This year's National Cherry Blossom Festival is on its way to full bloom, as it kicked off this past weekend in Washington, DC. The festival runs from March 20 to April 12, 2015. In honor of this celebration, I decided to make these yummy White Chocolate-Covered Cherry Blossoms.
Basically, these lovelies are just a twist on the traditional chocolate-covered cherry. It's really just the presentation that makes them look a little like cherry blossoms.
To start, I sliced some frozen cherries in half (fresh cherries would work, as well) and cut them into "blossoms." I recommend doing only four "petals" per "blossom" to prevent them from falling apart. Place the cherry "blossoms" in the freezer, while you prepare your chocolate.
To prepare the chocolate, I added some chopped cocoa butter to a double boiler, although you could use your favorite white chocolate.
I stirred the cocoa butter as it slowly melted (make sure your heat isn't too high; you'll need some patience with this one), and added a couple spoonfuls of honey to sweeten it (I used Philosophie Berry Bee Honey, which has Berry Bliss Vegan Protein & Superfood Powder blended into it). You can skip this step, if you opted to use sweetened chocolate.
I made sure to whisk the cocoa butter and honey mixture, so that all the chunks of cocoa butter melted and the honey was equally distributed.
When your white chocolate is ready, remove your frozen cherry "blossoms" from the freezer. Carefully, dip them one-by-one into the chocolate and place them on a chilled plate. Sprinkle the centers with finely ground freeze-dried strawberries for a finishing touch. It almost looks like pink pollen.
Allow your White Chocolate-Covered Cherry Blossoms to set in the fridge. You'll love biting into their chocolate shells to release all that juicy cherry goodness.
Since we're on the topic of Cherry Blossoms, check out this blast-from-the-past post with my recipe for an unbaked Cherry Blossom Cupcake and a craft you can do with your kids (using real flower petals to create cherry blossom art).
Is anyone planning a trip to DC to see the cherry blossoms?
