Special thanks to Jamie Danks who submitted the photo to Flickr

After a little research and asking for suggestions on the Tony Chachere’s Facebook, we decided the first cake should be chocolate. The recent trends in combining peppers and chocolate were not lost on this chocolate fanatic! I searched through my many recipe books and online sources, but found no cake that I thought would do justice until I went back to old trusty – Red Velvet.  I do have to give credit where it is due and this recipe was not my own, but from a co-worker’s mother. Obviously, there need to be changes to turn the cake from “Red Velvet Cake” to “Tony’s Velvet Cake” but the only change in this recipe was to take out the salt and replace it with Tony Chachere’s More Spice Seasoning.

Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 2 eggs, 2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp More Spice Seasoning, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tbs cocoa, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup buttermilk

Cream sugar and shortening, add eggs and beat well. Sift flour, Tony Chachere’s More Spice, soda, powder and cocoa 3 times and add alternately to creamed mixture with buttermilk. Add vanilla and coloring. Bake in 3 pans at 350 for about 25 minutes. Let cool and frost with the icing of your choice (we used butter-cream).

Finished and decorated Tony's Velvet Cake

Now, the cake alone (without the icing) started out sweet and amazing, like you would expect of any Red Velvet Cake, but the surprise came just as you were about to swallow…. there it is, the spicy kick of Tony’s! Me and my husband loved it! So I iced it and brought it to work for testing. Celeste liked it and we decided to make the cake again and decorated it for presentation to you guys.

I brought all of my supplies to the office and started baking in our break room, then assembling, and decorating. We cut the cake and tasted. We were disappointed to not have the same cascade of flavors as before. The best we can figure is that the contrast in icing was too much. Next time I think I would do a 2 layer cake and spread the icing a little thinner, but otherwise it was a decent first attempt at the Tony’s Cake.

I had a lot of fun with this cake and hope to continue the fun with other varieties of sweets and Tony’s. Don’t be afraid to try this at home, have fun with it and let us know what you think. We are anxious to hear your thoughts and suggestions on our first attempt.

Samantha
Sales and Marketing Assistant

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Chris Ardoin at the 2009 Opelousas Spice & Music Festival

The Opelousas Spice & Music Festival is held the first weekend of June with a full schedule of music, food, arts and crafts and cultural activities. All of the live music is homegrown with names like Chris Ardoin and Keith Frank who are from Opelousas and the surrounding area. With all of the live music, you can’t help but dance, so why not have a dance contest? The Zydeco Dance contest takes place on Saturday night about an hour after the Creole Cooking Demonstrations. Lets not forget the Fiddle Jam Workshop with local legend Hadley Castille.

Keith Frank at the 2009 Opelousas Spice & Music Festival

With so much to do, see, and enjoy; you can see why the Opelousas Spice & Music Festival is growing. So, if you are looking for something to do this weekend, why not dance over and check it out? You might win the Zydeco Dance Contest!

Samantha Moreau

Sales & Marketing Assistant

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Christopher

While cooking for Great Strides, Kayla and I were able to spend time with a wonderful little boy named Anthony. Anthony is 2 1/2 years old and was diagnosed with CF in infancy. He is a very short boy for 2 1/2 but that is one of the symptoms of CF and his body not being able to digest what he eats without the help of enzymes. He was like any other 2 year old in some ways; full of energy, sweet as can be, and even said “cheese” to take a picture with us. According to his grandmother, Denise, Anthony is continually surprising his doctors and they are learning so much about CF from his case.

Anthony

Christopher, Anthony, and many babies like them have helped with the research on CF and how to treat it. CF is a genetic disorder where thick mucus is found in the lungs and digestive tract. This disease is fatal with a maximum life expectancy of 37.2 years (an improvement over years past). Children and young adults with CF have delayed growth, belly pain from severe constipation, and recurring pneumonia as just a few of the symptoms. their daily life includes inhaled medicines to open their airways, enzymes to help with digestion, and chest percussions and drainage up to 4 times a day. This is not the life you think of for a young child.

Kayla, Anthony and Samantha

Great Strides is a fundraiser put on by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in an effort to educate and raise money for CF research. The event is a 6.2 mile walk (so that you can feel what CF child’s every breath is like) followed by children’s activites, food and festivities. It was a great crowd for a great cause and we hope to be invited back next year.

Samantha Moreau
Sales & Marketing Assistant

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Back on the floor level the cans are getting ready to be filled.

They are filled, sealed, flipped and pushed along their way to be bundled into cases.

They get wrapped and pushed out for stacking on a pallet.

The pallet is then wrapped and pushed into the warehouse waiting for an order to your local grocery store.

Next week I will give you all of the info on the Jambalaya side of things.

YUUMMMMMYYYY!!!!

Each November, the Thursday before Thanksgiving, is the Tony Chachere’s Thanksgiving feast. All are invited, employees and Chachere family alike. This year was no different. We all got to enjoy the great tastes of ham, fried turkey, roast, cornbread dressing, greenbean casserole (thanks Cindy!) and the list goes on and on, but before we dive into the feast, the awards are presented.

A peek at our awards

There are awards for everything from Department of the Year to Most Dependable.  We are all anxious to see who gets which award and always happy for all of the award winners.  I have to say, it is really great to work for a company who will take the time to show it’s employees how much they are appreciated!

Here are a few of our pictures, to see all of the pictures click here.

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The Spread

Todd digging into the petit pois