Top chefs create divine cakes for Chocolate Week

Divine Chocolate, the leading Fairtrade brand co-owned by cocoa farmers, is co-sponsoring national Chocolate Week 2008 (13th-19th October). Launched in collaboration with the Academy of Chocolate and now in its fifth year, Chocolate Week is all about unadulterated chocolate indulgence, and because Divine is celebrating its 10th birthday, this year’s line up is set to be the best yet.

To celebrate Divine’s birthday, they have asked five top chefs to propose the ultimate Divine chocolate birthday cake. The recipes are now all tried, tested and absolutely gorgeous!

Here they are:
• Two-star Michelin chef Michael Caines has created a Chocolate Fudge Cake
• Alan Coxon, who has most recently presented BBC2’s Ever Wondered About Food, has designed a Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Ganache
• Arthur Potts Dawson, of the UK’s first truly eco-friendly restaurant Acorn House, has designed a Chestnut & Chocolate Cake
• Linda Collister, who used to be the Queen Mother’s private chef has created a Chocolate Amaretti Cake
• 18-year old Sam Stern who already has four cookery books under his belt and has advised on school menu design and teenage obesity for two London boroughs has created a Chilli-Chocolate Orange Cake

Full recipes will be available online so we’re encouraging chocolate lovers (and dedicated chocolate bakers) to test out these recipes at home and then discuss and rate them in a dedicated forum at Divinechocolate.com/chocolateweek.

Divine Chocolate has been taking part in Chocolate Week since it was established and this year is extra special because Divine is celebrating its 10th birthday! That’s ten years of providing chocolate fans with delicious chocolate made using only the finest cocoa beans and cocoa butter from smallholders in Ghana combined with a heavenly range of entirely natural flavours.

The Divine range of nine bars, bakery goods and seasonal products all come with a Fairtrade assurance which guarantees a fair deal for the 45,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana who belong to the Kuapa Kokoo farmers’ co-operative. Divine’s ethical credentials go one step further than this because the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative also co-owns Divine, meaning the farmers share in Divine’s profits too.

“It’s always great to have this excuse (as if we needed one) to offer a week of indulgence and the opportunity to collaborate with a wide range of partners all enthused about doing something Divine,” says Head of Communications at Divine, Charlotte Borger. “Our aim is to put together a diverse and exciting programme of Divine happenings all over the country, giving as many people as possible the chance to sample great chocolate and hear about the farmers who share the profits from it”.

For more details about the Divine range of Fairtrade chocolate and the story of Divine and Kuapa Kokoo visit Divinechocolate.com.