Like so many women, there are days when my desire for chocolate is nearly overwhelming. However, perhaps because I am a tad high maintenance, my cravings are not satisfied by a mere candy bar. When I crave chocolate I want something rich, decadent, and freshly baked, I want chocolate cake.

When one of these cravings coincided with finding the first of the year’s native strawberries I decided to combine the two, the result was the cake you see above. I made a chocolate cake from my personal culinary bible, The Joy of Cooking. I joined the two layers with a chocolate frosting and then spread a layer of frosting on the top of the cake. On top of that, I arranged blanket of fresh strawberry slices. Finally, I consulted the bible again for directions for my first attempt at a chocolate ganache. The ganache came out a bit more watery than I was hoping for, but the end result was actually pretty interesting, a rich chocolate glaze that revealed the strawberries. The result? Chocolate craving quenched.

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My favorite place to eat in all of New Hampshire is LA Burdick’s in Walpole. It’s a chocolate shop and cafe and I’ve never had anything there that isn’t sinfully delicious. We took my mother-in-law there for Mother’s Day this year. We started the meal with their delightful cheese plate. This featured four cheeses in a range of intensities, a delightful fruit chutney, olives, seasoned nuts, and crackers. The cheeses were all wonderful and could be purchased at the market next door, many are by local artisans. We took home a creamy sheep’s milk cheese and a tangy blue.

For entrees Judith, my mother-in-law and I both enjoyed the salad nicoise. This version featured perfectly prepared tuna, egg, roasted peppers, new potatoes, green beans, and some delightful pickled red onions. My husband had the steak frites, cooked to perfection. We enjoyed this with a couple of glasses of house wine. The meal was simply scrumptious.

At Burdick’s desert is not an option. Unless you are a robot, their sweet confections are quite simply too good to pass up. Judith and Casey, my husband, both had frappes made from Burdick’s homemade ice-cream. Judith had the chocolate-banana and Casey had the chocolate-strawberry. The frappes were thick and a rick dark-chocolate in color. I sampled both and I can honestly say that these were the most delicious frappes I’d ever had. I had the hazlenut-orange cake and it was perfect, nutty and sweet.

Of course, I can’t leave Burdick’s without a take-home treat. The brazilian chocolates are my favorite, I savor their rich taste long after I’ve returned home. When I run out, I know its time to go back.

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First it was meat hats, then SuperModelMeat. Now it’s meat cakes.

Yes. Three layers of meat, with ketchup and potato frosting.

It all happened when the groom announced that a man’s cake should be made of meat, ’cause “wedding cackes are all girly.” Apparently a red velvet armadillo groom’s cake isn’t manly enough.

Funny thing, now there’s a growing gallery of meatcakes. (Via.)

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Don’t hate me for this, it was MattyB who showed it to me and then setup the domain itsapieceofcaketobakeaprettycake.com. The clip comes from LazyTown (IMDB), which airs in the US on Nick Jr.

An excerpt of the lyrics:

I’ts a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake
if the way is ha-zy
you gotta do the cooking by the book
you know you can’t be la-zy
never use a messy recipe
the cake would end up cra-zy
if you do the cooking by the book
then you’ll have a cake
we gotta have it made
you know that I love cake
finally it’s time to make a cake

Matt’s disclaimer notes:

This is by far the most effective form of office/LAN party/teamspeak/ventrilo torture known to man. Use at your own own risk and as directed by doctor.

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