As of right now, the adorable and delicious Tasty Show Chocolate Tasting Kit for Two is available online in the Tasty Boutique. I am totally thrilled.

A short blurb about the kit that's in the current issue of Stuff@Night Magazine says, "These are no kiddie-birthday-party treats, either: paired with adult beverages (Zemack suggests a fullbodied red wine or dark beer), the tasting makes for an excellent stay-at-home date night or gossipy evening with friends." Stuff@Night also has a great pic of this newly available 'chocolate board game' (of sorts).

The "Amendoa" from Athan's, featuring alternating layers of vanilla sponge cake and vanilla mousse finished with chantilly cream and toasted almonds. Both lovely and delicious. My dad liked it, which means that it was a good choice.

My dad's birthday is on Saturday. I am in search of an impossibly beautiful extraordinary birthday cake. The two layer classic + frosting & piped roses is cool... but isn't quite what I'm going for. That said, here are some of the excellent options that come to mind:

Athans Bakery: This bakery always has a wonderful selection of French-style cakes and tortes featuring various combinations of creams, mousses, fresh fruits, and other elements. I LOVE the cakes here. But for once, this isn't about me. Will my dad love them too?

Tatte Bakery: This bakery is all about sensuous tarts, some featuring really rich fillings of almonds, pecans, or cashews with caramel and others on the lighter side with fresh fruits likes kiwis or figs. Very lovely to look at. I'd consider a fig tart, which looks and sounds pretty delicious. But it's not really cake. But does that matter? I'm not sure.

Burdick Chocolate: There's really just one cake here that's birthday style. It's got a raspberry chocolate ganache and is definitely quality but I've had it before (more than once!) and so has the fam, and I feel that we're all ready to move on to other things.

Truly Jorg's Patisserie: The first time I heard of Truly Jorg's was a few years ago when I saw this cake in the Boston Globe, which totally blew me away. Who knew cakes could be all slanted like that?? That might be a little much for this occasion though... I'm less familiar with Truly Jorg's than I would like, but I do know that I really enjoyed the napoleon I had there several months ago, and that they have a wide array of visually stunning tortes, tarts, and cakes, and there is a vanilla orange cake that sounds really delicious...

Sweet Cheeks Cake Company: I already know that these cakes are not an option, because they need to be ordered in advance, and apparently, I'm a big procrastinator. When I looked at their list of flavors, I saw one called Mom's Classic Birthday Cake... but nothing for Dad. However, the Orange Celebration Cake could be a strong contender (it's all about the orange flavors, really). But these impossibly cute, colorful little cakes might appeal more to the ladies... just a hunch.

Which cake will win?

My adorable friend Ariel drew the cake pictured above on my Facebook page using the graffiti application. See the little teacup sitting next to it? Hard proof that cake is best enjoyed with tea.

It's 90 degrees in my house, my car is in the shop until tomorrow, and it's a little late to be waiting outside for a bus to the nearest ice cream place. I searched through my fridge to see what I have to make it myself. I found a carton of heavy whipping cream that was 90% empty. I just made ice cream out of about 2 ounces of heavy whipping cream, 3 ounces of whole milk, a teaspoon of sugar, and a couple drops of vanilla. Total yield was about 3 tablespoons of ice cream, not counting the stuff that was frozen to the ice cream maker bowl. Better than nothing.

Last night I led a beer + chocolate tasting workshop at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Around 20 of us tested out various pairings of pure chocolates, chocolate desserts and artisanal beers. I'm sad that I forgot to take a photo of the glorious array of chocolate treats that we sampled - but all I can do now is post a picture of the fabulous drawing of a cow saying "moo" that one of the participants in the class drew next to "Valrhona Milk Chocolate" on the pairing menu.

Here is the pairing menu in its entirety:

Ommegang + Valrhona Jivara 40% Milk Chocolate

Aventinus Eisbock + Cafe Tasse Milk Chocolate

Guinness Extra Stout + Valrhona Manjari 60% Dark Chocolate

Guinness Extra Stout + Theo Madagascar 65% Dark Chocolate

Chimay Ale Premiere + Fran's Chocolate Smoked Salt Caramels

Ipswich Ale Oatmeal Stout + Kickass Chocolate Cupcake

Left Hand Milk Stout + Petsi Pies Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

Lindemans Lambic Framboise + Taza 80% Dark Chocolate

A few of these pairings are old favorites, and several others were a little more experimental. I tested out most of the menu at a pre-tasting tasting two nights ago with my friends David, Dmitri, and Brett, who were kind enough to swing by my house late night and super last minute to offer up their tastebuds for some chocobeer!