festival of chocolate 2012

well I love myself a good festival anyways, so when I heard that there was going to be a chocolate festival in Orlando last weekend, I was super excited.  And even more excited when a friend from school said she could get us tickets!!

It was everything I hoped it would be and more.  There were about 25 booths of different bakeries and chocolate shops from around the area, a pastry school competition, chocolate sculptures, chocolate and wine pairing classes, a liquid-nitrogen ice cream booth, and even a candy-wrapper fashion show.  And most importantly, lots of samples.  I ended up going home with two packs of bon bons (chocolate cayenne pepper, chocolate amaretto, chocolate salted caramel, and white chocolate key lime were some of my favorites!) from two different booths, some caramels, chocolate face clay and chocolate massage oil from the chocolate spa, and something else I'm forgetting....  I also got a chocolate caramel orange popsicle and a chocolate raspberry petit-four while I was there, but they didn't make it home...

I even tried to participate in the cookie stacking competition, but even though I waved my arms harder than anybody else in the crowd, I just didn't get picked.  Probably for the best though because I would have won and broken the tiny heart of the little boy that took the prize, and then I don't think I could have slept at night.  We watched most of the pastry school competition (Valencia didn't have a team), and were mostly unimpressed.  A lot of the components were made ahead of time and just plated.

And of course, I took lots and lots of pictures. 

Unfortunately my pictures of the fashion show didn't come out all that great because we were kind of far from the stage and I was taking them on my phone...but I had to share my two favorites (#3 on the first row and #4 on the second row) and then some of the most ridiculous.

All in all, I had a great time hanging with some of my school friends who share my passion for chocolate and just gorging myself on sweets.  And I definitely plan to go back next year!