Lifestyles Editor: Bryan Stevens - bstevens@starhq.com {423) 542-1545 aaa.starbq.

cam
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Feathered
Friends:
Harlequin
Ducks
Page 2B
Celebrating Mardi Gras:
Creative Cupcakes and
Casseroles
Page 5B
B
bstevens@starhq.com
Real chocolate can be healthy (and loving) choice
Local businesses
offer creative ways
to say I love you
BY REBEKAH WILSON
STAR INTERN
Looking for that perfect gift to show your love for
your significant other this Valentines Day?
Several lo-
cal businesses
are busy pre-
paring for Val-
entines Day
2013 with tra-
ditional gifts,
personal i zed
floral arrange-
ments and
much more to
help couples
show their af-
fection for
each other.
Gift ideas
range from
edible treats
to handmade
c r e a t i o n s .
Some items
can be pre-ordered while others can be assembled at
the last minute. Every man and woman has different
interests, so incorporating his or her tastes with time-
less traditions can be a unique way to say, I love you.
For Felty-Roland Florist, Valentines Day is one of
the busiest times of the year. Angie Edwards, floral de-
signer at Felty-Roland for 33 years, said that in previ-
ous years, people have been lined up out the door. She
said that most people pre-order their flowers for this
romantic holiday.
Edwards said that Valentines Day is always busier
when it falls on a week day than on the weekend be-
cause people want the flowers delivered to the recipi-
ents workplace. They bring in three to four additional
floral designers and sometimes employ up to 10 extra
delivery drivers for this holiday.
Edwards said men typically get flowers for women,
but Felty-Roland also sells candy baskets which wom-
en tend to get for men.
Felty-Roland will have a cash and carry special, which
AP Photo/Matthew Mead
Warm Double Chocolate Cakes with Raspberry Sauce can provide an elegant finish to
any romantic meal.
n See GIFTS, 7B
Photo by Brandon Hicks
Angie Edwards
selects red roses for a
romantic arrangement.
She has worked as a
floral designer for 33
years at Felty-Roland
Florist.
Photo by Brandon Hicks
Brittany Greene,
a server at the
Bonnie Kate Caf in
Elizabethton, displays
one of the eaterys
tempting desserts.
(AP) Love is always sweeter
when expressed with chocolate!
Especially on Valentines Day.
Yes, chocolate... And the more
ooey-gooey deeply chocolaty, the
better. Still, theres no sense over-
doing it. Ive always believed that
when it comes to dessert, a little
bit can go a long way. Thats why
this chocolate dream of a recipe
takes the form of small-ish indi-
vidual cakes rather than a single,
family-sized gut-buster.
Its also why Ive replaced the
butter usually found in chocolate
cakes with non-fat Greek yogurt.
And trust me, not only wont you
miss the butter, but you wont
taste the yogurt. Its in the mix
strictly as a lower-fat way of add-
ing body to the finished product.
What you will taste is choco-
late, chocolate and more choco-
late, specifically dark chocolate.
Its built into the cake batter, of
course, but it also reappears as a
melted surprise in the center of
each cake. I suggest using bit-
tersweet chocolate thats between
60 percent and 70 percent cacao.
Once the percentage gets any
higher, the chocolate begins to
taste too bitter to me.
The eggs in this recipe (one of
only five ingredients, by the way)
ensure that the cakes will be light
and spongy. But one of the tricky
things about cooking with eggs is
that while its easiest to separate
yolks from whites while theyre
cold, its best to add them to reci-
pes at room temperature (they
generate more volume that way).
So, how do you warm them
up without wasting a lot of time?
First, go ahead and separate the
eggs when theyre fresh out of
the fridge. Then put the whites
in one bowl and the yolks in
another and float each bowl in
a larger bowl of hot water. Ten
minutes later the eggs will be at
room temp.
By the way, I find that the best
way to separate eggs is with my
impeccably clean hands, rather
than by using jagged-edged egg
shells. I just crack the egg into
my palm, toss the shell, and let
the white run through my fin-
gers. This way the yolk never
breaks.
After the batter is made it
needs to set up in the fridge for
a little while before you put it in
the oven. I discovered when I was
testing this recipe that you can
keep the batter in the fridge for
several days before baking with-
out any damage to the recipes
freshness. So this is the perfect
make-ahead dessert for enter-
taining.
Given my enduring love for
the combination of chocolate and
raspberry, Ive topped these little
cakes with a very simple but
very flavorful raspberry sauce.
There are exactly two ingredients:
raspberries and sugar. You just
buzz them in a blender, then strain
out the seeds.
And heres a trick from Jacques
Pepin about the quickest way to
strain a sauce with seeds. Work-
ing in batches, put some of the
pureed sauce in a medium-mesh
strainer set over a bowl, then bang
nSee PLATE, 4B