Adventures with Chocolate

I've always loved chocolate. If anyone ever offers to make, bring or buy a cake my preference is always chocolate. But my recent adventures with chocolate are worth noting because they began in April when Dave and I were given a 5kg block of finest quality dark Belgian chocolate as a wedding gift. This sizable block is quite daunting to behold. I hope this image gives you some indication of the quantity of chocolate I'm having adventures with! First of all carrying this gift when it was still wrapped, I had no idea what was inside. Then when we opened it I was astonished to discover it was all chocolate. Then the amazing moment of opening the packaging and smelling the deliciousness. The next step is what you can see in the flickr slideshow below. Since April I've made a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache for Dave's birthday, chocolate truffles with my family for Easter, a flourless chocolate Chinese five spice cake (just because it required a large amount if chocolate!), a chocolate and coconut banana bread that I brought in to work and lastly black bottom cupcakes for a celebratory afternoon tea at work today. I've also experimented with hot chocolate and variations of chocolate and ice cream! So far this delicious adventure has resulted in using up less than half of the block. So I have about 2.5kg to go. It's only taken me 2 months to get through this much so we'll see how long it lasts!