DISH OF THE WEEK: Old Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake at Southern Sweets Bakery
An industrial court isn't the usual suspect for a fabulous slice of chocolate cake, but Southern Sweets Bakery is full of surprises.
The bakery-restaurant, located at 186 Rio Circle just a block off Ponce de Leon in Decatur, offers dozens of desserts to please the sweet-toothed crowd. There are pies, tarts, cheesecakes, bars and cookies, but we’re smitten with Southern Sweets’ layer cakes, especially its old fashioned chocolate layer cake.
The cake is super moist and super chocolate-y thanks to cocoa powder, melted dark chocolate and chocolate chips baked into the batter. Yet it’s the decadent, fudgy chocolate icing that wins us over. Cocoa powder, melted chocolate, powdered sugar, espresso and a hint of Kahlua coffee liqueur blend together to create one tasty cake topper. And we’re not talking just a smear of icing between cake layers. That icing is piled on nice and high. And fancy piping makes it all the more enticing to grab a fork and dig in.
Surprise of surprises: the cake is vegan – the result of a mistake that owner-baker Phil Allen made when he first created this now best-selling cake years ago. The blunder? He forgot to add eggs.
“It was a very good mistake,” said Southern Sweets’ general bakery manager Trish Smith. We agree.
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
If you’re going to hit up Southern Sweets Bakery for this winning chocolate cake, go all in and make a meal of the occasion. Sandwiches are the stars, with the Little Havana Cuban, the Best Chicken Salad and My Favorite Tuna Melt as the headliners. Add a bag of Zapp’s chips and you’ve got a lunch with bragging rights.
Southern Sweets Bakery, 186 Rio Circle, Decatur. 404-373-8752, southernsweets.com.
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