Photo Courtesy of Bloomsberry & Co.

This chocolate company is based out of New Zealand, and since its creation, have used premium all natural chocolate.   Established in 2001 by graphic designer Giles Baker and wife Vanessa Kettelwell, a trained cook, Bloomsberry & Co.’s has been tantalizing tastebuds and seducing senses. Now this exotic designer chocolate, infused with a delectable sense of humor and superior ingredients, has come to America.

About the products:

Bloomsberry & Co. produces fun chocolate bars, dark and milk chocolate, made from the cocoa from New Zealand.  The bars have unique and quirky designs, most with a sense of humor.

Milk Chocolate bars are 34% cocoa, and Dark Chocolate are 55% cocoa.

Bloomsberry & Co. groups its products into categories based on design.  All products come in either the milk chocolate or dark chocolate bars.  Right now the categories offered are as follows:

Climate Change Chocolate – 4 products are in this line to get people to think about their carbon footprint and make a change.

Halloween Collection – 6 designs are offered,  such as Broom Fuel, Next Full Moon, and the original Emergency Bar with pumpkin design.

1oz. Chocolate – Smaller portions (1oz.) of the Emergency Bar can be purchased in boxes of 24 bars.  Available in Milk and Dark bars, including the Milk Chocolate with pink Emergency Bar label.

Casino Collection – 3 products are offered, including the famous Las Vegas welcoming sign, casino chips with cards, and the King Size Me bar.

Romance Range – The largest product offering, with 14 designs. Chocolate bar labels include: Lusty, Oral Pleasure, World’s Greatest Pick Up Bar, and Instant Gratification.

Easter Collection – 7 products are offered, including Easter Hunt, Hear, See, Speak No Evil, and Do this Ears Make Me Look Fat? designs.

Mother’s Day – 10 products are offered all fit for Mother’s Day, including labels such as, Mother’s Little Helper, More Fabulous, and Chocolate Fit for a Queen.

Location for Bloomsberry & Co. Products:

Bloomsberry & Co. can be found nationwide at Safeway, CostPlus World Market, and Beverages & More.  For more locations, check out Bloomsberry & Co.’s  store locator.

To view all the products offered by Bloomsberry & Co., check out the company’s online store to view all product offerings.

The Story of Bissinger’s

In a small kitchen in St. Louis, there is a place where tradition and quality are still the most important ingredients in the making of the world’s finest chocolate confections. This special place is Bissinger’s Handcrafted Chocolatier, one of the last handcrafted chocolatiers in the world. Bissinger’s has been making fine confections for more than 350 years taking pride in the fact that it has not sacrificed quality ingredients, taste, or craftsmanship to produce more candy at a lower cost. Even today, in an age of high tech production and immediacy, Bissinger’s remains committed to the high standards, heritage and traditions that have made the company what it is today.

Bissinger’s History

The name Bissinger has been long linked to fine confections. In fact, in the early 1600’s, the Bissinger family was named Confiseur Imperial, or “Candy maker of the Empire” for excellence in the confectionery arts by Emperor Louis Napoleon.

Karl Frederick Bissinger left France in 1863, bringing his loyal candy maker and all of the Bissinger family making-secrets to the United States near Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1927 his son, also name Karl, opened the Bissinger’s candy-making kitchen and first Bissinger’s shop in St. Louis on McPherson Avenue. Today, the retail business has expanded to include three stores in St. Louis and one in Minneapolis. The Maryland Plaza store in St. Louis is a particularly fun place since it is a chocolate lounge where small plates of chocolates and chocolate desserts can be paired with special teas, coffees, wines and ports.

Handmade Confections

Bissinger’s chocolate confections are still made in the St. Louis kitchen, many using original recipes from the Bissinger family cookbook, dated 1899. Bissinger’s candy makers oversee every detail of each delectable treat. Hand-dipped and hand-decorated, Bissinger’s confections are made the old-fashioned way in copper kettles, on marble slabs with wooden ladles, and each box of chocolate is hand-packed and wrapped for delivery or sale. Bissinger’s only uses the finest ingredients in its family recipes, and continues to produce over 400 confections by hand. Bissinger’s is a company that always strives to provide its customers with unique and innovative confections. Seasonal specialties have been added to the Bissinger’s collection throughout the years, such as Chocolate-Covered Raspberries and Blackberries, both only available in July / August / September.

More recently, Bissinger’s has focused their energies on making all-natural contemporary products which taste great and are good for you. Bissinger’s Naturals (black sesame, pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, almond, walnut), adult gummies (pomegranate white tea, blueberry acai, gogi guava camu camu, pink grapefruit with grapeseed extract), high antioxidant chocolate bars, olive oil truffles, porcini mushroom truffles, etc. are treats perfect for chocolate-lovers with a healthful eating plan.

Bissinger’s, based in St. Louis, is a leading confectioner of fine chocolate products, distributing to more than one million customers worldwide through retail, catalog and online sales. Bissinger’s products can also be found at upscale retail locations throughout the United States. For most chocolatiers, Valentine’s Day is the leading holiday. However, at Bissinger’s, the company has nine major seasons that require the company to be busy all year long: Valentine’s Day, Easter/Passover, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Chocolate-Covered Raspberry Season (July), Chocolate-Covered Blackberry Season (August/September), Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah. This consistent seasonal demand allows them the opportunity to search the world for the finest packaging and gift ideas to marry with Bissinger’s fine chocolate.

