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Do you love chocolate? For some of us, chocolate is a passion.
And our friend, who celebrated her birthday with us this week, loves chocolate more than most. I wanted to make for her the ultimate chocolate birthday cake.
I grew up with a dad who remains passionate about chocolate. One of the first recipes I ever learned to make was chocolate mocha frosting, to make his favorite cake for him.
And so that is how I gave up on gardening for a few days this week to spend time cooking instead.
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Our friend cut generously huge slices of her cake to share with us all.
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The cake was a two day love affair with chocolate. It is a chocolate blackberry jam cake, filled with blackberry chocolate cream cheese frosting and covered in dark chocolate ganache.
Have you ever tried chocolate blackberry jam cake? It is rich and satisfying, like a wonderful jam filled chocolate bar. It is an old fashioned cake, made with six eggs, molasses, butter, and lots of cocoa and jam.
The aroma of blackberries permeates the entire house as it bakes. And then the following day, we smell the chocolate melting into the buttery cream as the ganache blends, and is then poured in thick dark curtains of chocolate over the top and sides of the cake. Sheets of chocolate cinnamon candy, wrapped around the sides and top of the cake, encase it all.
We had a great time eating huge slabs of this special cake together, and our friends generously left a bit behind for me to share with my father.
I think there was enough chocolate to satisfy us all, and we all happily celebrated our special friend on her special day.
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Barbara, at Silver in the Barn, invited me to join the Five Photos Five Stories Challenge, and this is my fifth and final post in the series.
This is a simple challenge: To participate, you simply post a photo each day for five consecutive days, and tell a story about each photo. The story can be truth or fiction, poetry or prose.
Each day one must also nominate a fellow blogger to participate in the challenge.
Today I would like to nominate Robin, at Breezes at Dawn to play along with us.
Robin and I share a love for wildlife, gardening, and sunsets. Her photos are some of the most exquisite and loving photos I’ve seen anytime from anyone. I hope Robin will agree to accept the challenge, and that you will visit her, if have not followed her already. Robin tells wonderfully insightful anecdotes about life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
Thank you for visiting today to eat the cake with your eyes, and my apologies for not offering you an extra fork. I hope you will join your happy birthday wishes with ours for our special friend.
One day I might get around to posting the recipe for this unusual cake, but I’ll need to make it again first. And that might take a day or three……
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Woodland Gnome 2015
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Five Photos, Five Stories: Dormant Isn’t Dead
Five Photos, Five Stories: Perspective
Five Photos, Five Stories: Turtle Mama
Five Photos, Five Stories: Hot
Forest Garden 
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You made my mouth water with this one, WG! Your friend surely must have just loved every morsel of that beautiful and thoughtful gift of cake. You’re such a good person!
You are too kind, Barbara. I enjoy working with chocolate- especially if I can hand it off to others to eat and enjoy 😉 I believe this one was thoroughly enjoyed 😉
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I practically OD’d on chocolate just reading your post. Most impressive: both your skill as a baker and dedication as a friend.
Thank you, Rickii. That is very sweet of you. We are mutually good to one another 😉 My friend came laden with gifts she made form herbs to help us through the coming heat. So, are you a chocolate lover, too? Chocolate has always been an expression of affection in my family 😉 Hope you’ve enjoyed the weekend, WG
Wow, AMAZING confection! What a good friend you are to offer such a gift. Chocolate is the 6th food group, right?;-)
Of course it is its own food group! And since it is full of antioxidants and is happiness inducing, I might rate it higher than sixth…. I love to bake, and love even more to have an opportunity to make something fun like this- and then have others to eat it. I would never prepare something this rich for the two of us alone. If we can ever get together and visit, we can celebrate with a cake like this 😉
That would be such a treat!! In more ways than one. 😉
🙂 Yes, it would!
Oh, that cake looks scrumptious! I’m practically drooling. Thank you so much for the link and the kind words, and the invitation to the challenge. I’m looking forward to it. 🙂
You are very welcome, Robin. The cake was wonderfully decadent… full of gluten, sugar, dairy, and chocolate 😉 Not something we eat often, but oh, so delicious!
Looks absolutely wonderful and mouthwatering, WG. Wish I had been there to share a slice with you all.
I wish you two had been with us as well 😉 Am not inviting Toby, as he and our cat would have had an interesting time of it…. but you would love visiting with our friends, and would find much in common, besides the cake ❤ Best wishes, WG
Toby is frightened of cats. He’ll even pull me to walk on the other side of the road if he spots one.
Would be lovely if we could meet up one day. I’m planning to meet up with some British bloggers in the Summer. Will be the first time I have met another blogger(s). Am looking forward to it.
Yes it would, Hugh. I’ve met up with a few bloggers over the last year, and always had a perfectly delightful time. I hope you’ll have a good time with fellow bloggers this summer. Several of us on the East Coast of the US are beginning to express interest. One of us just needs to set a time and issue an invitation 😉 Ollie, our cat, actually let my husband know that a deer had wandered into our yard yesterday while I was away, and then went out of doors with him to chase the deer out of the garden! He is a fiesty guy, and I would not wish that on Toby. We’ve never gotten a dog or another cat for concern of how Ollie would treat them. Is this a holiday weekend in Britain? We have friends visiting the beaches in Normandy to commemorate Memorial Day. Best wishes, WG
Yes, it’s a bank holiday weekend here in the UK as well although Scotland, for some reason, does not have a bank holiday. I am not sure why but can only guess that they have another day as a holiday instead of the rest of the UK.
Wishing you a lovely day, WG.
Wishing you a lovely day as well, Hugh. Wouldn’t it be nice if the banks were available when the rest of us are off? 😉 WG
What greater blessing in life, than to be blessed with friends who have the talent and ability to create the best chocolate cake ever. Thank you dear friend. A birthday to remember for many many a year. What a lovely evening. We are going to stretch our cake for a long long time
You are very kind . … and YOU inspired such a cake 🙂 please enjoy every crumb 🙂 you are welcome . ..
I love chocolate! The cake looks wonderful!
It’s tasty 🙂 Thank you for visiting .