The Chocolate I Ate This Week: Sweet Cheeks and More

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Here's a week-long round-up of everything I've tried this week:

Saturday: I stopped by Best Cellars in Boston's Back Bay for a 'Cake and Champagne' event, courtesy of Sweet Cheeks Cake Company. I tried Mom's Classic Birthday Cake, a chocolate cake with a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling, and a family specialty of Sweet Cheeks founder Kendra Strasburg. Kendra told me that she grew up in a 'baking family' and that many of the recipes for her cakes come from her childhood. Kendra also told me that she's looking into starting up a retail space, and may decide to also start offering some of her cakes in cupcake form. The Sweet Cheeks (non-retail) cake-baking studio is currently located somewhere in Jamaica Plain.

Friday: I shared some Venchi 85% dark chocolate (Italy) with my assistant Lindsey today. Here's what she had to say:

Being relatively new to dark chocolate and an avid milk chocolate
supporter one would think that I'd shy away from the 85% cocoa Venchi
you gave me to try. Not so! I've fully embraced it's rich and
slightly sweet taste with open arms. Perhaps I've been converted?
Thursday: I'm in love with Petsi Pies. I stopped by their tiny little storefront and picked up two mini savory tarts (Tomato Provincial) and a whoopie cupcake that features a not too sweet, dense and moist but not-too-spongey chocolate cupcake filled with a little bit of cream and topped with a soft chocolate ganache. I definitely have a thing for good cupcakes.

Wednesday: L'artisan du Chocolat - I picked up a "surprise box" of truffles made by L'artisan du Chocolate last week when I was in San Fransciso. The surprise box is just that, a bunch of random truffles that aren't labeled, and then you have to guess what you're eating. It can get pretty interesting in light of the fact that their truffle flavors include ingredients such as rosemary, thyme, habanero, and kalamata olive. We weren't 100% sure about a couple of the flavors we tried today, but here's a excerpt from an email that Dan sent me after we tried a few:

What was that one? I put it in my mouth, very creamy.. first thought of caramel, then changed my mind to honey. Any idea what it was?
To be honest, after looking at their list of flavors, there's so much going on there that I really have no idea. Such is the fun of 'blind' tasting... but we did identify their Lavender Milk Chocolate truffle, which featured a pretty interesting balance of flavors. A lot more savory than most lavender truffles I've tried.

Posted by Dana Zemack on July 22, 2007 1:27 PM |
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Comments (2)

Trucker Girl:

So Dan... is that short for Daniel?

Posted by Trucker Girl | July 23, 2007 1:55 PM

dana:

Yes, Trucker Girl. Yes it is.

Posted by dana | July 23, 2007 7:12 PM

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