Bissinger’s Corporate Gifts

Bissinger’s has a corporate gifts line designed to meet the needs of today’s busy executives. From the Business Card Folding Box to the Corporate Truffle Box to the Corporate Deluxe selections, Bissinger’s Master’s Reserve Corporate line has a gift for everyone on your customer list!

Bissinger’s Online

In 1999, Bissinger’s launched its full-service e-commerce Web site at www.bissingers.com . Today the site generates more than 20% of total revenues for the company and has over 25,000 visitors each month.

The Chocolate Catalogue

Bissinger’s distributes eight catalogs annually, with unique items including hand-crafted chocolates, hand-roasted nuts, fresh and glaceed chocolate covered fruits, decorated mints, edible table decorations, fabulous gift-giving ideas for children and adults, and great confections to complement a new wine or dinner as a delectable dessert. For more information on Bissinger’s exquisite chocolate confections, please visit Bissingers.com.

About Fairytale Brownies

Eileen Spitalny and David Kravetz are the Founders of Fairytale Brownies. Their story has inspired many people: Eileen and David met in kindergarten and have been friends ever since. At an early age they decided they wanted to be entrepreneurs and start a business together. So, in 1992 Fairytale Brownies was born in a friend’s kitchen using a 50 year old family recipe. Today, they have their own 26,000-square-foot facility and bake over 2.5 million brownies annually! During all these years they have received many awards and have been featured in magazines, TV shows and newspapers accross the country.

If you’d like to see their video collection, please visit their youtube channel. For pictures and stories behind the scenes, check out the Fairytale Brownies Blog.

 The Product

Easter Bunny Love. photo courtesy of brownies.com

Fairytale Brownies offer super-delicious brownies in 13 flavors: Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Espresso Nib, Mint Chocolate, Original, Peanut Butter, Pecan, Raspberry Swirl, Toffee Crunch, Walnut, White Chocolate, Chocolate Chunk Blondie and Cream Cheese which is their newest addition. They also offer sugar free brownies.

Brownies make the perfect yummy gift; theme packaging is available for different holidays or special days. You can choose and customize a greeting card that can be included with your gift.

If you prefer to let your loved one choose their own brownies, Fairytale Brownie Gift Cards are available. 

While you are there, check their Sale page: they offer FREE SHIPPING and discounted prices on selected items.

Fairytale Brownies offers customized packaging; a custom gift band is printed with your logo or your favorite picture to make this a truly unique gift.

FREE SHIPPING COUPON CODE for our readers: Free Shipping for Merchandise Orders of $50 or more. Use Priority Code 22YQ. Expires 5/31/09. Thank you, Fairytale Brownies!

GIVEAWAY

Fairytale Brownies has generously offered an Easter Bunny Love gift (pictured above) for this Giveaway. If you can’t wait or would like to purchase this gift for someone else, please visit brownies.com.

Open to US residents only.

How to enter (required): Visit brownies.com and then come back and leave a comment telling us the name of your favorite product.

For additional entries (leave a new comment for each additional entry):
- one additional entry if you grab our button from the sidebar and post it on your blog, please post the link;
- one additional entry if you follow us on Twitter;
- one additional entry if you send a tweet about this giveaway, please post the link (once a day only);
- one additional entry if you fave us in Technorati;
- one additional entry if you StumbleUpon our Founder;
- one additional entry if you blog about this Giveaway with a link back to 100CafeStreet.com and brownies.com
- one additional entry if you follow 100CafeStreet.com via email.

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The giveaway ends on April 11th, 2009 at 5pm, Pacific Standard Time. Fairytale Brownies will ship the prize within 1-2 weeks.

*Please make sure you leave a comment for each additional entry so you get credited.
*Also, please make sure you typed in the correct email address.
*The winner will be announced via e-mail and has 2 days to get back to us or other name will be chosen.

Thank you Fairytale Brownies!!:) Good luck, brownie lovers!:)

Easter Bunny Cake from BettyCrocker.com

Ingredients:

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® carrot cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box
Tray or cardboard, covered with foil
1 container Betty Crocker® Whipped fluffy white frosting
1 cup shredded coconut
Construction paper
Jelly beans or small gumdrops
1 cup shredded coconut
Green food color

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Make and cool cake as directed on box for two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans.

2. Reserve 1 layer for another use or to make a second bunny. Cut 1 layer in half as shown in diagram. Put halves together with frosting to form body. Place cake upright on cut edge on tray.

3. Cut out a notch about one-third of the way up one end of body to form head (small end) as shown in diagram. Attach half of cutout piece from tail with toothpicks. Frost with remaining frosting, rounding body on sides. Sprinkle with 1 cup coconut. Cut ears from construction paper; press into notch on top. Use jelly beans for eyes and nose.

4. Shake 1 cup coconut and 3 drops food color in tightly covered jar until evenly tinted. Surround bunny with tinted coconut. Add additional jelly beans if desired. Store loosely covered.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Follow High Altitude directions on cake mix box for two 8- or 9-inch round pans.

Source: Find more recipes at www.bettycrocker.com.