Lisa Messinger's
Cookbook of the Week

Chocolate Cake: 150 Recipes From Simple to Sublime

By Michele Urvater (Broadway)

Perhaps the only thing better than a thick slice of chocolate cake is the thick book Chocolate Cake by Michele Urvater. The 400-page treat is arguably as delicious as the author's checkerboard cake with wicked chocolate frosting, marzipan lover's dream cake or spicy chocolate pound cake with brandy glaze. Urvater is a former restaurant chef, author of the best-selling "Monday-to-Friday" cookbook series, and hosts the TV Food Network program of the same name. In this book she thoroughly shows us what she learned a few years ago when she began another career as a pastry chef with a diploma from the prestigious French Culinary Institute. Get ready to be put through the paces, as Urvater was. This could have easily been called The Chocolate Cake Bible or The Chocolate Cake Textbook. These are not easy or quick recipes, but they are classics (as well as sophisticated twists) done right. Following is one of the book's briefest choices.

RECIPE: Chocolate Peanut Torte

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