Love Cake - February 2014

Welcome to the first Love Cake challenge. This is a cake making challenge for anyone who loves to bake cakes and share them. You don't have to be a blogger to join in simply upload your photos and descriptions to your social media accounts. Full instructions are here.

February is of course the month in which Valentine's Day falls which is perfect for this first edition of Love Cake. The theme for this month is BAKING WITH PASSION.

You can interpret this as you like. Bake a heart shaped cake, one with hearts or roses decoration, a traditional passion cake, a cake for your loved one, a favourite cake or simply a recipe that means a lot to you and you have a passion for it. So, with my apologies to William Shakespeare, if cake is the food of love, bake on!

Here's how to join in:

1. Please make sure your entry conforms to this month's theme of BAKING WITH PASSION.

2. Post your photographs and description on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr or Google+ - just make sure they are for public viewing and can be seen by anyone. All photographs must be your own original image and not taken from another source. You can carefully style your photos or take a quick snap on your mobile – either is fine!

3. Enter the URL (web address) of your post into the Linky at the bottom of this post. Once the link closes on Friday 28^th February 2014 at 23:55 no more entries will be accepted.

4. If you are putting your post on your blog please display the Love Cake badge and link back to this blog post. Old posts are accepted but please update them with the Love Cake badge and link. This is a blog hop so share the cake love around if you can.

5. If you use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Google+ please tag me and I will retweet, Like, Share or +1 as appropriate. You can find me here:

Twitter: @jibberjabberuk please use the hashtag #LoveCake

Facebook: Jibberjabberuk

Instagram: jibberjabberuk

Google+: JibberJabberUK

6. By adding your link and image you agree to it being pinned to the Love Cake Pinterest board.

7. I would love to read about the recipe you have used to bake your cake. If the recipe is not yours please respect copyright and do not reproduce the original recipe in full but credit the source and link back to it.

At the end of the month I will do a round-up of all the entries and post it on this blog.

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We Should Cocoa #38 - October 2013

I took the plunge a couple of months ago and asked the lovely Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog if I could be the guest host of her monthly chocolate cooking challenge We Should Cocoa. To my delight she said yes so here we are for my first blogging challenge hosting. Last month's challenge was the third anniversary of We Should Cocoa and appropriately the theme was Chocolate Showstopper Cake. 

We're now past the autumn equinox and this month the clocks will change bringing those dark nights ever earlier. It's time to start digging up the soil to reveal the goodies the land has grown for us. It's time to bring in the harvest so therefore the theme for October 2013's We Should Cocoa is:

Last October we had pumpkins on their own for We Should Cocoa but if you missed that or have another recipe here's your chance. It's not just about the big orange squashes though. Make the most of the wonderful seasonal produce that is in abundance this year. If you grow your own it's time to show it off and bring me your beetroot. Got a great local market or producer? Shout out about their swede. While we're thinking about local and seasonal let's just have a word about ugly vegetables. Some veg may not be lookers but that's no excuse to throw them away. If you have some odd looking aubergines or seen better days butternut squash I want to see what you have made with it.

To kick things off I've made a Chocolate and Potato Ring Cake using some leftover mashed potato. This goes to show that vegetables are a great ingredient to combine with chocolate. This year I've the pleasure of eating chocolate cakes made with aubergine and beetroot. It's not just about cake. You can keep it sweet or make it savoury just make sure your recipe includes chocolate and at least one vegetable.

To summarise, here are the rules:

Post your recipe on your blog. Remember, we all love a photograph too whether it's lovingly styled or snapped on your mobile, show us what you have made.

Link your recipe by the 25^th October to the linky below.

Mention We Should Cocoa in your post

Please link to me, JibberJabberUK, as this month's host and also Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog.

Please use the 'We Should Cocoa' logo in your post.

If you use Twitter please tweet your post to @jibberjabberuk and @Choclette8 with the hashtag #weshouldcocoa and we will endeavour to retweet it.

Please make sure you use this month's ingredient of vegetables and chocolate in your recipe.

A round-up of all your fabulous creations will be posted on JibberJibberUK after the closing date.

For any further details please look here.

Happy cooking!

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