Today is Mother Weaver’s birthday. You met her before, when I posted her recipe for hot cocoa. It’s the best! Anyway, my dear mother turns another year older today, so please join me in a round of “Happy Birthday” and a piece of candy cake. Happy birthday, Mom, from one of your two favorite sons!
Do you want your candy photos featured here? Submit them to the Candy Dish Blog Flickr group. We want to see your candy photos and so does the rest of the world!
Susan S, Tori, Susan and Carl celebrate one year of blogging about candy by raiding NCA's Candy Store!
As Carl mentioned yesterday, the Candy Dish blog just celebrated its one year anniversary. In that time, we’ve published more than 375 posts. Since we don’t normally post anything on weekends (that’s when Tori attends Virginia Tech football games, Carl takes photos, Susan S. hikes at Sugarloaf Mountain, and I exhibit at craft shows), that means we average more than one post a day. And that, loyal readers, means you’ve been super busy keeping up with all that reading.
I’m sure you’ve read every single post along the way. Right? Well, just in case you missed any, here are the top ten posts of the past year:
One year ago today, Candy Dish Blog had its first post. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of sweetness and delight. We have four regular contributors, have sponsored at least five candy giveaway contests, have had one guest blogger and Susan even had the opportunity to be a guest blogger because of our work here. In short, it has been a great year.
What can you look forward to in the coming year? We have several goals:
More contests. We want to give you stuff. Yummy stuff.
More authors. We have a great new food scientist on staff who wants to write about candy making, as well as introduce some of the science behind candy and chocolate. Other new authors may be on the horizon as well.
More social in the social media. We want to interact with you more, so keep on the lookout for more opportunities to join the conversation. Heck, come by for a cup of coffee and we can do it in person.
We have other plans too and you are going to see some changes here in the coming year, so we hope you will stick around and even bring your friends.
Today is a special day here at NCA. It was 125 years ago this day that representatives from 69 confectionery companies across the U.S. gathered at the Palmer House in Chicago, Ill. for the very first meeting of the National Confectioners Association.
Today, NCA is one of the oldest and most respected trade groups in the country. We have more than 600 members around the world. While confectionery manufacturers still make up the bulk of our membership, we also have suppliers who are members (companies that make the ingredients, machinery and packaging it takes to produce a consumer product) and brokers, who act a third party representatives and assist manufacturers in getting their products on store shelves.
We have some members whose brands are household names – like Cadbury, Hershey, Mars and Nestle. Most of our membership, though, is made up of medium and small companies. Lots of them are still run by the same family that founded them 100 years ago! It’s great when a member comes to visit our office, points at a picture from an annual meeting in 1927 and says proudly, “That’s my great grandfather.”
While we think that the founding of NCA was the best thing that happened in 1884, there was a lot going on in the country. The Washington Monument was completed and the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty was laid. Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Here’s a look at a few other moments of history from 1884, with a healthy dose of NCA history as well.
Another really important thing in the life cycle of NCA happened on this day in history, as well. Many, many, many years after the Association was founded, our current president was born. We think it’s very fitting that our fearless leader and NCA share the same birthday. Happy Birthday, Larry!
A few weeks ago, my girlfriends threw an excellent bridal shower for me. Jaimie, the lead organizer, decided on a Margaritaville theme and picked really cute invitations with magenta and lime green circles. What candy comes in magenta and lime green discs? Yup. M&Ms.
As you can see, the colors coordinated very well with the invitations and decor for the party. The candies have personalized messages, as well:
