Congratulations to Angela of A Busy Mom of Two for suggesting the S’mores brownie! It is the first flavor to be featured from the Sweet Muse special edition flavor contest. (See the entire line-up for the coming year in the previous post.)

The S’mores brownie includes chunks of graham cracker, mini-marshmallows, and a generous drizzle of milk chocolate. It’s a delicious flavor combination that tastes just as good sitting around the kitchen table as it does sitting around a campfire. Put a S’mores fudge brownie in the microwave for about 30 seconds, serve with a glass of cold milk, and indulge in this classic chocolate treat without ever leaving the comforts of home.

It was so hard to pick! Many scrumptious sounding combinations were suggested. I had to assemble a judging panel to help me assess the options. Then I scheduled the top picks into the coming year. Here’s the upcoming Special Edition Flavor line up.

June – S’Mores
July/August – Raspberry Swirl Blondie
September – Cappuccino
October – Butterscotch Blondie
November – Amaretto Nut
December – Hot Chocolate
January – Mint Chocolate Swirl
February – Double Chocolate Cherry
March – White Chocolate, Macadamia Nut, Caramel Blondie
April – German Chocolate
May – Cocoa Banana or Bananas Foster (depending on what works best when tested, or maybe both!)

We’ll request contact information from each individual who suggested one of the above flavors (or similar variant) and send out a Buddy Gift Box with the special flavor around the time when the flavor is featured.

Eleven flavors were selected, as that lines up the coming year, but of course other flavors will make there way into the mix after that. I always love to hear your thoughts on what would make a delicious brownie flavor.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this round of the brownie flavor contest!

I think most would agree that there has been far too much discouraging news of late. With just about everyone facing some sort of increased difficulty these days and many goals and dreams placed further out of reach, I decided I’d post a few inspirational quotes. Just a few thoughts that might provide an extra little boost to help maintain our spirits and the determination to keep plugging forward.

I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains. — Anne Frank

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it. — Oprah Winfrey

Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. — Saint Francis

When I am in a bakery or perusing the dessert menu at a restaurant, I always want just a taste…of just about everything! Hard to do when everything is full size, or even super size.

That’s why I’m excited to announce our newest and cutest brownie, the button. Brownie button’s are bite-size fudge brownies that offer one delicious bite of each of our rich, fudge brownie flavors. The new Brownie Button Gift Box offers an assortment of a dozen Sweet Muse gourmet brownie flavors in a bright red ballotin box. Like a box of assorted chocolates, this gift box is a delightful surprise and is great for sampling the many brownie flavors offered by Sweet Muse. So, if you want to try all of our indulgent flavors, now you can, just one yummy bite at a time.

Have a favorite flavor combination that you think would make a super delicious brownie? Tell us about it, and if we choose it for one of our monthly Special Edition brownie flavors, we’ll name it after you and send you a Brownie Buddy Gift Box with your designer flavor.

Get your creative juices flowing and drop a comment here detailing what your dream flavor would be. We’ll be collecting ideas throughout April and let you know which new Special Edition Flavors will be featured in the coming months.

The brownie pictured below is The Christine. Christine got a jump on the things because we were doing a play together in February. Without even knowing about the upcoming contest, one day in the dressing room she suggested this decadent fudge brownie creation that includes pretzels, peanuts, caramel and milk chocolate. It was featured as the March Special Edition Brownie and won quite a few fans during that time.

Let us know what flavor you would like to see Sweet Muse feature?

Sweet Muse is excited to be participating in the 2009 Chocolate World Expo, which will be held Sunday, March 29th from 11:00 AM till 7:00 PM at the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack, NY on the 4th floor near the Ice Skating Rink. This fantastic event is being held to help support the construction of the CampVenture Indoor Equestrian Center so please plan to attend and enjoy great chocolates, baked goods, cheeses, wines, beers and more!

There will be ample Sweet Muse fudge brownies available for sampling, and gourmet brownie gift tins and individual brownies in a variety of flavors will be available for sale. Sweet Muse will also be featuring Easter and spring cookie charms to celebrate the new season and warmer weather.

Among the other vendors participating at the event will be Fretzels by Jill, offering delicious gourmet chocolate covered pretzels, and Gourmetibles, the candy that thinks it’s a cookie.

It’s an event guaranteed to please all sweet tooths and satisfying even the most persistent chocolate craving. More information is available at Chocolate World Expo.

If you go, please stop by and say hello.

If you are looking for a way to dress up a cake or cupcakes for a holiday or special occasion, one fun way to do this is to add cookies.

You can purchase ready made sugar cookie dough from the store or make your own and cut out fun shapes with cookie cutters. If you don’t have cookie cutters in the shapes you want, you can use a knife to cut out shapes or letters. Plastic caps or small tin cans can also work to give you various sizes of circles (nice for a fun polka dot cake).

Decorate the cookies with colored sugar and then bake, or bake and then frost with royal icing. Ice the cookies in various shades or try swirling two colors of icing together to create a pretty design. If your inner artist is inspired, frost the cookies in white and paint your design using powder or gel paste food colors.

Once your cookies are done, they can be added to the cake. Use letters to spell out “Happy Birthday” on the top of your cake rather than writing it in icing, or stick the cookies to the sides and top to make it fit the occasion. A plain white cake becomes perfectly adorable with new baby cookies “sprinkled” all over it. Dress up a summer cake with flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, and ladybugs.

I dressed up some cupcakes from a local bakery for St. Patrick’s Day by placing shamrocks on top. I much prefer decorating with cookies than using standard sugar decorations because the cookies are prettier and much yummier.

The Brownie Heart Gift Tin is a gift designed to reach your sweetie through heart, mind, and stomach. The tin includes a dozen fudge brownie hearts, each wrapped with a quote about love, and is tied with a beautiful red satin ribbon. You can even personalize the gift with up to four custom quotes or messages. It’s the perfect treat for Valentine’s Day.

Everywhere we look there is bad news about the economy and significant challenges to be faced. Governments, businesses, arts organizations, families, and individuals are all hunkering down to get through this difficult patch. The situation is serious, but, regardless, we must stay positive and hopeful so we can push on through. More than ever, we need to muster our creative energy to find new ways to tackle the problems we face.

Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. –George Lois

We often hear that we need to be practical and pragmatic during times like these and that may be true, but if so, let it be a creative pragmatism that will open up new possibilities as it gets us past current problems.

It’s that time of year when many of us think about resolutions or goals for the new year. Over the past several years I’ve taken to setting intentions for the year rather than resolutions. With intentions, I can continually remind myself of what I want in my life and renew my intentions at certain points in the year if need be. There’s never the feeling that a resolution has been “broken”, which can too easily lead to abandoning the idea altogether.

Here’s another take on approaching the New Year. I like this one quite a bit too.

Forget the resolutions. Forget control and discipline…too much work. Instead try experimenting. Go in search of something to fall in love with…something about yourself, your career, your spouse. — Dale Dauten

So often the impulse when trying to improve and enrich our lives is to clamp down and work harder to change something we feel doesn’t measure up. What if we instead more fully embraced what is great in our lives?

Whether you decide to make resolutions, set intentions, or more fully embrace what you love about your life, may 2009 be a fulfilling and fabulous year for you!