Penny,

No, definitely not lard. Ick!! Yuk!! It's not sweet exactly but it tastes vaguely of coconut. It is hard like lard but definitely not a good substitute.

Do you make Coconut Ice? It's used in that too.

I just did a Google search on Copha and it said that it looks similar to shortening but that isn't a good substitute either.

"There is no equivalent of copha, but a mixture of butter and coconut is better than nothing. Crisco has the right cooking properties to substitute for copha, but the wrong flavor." http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/usenet-recipes/choc-cake-2

I think you would be best to substitute cooking chocolate for the copha and cocoa in the Chocolate Crackles, and white chocolate for the White Christmas or Coconut Ice. Actually, the copha/cocoa mixture is a cheap form of home made chocolate. It would make the recipes a lot richer - you may have to leave out a bit of the sugar, depending on how sweet the chocolate it - but it would be very nice. I think I have tried a White Christmas made with white chocolate. Yummm!

The copha is very high in saturated fats anyway so you wouldn't be making it any worse for your arteries. (grin)

Helen