Classic Chocolate Cake

While Kelley awaits her big New York move and the start of culinary school, she is operating a catering company in Houston this summer. To steal from Kelley's own website:

The Spread is a private chef experience bringing casual dining home again. The Spread offers an array of home-cooked family suppers and dinner party menus making gathering around the table a sight to be seen.

The philosophy of The Spread is to gather family and friends around a table of delectable food arrayed to be shared, tasted, and savored. Food is a great mediator of relationships if we can take the time to gather over the table and break bread together. This makes for a precious and rare time for families to catch up or host a simply elegant evening of food for friends. The menus are arranged for family-style sharing to put everyone at ease and allow conversation to flow as the dishes are passed and doled out. It is the hope of The SPREAD to create evenings of effortless elegance where laying at a feast at home is not beyond your reach.

There are several highlights to Kelley's big venture. She is pursuing culinary dreams, sharing her talent with others, emphasizing the family-style dining experience, and allowing me to sometimes hang around and photograph the food and taste the menu. In preparation for her first gig, Kelley attempted a classic chocolate sheet cake with dark chocolate icing. In accordance with Audrey Hepburn's opinion, "Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me." For me as well.


Kelley's classic chocolate cake proved to be moist and fluffy. The dark chocolate icing was not overly rich as is often the case with dark chocolate. Desserts unfairly come after large, heavy meals, and it can be a struggle to finish each bite. Dessert as the concluding component to a meal is a crime, but that's an argument for a future post. With Kelley's chocolate cake though, you will only desire more as you finish the first slice...and then the second and third. Truly, this cake will be such a sweet final note to the meal.