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For the milk rice:

600 ml milk

120 g round rice

1 vanilla pod

50 g raw cane sugar 

grated zest and juice of 1 big orange

pinch of salt

For the icing:

120 g white chocolate (four Caramac bars)

50 g soft butter

110 g icing sugar

3 tbsp. cream

Milka heart-shaped chocolates

SHF #27 - chocolate by brand. My two contestants are Nestlé Caramac and Milka chocolate hearts.

The game immediately brought to my mind the chocolate hearts that have been waiting for their destiny for some months. They were a birthday gift from a good friend of mine, I have never tasted them before, but the shape was love at first sight :). She gave them to me to use them for decoration and that was exactly my purpose with them :). The only difficulty is that I rarely prepare cakes, as that would mean a lot of extra kilos for the two of us with my husband and/or for my colleagues :). So I have been saving them until now. The taste - as I have just found out today - is nice, full of cacao flavours (45% content, not bad), it gives an impression of a semi-dark chocolate, although the colour would rather suggest a milky one.

So Mission No. 1. completed; I started looking for a white contestant as well. I met Nestlé by accident :). One day a colleague of mine had intended to drop by the cantine and asked me whether I wanted anything from there. I gave her an enthusiastic and detailed description of a Dove Caramel Liason bar, which is a must in every office on a long day, especially when it rains :). Probably the description was too long, or she had just picked up the main theme (caramel); she returned with a Caramac. I had absolutely no clue about this caramel flavoured white chocolate. But what the hell, it can't be bad if it contains caramel :). And it's not so bad at all :).

Then the last thing I needed: a base. I had thought about sponges, cupcakes, whatever, then I came across this recipe. Milk rice! So, here goes the final recipe.

Bring the milk to boil with the sugar, the vanilla pod and the pinch of salt. Then take out the vanilla pod and pour in the rice. Simmer until it thickens, then add the zest and orange juice. Simmer for another couple of minutes. Spoon into four small (cca. 10 cm diameter), buttered springforms and leave to cool. (I decided to prepare an icing rather then a cream mixed into the rice, so I took Delia's recipe and adjusted it to the white chocolate.) Beat the butter and the sugar, when it's a smooth mixture, add the cream. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and slowly fold into the cream. Spread on the rice and leave to cool. Place an extra teaspoon of the mixture on the top so that it can hold a heart. When it's cool, add two or three hearts on the top. The rice is dominated by the orange flavour, but it's not too sweet, like the white chocolate part and then the hearts complete the overall impression with a lightly bitter taste. Do not count the calories :).

The milk rice and the idea is from Barry Callebaut, the icing is from Delia's book Chocolate. I thank my friends (Cic, Thor, moes+1, kókusz, Bee) and my husband for helping me with the hard task of choosing the final photo :).