Scharffen Berger – Elevate a Classic Dessert $10,000 Contest

It’s that time of year again – Scharffen Berger’s annual contest was just launched, and they threw another awesome kick off party to which I was invited!  (I attended in 2009 and 2010 as well, click to see info on those parties!)  This year’s theme is Elevate a Classic Dessert – take a classic chocolate dessert recipe and twist it to make it EVEN BETTER.  Just using Scharffen Berger makes it better, yes, but use your imagination – the sky’s the limit – you might come up with something amazing! 

Of course, as soon as I walked in, I was handed a martini glass of something.  One sip and I was all, there’s no alcohol in this, glug glug glug… then I asked and um, yeah, there’s alcohol in that.  It was gooooood 😉

This lovely display for us to drool over all the chocolate available… yum… it looks like a little store, just walk up and be all “I would like 3 bags of chocolate for baking please…” (That is actually my favorite type of chocolate to put in my chocolate chip cookies – the chunks really work well!)

Then, onto the main event, where Chefs Elizabeth Falkner and Johnny Iuzzini demonstrated their own elevated classic desserts. 

Chef Falkner took the classic ice cream sundae and really took it to a new level.  Here she is using liquid nitrogen to freeze the ice cream, which Chef Iuzzini teased her for using – mostly because moments earlier, he’d used a chinois (a fine mesh conically-shaped strainer) and she’d laughed “Who has that at home?!”  Ha!  Who has liquid nitrogen at home?!  😉 

After we split into two groups, each led by a chef in learning how to make the components of the desserts, we were able to sample them.  Here is Chef Falkner’s elevated ice cream sundae with homemade marshmallow fluff.  I would really like to make that – the rest of it was very, very good, but the fluff is what caught my taste buds.  It looked so fluffy and creamy, but then you taste it and you’re like “marshmallow!”  Fun & yum!

Chef Iuzzini elevated the classic chocolate pudding with the addition of passion fruit gelee, chocolate cake, both fresh and freeze-dried strawberries, passion fruit seeds, and crunchies.  Yes, I said crunchies… 😉 

I have the recipes for both of these – though I personally think they are a little involved for making at home, maybe you’re more adventurous than me… so just ask if you want, and I’ll post them in comments! 

In any case, thanks again to Scharffen Berger for inviting me to the kick off party – always a good time drooling over gorgeous, delicious dishes… and the desserts were pretty good too!  Hahaha!  The prize is $10,000 so I highly encourage all of you to enter; what are you waiting for?  Enter here!  GOOD LUCK!!!

Please note that I attended this event courtesy of Scharffen Berger, and did not receive any monetary compensation for posting about it. Opinions expressed herein are my own.