Imagine it surrounded by blue jello and you have the finished project. It is two sheet cakes stacked (then frozen) then carved in the general shape of a naval aircraft carrier. (the most expensive part of this cake were the airplanes- but they were absolutely necessary for the success of the piece and they came with the bonus blue sky backdrop.) The tower is made from two mini-loafs, frozen then cut (a very important step) and then iced with pretzels stuck in for the antennae. All in all, it was a very cool cake to make and pretty tasty (so I’ve heard) so I think it to be a success. I do believe I may have peaked in my short career as a hobbyist/amateur cake chef. I don’t think I can out do this one, so I’m going to retire for a bit- maybe focus on pies. If you want to see REAL culinary talent, please check out my friend Jen at sugarchef.com. (Hi Jen!) She is a south-Floridian now and I haven’t seen her in ages, but she remains a pastry chef and artist that has impeccable taste and talent, and I love her dearly!

Also, I finished my Le Slouch last night (helloooo- free pattern over at Knit and Tonic!) Actually, it started as a Christmas gift, hence the no progress photos so as to not spoil the surprise, but then I remembered how last year, I made all these cute beaded fingerless mitts and never a pair for myself (sniff sniff) so I decided to keep her.

Besides, I had to retool the gauge a tad (I was using a finer yarn than the pattern called for.) And I swatched. Ok, I semi-swatched so it is a hair bigger than it could be, but it is a slouchy beret and I love it. Crap, don’t ask me to recall the yarn. I bought it at Hobby Lobby a month or so ago. I actually think it is actually a baby yarn, but it is cool with this little white and pink wrap around the black, made the seed stitch really ‘pop.’ Yes, probably asscrylic, but it is soft and I don’t care. I do have an affinity for black and pink together, so this was meant to be my hat. (See how I justify being so far behind on the holiday knitting and keeping an FO for myself?) I’m not going to sweat it, really.

Tah!

This was a Non-Knitting excursion I’ll have you know. It was hard to leave the house without a bag of knitting to take with me, but somehow I managed. We did sneak in a brief peek into Nease’s Needlework- because it was, after all, right THERE! I refrained from buying anything, but mostly because I neglected to use the ladies room before leaving the restaurant and couldn’t “focus” on anything fibery at that particular moment.

Anyhoo, back to the chocolaty goodness.I’m a chocolate fan, and quite honestly, about this time last week, the promise of chocolate was the only thing propelling me through each day.

You enter the bar, which feels like the inside of a piece of chocolate, all brown and orange and dark. You can select any number of truffels from the case, they are made fresh. On the menu, there are appetizers and soups and stuff, a whole list of specialty dessert adult beverages, but the focus of the bar is, of course, dessert. I refrained from alcohol, mostly because I was saving my calories for the chocolate and it was too damn hot outside to get even a little pickled. We each ordered something different, and then shared. I ordered the “Oreos and Milk” – two small chocolate souffles with white chocolate ganache sandwiched in between and a blob of milk sorbet. The ‘cake’ part kind of looked like these: oreo cake stackers (I saw them on T.V. last night) except with some salt crystals on the top- which was supposed to intensify the sweet- and an egg-sized mound of milk sorbet on the side. It was very fancypants. It paired nicely with the greatest iced coffee on the planet.

Fox ordered, what I thought was the best dessert, a caramel cake with chocolate ganache and chocolate ice cream. I almost licked her plate. I seriously considered it. The truffles with the citrus ginger were my favorite of our ‘from the case’ selections. Jenny had some chocolate pudding stuff that was excellent too. I made jokes that the head chef was in the kitchen with some jello pudding snackpacks, carefully scraping the contents into fancy ramekins and grating nutmeg on top.

There was one dish that bothered me, and I’m sort of disappointed that no one ordered it because I’m so curious as to how it tasted. It had no chocolate to speak of- the dessert consisted of a poached peach served in a geranium soup (I shit you not) with aloe vera froth (yes, I said froth.) The waitress informed us that the geranium soup had a ‘floral’ taste to it. That was the extent of her description, to which we all raised our eyebrows at one another in a collective “you don’t say.” Doesn’t it sound like something you would bathe in?

The portions were small-ish, but the food was SO rich, the flavors so intense, you wouldn’t need or want more than what is supplied. But I could hear my grandpa now, all the way from heaven- or wherever, balking at my spending $9 on a dessert that was a smidge of this and a dab of that. But was the perfect outing for a bunch of girls, sharing and sampling each others chocolate in small bites, savoring each different taste, but I’m not so sure the menfolk I know would appreciate it as much as we did. Three bites later and my mayun would still want a Hershey’s bar.