Ingredients
50g dark Fairtrade chocolate, roughly broken up
110g butter
2 eggs, beaten
225g unrefined (golden) Fairtrade sugar
50g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
100g hazelnuts (chopped in half)

For the frosting
100g butter, softened to room temperature
100g icing sugar
100g cream cheese
1 tablespoon strong black Fairtrade coffee

Method
Pre-heat oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Grease a tin measuring approximately 27cm x 18cm and line with baking parchment, allowing paper to rise 3cm obove the tin. Toast hazelnuts in oven for 10 minutes (maximum) until lightly browned. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Stir in sugar. Beat in eggs and chocolate mixture until well-mixed. Stir in hazelnuts. Pour mixture into the tin and bake for 30-40 minutes until centre springs back when lightly pressed. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in tin. To make frosting, beat butter and icing sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in cream cheese and coffee. Spread frosting on cooled Brownies. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes, then cut into squares.

Spiced Chocolate and Almond Cake

By Andrew Rose, Floridita, London.
Made for the 10th Anniversary of the FAIRTRADE Mark.

Ingredients
300g Fairtrade dark chocolate
100g ground almonds
175g butter (softened)
Fairtrade cocoa powder for dusting
175g Fairtrade sugar
1 tbsp mixed spice
25g plain flour (sieved)
6 eggs (separated)

Method

• Preheat oven to 170c Grease a 8 – 8 1/2-inch cake tin and dust well with Fairtrade cocoa powder.
• After separating the eggs, cream together the egg yolks and 130g of the sugar until they become light and fluffy.
• Mix together the ground almonds, flour and mixed spices.
• Whisk the egg whites and remaining sugar to stiff peaks.
• Melt the chocolate with the butter and leave to cool.
• Mix the melted chocolate and butter with the egg yolk mixture.
• Then fold in the whipped egg whites, starting with 1/3 of the mix followed by the rest.
• Finally, gradually fold in the flour mix, making sure that the batter remains light and aerated.
• Pour the finished batter into the cake tin and bake for approximately 1 hour or until the cake becomes firm and springy to the touch, when lightly pressed in the middle.

Once left to cool, slice and serve with clotted cream.

Every year, about 3 million tons of cocoa beans are produced – Where do they grow? How is the crop harvested? And how do they end up in your chocolate bar?!

Growing

Cocoa trees grow in hot, rainy areas – mostly near the equator.  The trees are quite sensitive to wind and sun, so the cocoa farmers must take good care to protect the trees from these elements. Sometimes they plant other trees, such as banana or coconut trees around the cocoa trees to shelter and protect them in the early stages of their growth when they are at their most delicate.  Once the trees are established, the soil needs to be fertilized, and the trees need to be monitored closely.

Most cocoa trees bear fruit in their fifth year. It produces at it’s peak in about ten years, and will continue to produce cocoa pods after that for an additional 12 years or so.  Some trees still produce fruit when they are 30-40 years old.

About 10 per cent of the pink or white cocoa blossoms will mature into fruit.  The fruit are called pods, and they are green or maroon in colour.  As they ripen, they turn to a golden or red colour.

Harvesting

When these pods are ripe, they must be harvested.  The farmers use special long-handles tools to snip down the pods from the top of the tree, or possibly machetes to cut the pods that are lower down on the tree.  Once the pods are harvested, the shells must be broken open.  It takes a great deal of practice to split the shells, but a good pod-breaker can open 500 pods an hour.

The husk and inner membrane of the pod is discarded, and a farmer can expect 20 to 50 cream-colored beans from a typical pod.  Dried beans from an average pod weigh less than two ounces, and approximately 400 beans are required to make one pound of chocolate.

The beans are then put into boxes, or in huge piles, and are covered with mats.   Layer of pulp surrounds the beans, and this naturally heats and ferments the beans in the sun. This process lasts between three and nine days, and takes away the bitter taste from the cocoa.  Chemical processes take place within the bean to produce the chocolate flavour once the beans are roasted.  The beans turn a rich brown colour, and are now ready for drying.

To keep the beans from spoiling, they must be dried. In the hot seasons, the farmers can dry the beans out by laying them out in the sunshine. This process takes a few days, during which time the beans loose more than half their weight. The beans are then packed into large sacks for shipping. The beans are graded, and then loaded onto ships.

EDIT: Just came accross this website which explains in even more detail and has some fantastic photos! Well worth a visit if you are interested in this subject.

Watch out for Part 2 of this article!

(Information compiled from the World Cocoa Foundation Website)