Death By Chocolate Cake

Last week my very dear friend Krista had to have a little bit of surgery. {If you're a woman, you can probably guess what kind!}. So, I decided she should have something completely decadent to help soothe herself with. And what could be better than a rich, lavishly intense chocolate cake?! Although I am allergic and cannot eat chocolate these last 20 some years, I sure do love to feed it to others. That way I can enjoy the splendid aroma and pure beauty of chocolate, while creating something sumptuous, without having the reaction!

Anytime anyone in my house has had an illness or surgery through the years, Krista is always the first person at the door with a huge meal in hand. Knowing that Gabby has been so sick, plus now Grammy has been sick too {GO FIGURE!}, Krista flatly refused to let me make a big meal for her. But I insisted on the cake.

I chose today to bake it because all three of her college aged children are home for the weekend at the same time, something that doesn't happen too often. I knew if I sent this cake to an empty nest house while all the chicks were away it may very well kill her and hubby! And since she just survived her first time ever of going under the knife, I really didn't want my chocolate cake to be the death of her!

For some reason this picture makes it look a little lopsided. It really wasn't though.

I wish you could see how pretty the vintage cake plate underneath the mound of chocolate is. It was a Christmas gift from my girlfriend Karen, who knows how much I love such things, and occassionally scours antique malls on my behalf!

The cake was baked in my favorite heart shaped pans given to me by Pat, my lovely Mother~in~law, years ago. They belonged to her mother~in~law before that. I raked grooves into the sides with an icing comb that was another gift from Mom~in~law!

Hmmm...... I sure seem to get a lot of cake related gifts from everyone. Wonder why?

FINAL NON~CHOCOLATE NOTE:

Thanks to all of you for missing me! And for your well wishes on Gabby's behalf. She is much better. She's just fighting the tail end of the head cold now, which she unfortunately shared with me, therefore I remained missing in action even longer!

I plan to spend the next couple of days visiting all your blogs and making some comments along the way. I sure am anxious to see what you've all been up to. I really have missed each and every one of you!

There are even a couple of you I owe e-mails or even phone calls to. I promise ~ I'll get around to it before the weeks over!

Hope you are all well and being blessed!