Oddbean

How interesting! I make an incredible chocolate cake which is out of this world (Dekoven: OOTW) and my German shepherd of yore totally disagrees with you about chocolate ice cream. We made hand-cranked chocolate ice cream for my birthday, put the tub out in the cold, and Aurore managed to open it up and eat the whole thing! She also ate one of my chocolate cake layers when it fell on the floor. I know chocolate is supposed to be toxic for dogs, but apparently it wasn't for her. (Not the same as feeding boxed chocs to little dogs.)

Well, I don’t mind if other people like it! I would probably enjoy a very good quality chocolate cake, but not as much as I would enjoy a very good carrot cake or vanilla cake. It’s funny you should say that about your German shepherd. I also fed my small mixed-breed dog chocolate when I was a teenager, and he was fine. He lived to be seventeen years old and never showed symptoms after eating chocolate. I only learned years later that it was considered toxic. Could “chocolate is toxic to dogs” be a well-orchestrated conspiracy? I’ve lost too many brain cells to begin to ponder a motive.

I think it's individual dogs. When I was taking a training course they recommended raisins for treats, then vets said raisins were toxic to dogs. Ditto grapes, and I had a dog who loved grapes. It's probably similar to people and has a lot to do with gut health and tolerances. My dog Pascal can eat anything, but he has enough drool in his mouth (sign of good health) to dissolve a safety pin (dogs' guts can actually dissolve safety pins). If you ever come to Maine for a visit, I'll make a vanilla cake and eschew the chocolate!

That sounds like a fun trip! Thank goodness dogs’ stomachs can dissolve so much, because I know they love swallowing things. I saw a slide show once, presented by a veterinarian, of all the silly things they swallow. She showed the real X-rays. I don’t remember it all, but I think at least one dog swallowed a pen or pencil.

I actually really do like chocolate, a lot. One of my goals is perfecting my technique with boiled chocolate fudge and frosting. It’s just chocolate ice cream and chocolate cake I don’t like. I feel like it gets diluted in ice cream and makes cakes feel dry.

Chocolate cupcakes are worse than cake, because a two layer cake makes it easier to get some frosting in each bite. I like a good-quality chocolate frosting and find that it cuts the dryness of chocolate cake, even though I like it even better on vanilla cake.

Maybe. It’s something I detect in most chocolate cakes, not just my own, but there probably is a trick to improve it. I think I’d still like the vanilla cake/chocolate frosting contrast best, though.

i like chocolate in 70% 85% 99% and sometimes 100%.. the more just cocoa the more of it remains yours. plus you eat less without all the cake cookies and ice cream ingredients or candy or other fillings and add ins