Enjoy a late afternoon sweet soiree, as you toast to each other with a Chambord French Sparkle that will tickle your tongue with bubbles of delight. Follow this with a luscious bite of chocolate layered cake beautifully decorated with fresh berries.
I recently attended an event with party planner and style expert, Cathy Riva presented by Driscoll’s Berries, where I was introduced to these recipes.
Go ahead, indulge! It’s a sweet temptation well worth it.
French Sparkle
Recipe courtesy of Chambord
- 1 1/2 oz Chambord flavored vodka
- 1 oz champagne
- 2 oz mango nectar
- Finish with a fresh blackberry or raspberry
Shake vodka and mango nectar with ice and stain into a chilled champagne glass. Top with champagne.
Mixed Berry Be Mine Chocolate Cake
Recipe Courtesy of Cathy Riva
Suggestions:
Use Wilton’s 10 inch heart shaped cake pan. We suggest a chocolate pudding cake as it is a bit more dense to hold the berries, but any cake mix recipe should work.
Chocolate Pudding Cake Ingredients:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 cup boiling water
- Driscolls Raspberries and Blueberries, 1 pint each
- Option: Strawberries (see second cake design below)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Use Wilton heart pan to bake.
- In bowl, stir together flour, white sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Mix in milk oil vanilla with a fork until smooth. Spread batter evenly into heart pan. This batter should be thick.
- Sprinkle with brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Pour boiling water over batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.
- Let stand 15 minutes.
- Remove cake from pan and invert so your bottom is now the top.
- Once cooled, ice with pink or red icing.
- Use Driscoll’s berries as the topping. We used about 28 raspberries to make the inside of the heart. You need about 40 blueberries to make the outline of the raspberries.
- Optional: For side decor, you’ll need 16 strawberries and 16 more blueberries. We skewered the strawberries with wooden skewers and inserted them into the iced cake.
