word "special" on there. sometimes i am so easy. LOL!

8:36 AM  
Blogger sassy little punkin said...

oh my goodness sarah those cupcakes look stupendous.

and i, too, am the antidote to the special dark problem. i am madly in love with dark chocolate--although having had far better chocolate in my life leaves poor old hershey's ranking waaaay at the bottom for me. mmm special dark!

5:04 PM  
Anonymous sarah said...

why thank you, miss punkin! :)

and yes, that is exactly why i just WILL NOT allow myself to have those fancy chocolates.

LOL!

just kidding.

there's this one that i find at a lot of the organic markets that is so dark it's kind of evil. LOL!

5:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree completely about the order, except that for me, milk chocolate goes last (special dark is third). Interesting phenomenon you've chosen to write about!
I think the Whole Foods brand dark chocolate bars are surprisingly good, especially at $1.50 each, which is cheap for Whole Foods.

10:16 AM  
Anonymous sarah said...

i've written about the usual order, but i guess i never mentioned mine...

if the bag were open around JUST me, i'd eat:
1. all the special darks
2. then mr. goodbar
3. then krackel
4. if i HAVE to, then milk chocolate.

milk chocolate is so plain. and for some reason, hershey's milk chocolate is sort of chalky. LOL!

10:32 AM  
Anonymous marianne said...

Milk chocolate is last for me, too! My suspicion is that the Fritos effect has to do with dregs of the variety pack always yielding Fritos and Plain Lays. Who in their right mind would pick one of those over Doritos or Cheetos?

11:52 AM  
Anonymous sarah said...

marianne: you are right - fritos are always last. but funny, in my life, the plain lay's go first, then ruffles second, then it's toss-up between the two flavors of doritos. cheetos and fritos are always last, and usually, it's fritos. weird. LOL!

3:04 PM  
Anonymous abraxis said...

Yup, I think it's the peanuts.

After all, it's a bag o' chocolate, not a bag o' chocolate with nuts!

And regarding the Frito's Effect, it's usually:

Cheetos
Doritos
Fritos
Lay's

Did I mention that I looooooove cheese too? I think that explains this...

9:06 PM  
Anonymous hermz said...

My mom and I fight over the Special Darks. How neat you wrote about something I love on my birthday. :) This year you can make me those cupcakes.

10:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love chocolate! I love reading different chocolate facts and recipes!

9:09 AM  

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