dark chocolate

Ah chocolate, that delicious creamy treat that is everyone’s vice. We just can’t get enough of the stuff, even though we know the amount we consume is ultimately bad for us, we just can’t resist it, so there tends to be a guilt edged pleasure about eating it. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a healthy chocolate?

Well you probably didn’t know this but there is, and it still contains the good stuff such as the minerals and antioxidants. It doesn’t however, have all the bad stuff in it.

It’s all the stuff that we put into chocolate that makes it fattening and unhealthy. These are things such as milk solids, sugar and cocoa butter. These help to make milk chocolate taste so good, but are really bad for us. A dark chocolate and especially a low sugar bitter variety doesn’t have all these additives.

Chocolate isn’t actually food as far as our bodies are concerned, they will merely store away all the bad stuff and ignore the good bits. This makes our guilty treat even worse for us than we thought!

The trick is to eat chocolate with other foods as well, nuts and fruits are perfect. Eating them together ensures that your body treats the chocolate as food and you get all the goodness from it.

But if you take in other stuff such as fruit or nuts at the same time it will then treat the chocolate as food and you will then get the benefits.

I used to work as a chocolatier, so you can imagine how much chocolate I used to eat! As I ate dark chocolate complimented with strawberries, blueberries, nuts etc I never put any weight on. A blood test also proved that I had the optimum level of minerals and vitamins in my system.

So you now know which chocolate to eat if you can’t do without it. Forget the fat laden milk chocolate bars and reach for a dark chocolate with fruit and nuts and enjoy your treat without the guilt.

Stick to the old adage ‘a little of what you fancy does you good’ and don’t go crazy and overindulge.

Aside from food, this writer also frequently contributes articles about metal roofing material and metal roofing companies.

If you want to learn cake decorating techniques you may think you need to spend a lot of money on DVDs or take classes in person. That isn’t true. All you need are some good cake decorating books that are well illustrated and you can learn on your own and save time and money. Just be sure to buy books that are filled with easy to follow pictures. You can use the money you save on classes to buy some extra cake decorating tools.

The instructions in the book must be easy to understand and take you step by step from preparing the cake in the beginning to applying the final decorative touches in the end. The book must make sense and be easy for you to follow. Nothing would be worse than to buy a book that is difficult to understand and lacks clear pictures to guide you.

In fact, the more pictures the book has, the better. The pictures should be of high quality and detailed so that you can easily duplicate the decorating techniques at home. Books that are highly illustrated are the most useful especially when it comes to learning difficult techniques like making flowers. Some books are better than others so it is important you do your research before you buy it.

In addition to teaching you various cake decorating techniques, the cake decorating books should also give you plenty of tips that will give your cakes a more professional look when you are finished. A lot of that starts with the cake, in wiping away crumbs and aligning the layers in the right way. A good book will tell you all you need to know so your cakes turn out the best.

You will also need to know how to make the icing and what types are best for each type of technique you use. The books should show all of the standard techniques like making flowers and piping. Making flowers can be especially tricky so the more detailed the instructions are, the better you will be able to master the skill.

You will find there are many books that you can choose from. Just be sure to look it over thoroughly first so you are certain you will be able to learn from it. With the right book you can teach yourself cake decorating techniques a lot quicker than you would pick them up by attending expensive classes. You might be surprised at how much you can learn from a good instructional book.

Just think of all the fun birthday cakes you can make for your kids when you learn various cake decorating techniques. Good books will give you ideas for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and many other occasions. You will never run out of reasons to use your newly learned skills at cake decorating.

Learning how to decorate cakes by using cake decorating books can help you start your own business too. Many people who learn how to do these cake decorating techniques wind up selling cakes to people, who don’t know how to do them. This can turn into a successful business venture in the end.

If you want to start cake decorating ensure you check out Natalie Baker’s website about Cake Decorating Books and how you can learn fantastic Cake Decorating Techniques from them.