My Father was a candy maker. He made all kinds of chocolates, marzipan dipped in chocolate, nut clusters and hundreds of others. The showcases in the store were filled with them.
The best though were the holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter. He had molds and made chocolate Santa’s, Thangsgiving turkeys, Easter eggs, and my favorites, the Easter rabbits. When Pop was making these creations, my friends would come over to watch, and maybe get a piece of chocolate.
The procedure was interesting. We had a wood burning stove with a large copper kettle on top, in a bain-marie sort of thing. The chocolate was melted slowly, and then cooled slightly, before it was poured into the molds. I think they were old German molds, I am sorry I do not have one today.
When the figures were cool and removed from the molds, this was the moment of truth. If they were perfect, Mom and my sisters would decorate them with jelly bean eyes as well as colored cellophane wrappings.
If the figures broke or were not perfect, instead of re-melting the chocolate, which he could, Pop would let us eat them. If the production was perfect, Pop would “accidentally” break one for us to eat.
Disaster was celebrated, “Look, the ears are broken”!
My popularity was partially based on broken rabbits ears.
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Chocolate for the soul. a sweet memory.
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