Eat This Now: Wegmans Ultimate Chocolate Cake

It all started when my boss bought me a mini Ultimate Chocolate Cake from Wegmans.  Now normally I don't care much for grocery store cake, but Wegmans isn't exactly your average market.  My boss and I see eye-to-eye on many things, but most importantly we love chocolate and sweets.  I buy her B.T. brownies and make her try out my cookies; she brings me cupcakes from McMillan's in NJ and chocolate-covered pretzels from Naked Chocolate Café - it's kind of the perfect working relationship.

So like I was saying, cake!  She'd been raving about it for a couple of months and one morning I opened the office fridge door to find a beautiful mini cake smiling back at me in its clear plastic container.  I couldn't wait to try it...and then I realized I would have to get it home somehow without damaging it.  This doesn't sound like it would be a major deal, but for me, it is.  It was.  To put it mildly, I'm a bull in a china shop.  Always have been, always will be.  I'd love one of those makeovers a lá The Princess Diaries - can someone hook that up for me?

Okay.  So getting the cake home.  Instead of trying to smoosh it in my purse, or carrying it in a plastic bag, I chose to just well, carry it, bag-free.  It was quite an interesting walk/subway ride home.

Why?

Because pretty much EVERY PERSON who walked by STARED at my cake like they'd never seen cake before.

And I stared back thinking, "I know it's pretty.  Don't you play with me right now."  I even shouted (at my friend Bethany - not at strangers), "Quit looking at my chocolate cake!" a few times.  I also conducted a very un-scientific experiment during my ride home, and my findings are this:  men really, really, really, really like cake.  Almost every dude who came in contact with me gave that cake a staredown so mighty, so fierce, I swore a few of them were contemplating the Great Cake Heist of '09.  Ladies/gents, if you're trying to snag yourself a man, grab a cupcake or a cake or some sort of chocolatey baked good and head to the park, the Phillies game, the pub, your local Game Stop - wherever it is you want to find someone.  I think it'll do the trick just as well as a man with a dog (or a man with a baby) works on some people.

Oh, so the cake!  If it could talk, it would probably say, "Hi there!  I'm a real chocolate cake!"  Meaning:  it doesn't seem like Wegmans skimps on the quality of chocolate here.  It's very rich and sweet and heavy and dang near coma-inducing - I could barely eat half of it.  I don't normally like to drink milk anymore, but a glass goes pretty well with a slice of this.  The cake itself was a tad bit on the dry side, but I didn't eat it for a couple of days so it was a little past its freshness prime. 

Final verdict:  if you're in a hurry or don't bake and need a fantastic meal topper or something to bring to a dinner party, for $6 this cake is over the moon worth it.  Top it with some raspberries and vanilla bean ice cream and you have a budget dessert that everyone (who loves chocolate, anyway) will totally savor.