Advent Calendar:Wed 17 Dec-A Cup of Cadbury's Cocoa

On this day I give to you a cup of Cadbury's Cocoa! I don't wait for Christmas to have cocoa and anyway there would not be much point to saving it for then since I live in the Tropics and so for Christmas there is no wintery wonderland. Although it is the rainy season and the average daily temperature generally is a few degrees lower especially at night. But I've been watching my thermometer and it hasn't so far gone below 20 deg C however in past years I've seen it as low as 18 deg C but that's usually very late at night or in the wee hours of the morning. Anyway so here's my delight which I'm sure warms many a heart up especially where there might be a cold winter's night! Here's how I make mines although I'm not much of a recipe person I tend to just toss things up depending on how I'm feeling at the time. In the case of the cocoa I tend to vary a bit depending on the size of the cup I pull out of the cupboard. Tonight it was this Oxford souvenir cup a friend had gifted me so you might see a bit of Radcliffe Camera there on the cup.:) So cause I was making my cup tonight to share with you my readers I decided to lock down a recipe to share with you...so it was:

3 tsps of Cadbury's Cocoa
3 tsps of Sweetened Condensed Milk
4 ozs of boiling water
2 ozs of Low Fat Evaporated Milk
1 dash of cinnamon powder

I mix in the cocoa powder and condensed milk together till it is a paste. You have to make sure and break up any clumps of powder at this stage and make the powder and condensed milk mix in well else you wont get proper mixing with the water. I usually microwave the water in a measuring cup while I'm mixing the paste. Then I stir in the 4 ozs of boiling water. If the mix is not hot enough...this happens with me at times cause I keep the condensed milk in a container in the fridge (the tropics remember)...you may need to re-heat. If I think I've lost too much heat I warm for a few secs in the microwave but you have to make sure it is not for too long or too filled up in the cup else it will spill over.

Then I add the 2 ozs of evaporated milk. Again I have that in the fridge so if you want your cocoa steaming it might mean more heat. To remove all this semantics of backing and forthing to the microwave you can really just do all of this in a pot on the stove if you so desire. But I've gotten this whole making it in the cup thing down for some time. And I'm speaking from experience when I talk about it can and will end up too cold or spill over in the microwave etc. etc. I'm not always spot on at making it although there are my really good days. And perhaps cause I was making it to share with my readers tonight I have to say it came out just right! :) I mix it all up and I top it off with a dash of cinnamon powder! And there you have it! Hope you enjoy it!



One thing about Cadbury's Cocoa although made under appointment of Her Majesty the Queen it is still catching up with the North Americans when it comes to nutritional value. Cause no where says how many calories are in it. To be honest I've always thought I might be piling them on in this cup and not know it...like think it's about 100 when it's more like 400! So I did some checks on the web and to me it looks like my cup is just about 130 calories. Again not bad for a decadent treat! :) And really it feels as delicious as 400! :)
My basis for the rough estimate was as below:

3 tsp cocoa powder = 30 calories
3 tsp condensed milk = 60 calories
2 ozs evaporated milk = 40 calories
4 ozs of water = calorie free! Oh water lovely water! :)
I consider the cinnamon dash near free too of course.

Hope you try a cup sometime and look forward to sharing tomorrow's treat with ya! :)