I went to a barbecue on Labor Day, as I imagine most people did. It was a backyard affair, but a considerable one with 20-30 kids and adults running about. Naturally, we had a lot of food; one of my shots of the grill had 20 hotdogs and 10 burgers on it, and that was just round one. The meat was further complemented with sides, salad, and ziti. This bounty continued to our dessert table, which included three pies, a fruit salad, ganache cups (mine!), a carrot cake, and a butterfly cake.

The butterfly cake was specially chosen by my mother because my late grandmother loved butterflies. She likes to include reminders of her in our celebrations, even though several years have passed. Everyone was so excited to see it unboxed. The adults called me over to take pictures of it because the children were in fact circling hungrily and impatiently. When we cut into it, we found a.. pudding cake. Instead of fruit or mousse, the cake was filled with vanilla pudding. I was really surprised – I cannot remember the last time I ate one of those. It makes sense as a party choice, though, because vanilla pudding as probably as inoffensive as it gets. It was a little boring and bland, but if one wanted flavor, the carrot cake was a-waiting.

From a photographic perspective, a red table cloth would not have been my first choice as a backdrop here because I prefer neutral tones, but it works with the yellow, green, and gold colors of the cake. I actually really like the gold airbrushing on the sides. It’s a little random — who makes gold cakes? who serves them? – but it’s a nice backdrop to the other, simpler hues.

Butterfly and ladybug cake

First things first: no, the butterfly was not edible. It is sitting in a bed of chocolate crunchies, the likes of which you find in Carvel ice-cream cakes, which were meant to be soil. The strange, plastic-like pieces strewn on the icing are so-called magic sprinkles. They are basically transparent glitter flakes, meant to add shine to your dessert, but I don’t think they were necessary here.

Butterfly in the background

The ladybugs were ‘edible’. They were hard sugar-candy (gum paste), like the flowers you find on a wedding cake, so you could eat them, but it’d be like chewing on a jawbreaker.

Ladybug closeup

I selected this side shot because I think it, along with the above ladybug picture, highlights the sheer height and texture of this buttercream icing. It was dramatically fluted, rippled, and layered on the cake in a way you rarely see; most birthday cakes stick with classic swirls, and most wedding cakes use fondant for these details.

Leaf detail

I just like this photograph. It doesn’t necessarily convey any new information about this cake, but the swirls of the yellow icing, the contrast of the green leaves, and the fading gold of the undercoat simply please my eye.

Icing leaves

I went to Portland last year and visited a friend. Before leaving, I had jokingly asked him and his wife if they wanted me to bring anything from New York City. I was thinking a Black and White cookie would be awesome but none of New York’s quintessential edible stuff would make the trip to Portland. When I actually got there, I felt like I still wanted to find something unusual to give them, and I saw Moonstruck Chocolates in a shop’s window.

I had never seen such adorable chocolates before. They had a wide assortment of animals as well as exotic truffles and other shapes. I ended up buying my friend some, myself some, and my mother some. I think I spent $80 on chocolate that day.

I took some photos in the hotel room as I ate my assortment, which included a chocolate turtle, a lemon-flavored clownfish, a a dark chocolate sheep, an adorable white kitty, an oyster with a pearl in it, and a cognac truffle topped with gold powder and an almond ‘crown’. This is not a great shot but it gives a clear view of all the chocolates, which were really gorgeous. Look at the fin on the fish and his stripes. The rounded tail on the cat. The swirls of color on the chocolate shell. The curly fluff on the sheep. Wonderful craftsmanship. Here is a video of how they make the clownfish.

Circle of chocolates

I’m much fonder of this shot. Here is the kitty peaking out of his chocolate box. Yes, he has a heart-shaped nose. I love Moonstruck’s attention to detail.

Chocolate kitty in a box of chocolates

This next photo may look familiar to you, as I recently did a short Portland post that featured this coffee art. The chocolate kitty was in the background, exploring the table, in that picture. This is another favorite of mine, because balancing on the edge of a coffee cup seems like such a cat-like thing to do. He is just perched there, bundled like he might take a nap.

Kitty on a coffee cup

I forget if this turtle’s shell tasted minty. I do recall the lemon clownfish was delightfully lemony, though! Alas, I was unimpressed by the gold truffle and the oyster in a pearl. It was beautiful, but the chocolate oyster had a weird, crackly texture that was realistic but not enjoyable. The gold-topped truffle was nothing exciting, I’m sorry to say.

Chocolate turtle

Despite not loving every piece of chocolate, I often give Moonstruck Chocolate as gifts because they’re just so unique (though pricey). This brings us to.. the giveaway!

Caramel truffles from Moonstruck Chocolate

These are truffles with liquid caramel centers, including pear, 3-caramel, coffee, and chile-flavors. I haven’t tried them yet but they look awesome, so I am giving a box away. All you have to do is leave a comment about your favorite chocolate memory.

After nibbling on two appetizers, eating a salad, having a tiny pumpkin muffin, and sampling elk, bison, and quail, I still had some room – or so I told myself. Look, it was time for dessert, and that’s my favorite part of any meal. Because I knew I would be taking pictures, I even went ahead and ordered two. Yes, I was one woman, of a normal weight, ordering two desserts, because I felt like it. It was awesome.

Getting two desserts solved the dilemma I’ve mentioned many times on this blog: I love cake, and I want to order cake, but I don’t always like the cake. So, what did I do? I ordered the cake, and I ordered the panna cotta, which sounded really weird and therefore extremely exciting.

Mexican chocolate cake

The Fort’s chocolate cake is a Mexican cake with a little chile spice in the mix. I’ve had chocolate with cayenne and chipotle before, and I quite liked it. This particular cake also had bourbon somewhere in it, but I am not sure where. I could definitely taste the tingle of the chile as I ate it, though. Boy, this was a generous serving – I think those two pieces were a quarter of an 8 inch cake.I managed a few bites and that was it – I was pretty full, and there wasn’t enough vavavoom to this dessert to inspire me.

Rosemary-infused panna cotta

I mentioned a panna cotta, which is basically cream and sugar that is set with gelatin. This variation was rosemary infused with huckleberries on top. I’ve never had panna cotta or huckleberries before. I’ve been missing out my entire life. I love smooth, creamy flavors, and panna cotta is so, so silkily textured. It was heaven in my mouth. The rosemary gave it a bright, lemony, herbal note in the background that was just wonderful. Of course, the berries were very welcome as well – tart and brightly colored, mixing with the mildly-flavored cream in lovely streaks.

Empty panna cotta glass

I found room for the panna cotta and in fact ate the whole thing. Do you see the patterns on the side? That’s where I was desperately scraping with my spoon.

Coffee with Frangelico

I mentioned in a previous post that I had an ulterior motive regarding the sunset. Well, it was about 8:30 and the sun’s official setting time was 8:52 on this glorious July day, so I decided to order a coffee to extend my stay a little. I am a sucker for coffees with liqueur because they somehow transform normal coffee into something magical topped with whipped cream. This one had Frangelico and maybe Kahlua in it. It was actually very good; I could taste the alcohol but in a very pleasant way. It definitely added to the flavor of the coffee itself, which wasn’t too robust.

The whipped cream was fantastic, of course. I wanted to take that axe stirrer with me, but it said The Fort on it like it was custom-made for them, so I thought it’d be wrong to take it. The coffee was a nice end to a very nice meal. Afterwards, I went to the patio to watch the moon rise and caught the sunset behind me, as documented in the last post. Success!