One's Red. One's German, One Isn't

There are three cakes that generate more requests on our site than anything else. At least they did.

I'm happy to welcome Carousel Cakes to the growing list of 1-800-Bakery.com partners. They've got the three cakes in question, and they're quite delicious.

First, the Red Velvet Cake, good enough to earn recognition as one of Oprah's Favorite Things in O, The Oprah Magazine. Three layers of mild chocolate cake filled and covered in a very, very rich cream-cheese frosting. This will satisfy your sweetest tooth. And in case you're wondering, this cake got its name from a chemical reaction that used to take place with chocolate in the mix, resulting in a red-colored cake. Today's chocolate doesn't do that anymore, but a couple drops of food coloring do the trick.

Next, the Black Forest Cake, which is tough to find because it takes some skill to stabilize whipped cream for shipping. Carousel's done just that, and they deliver two layers of chocolate cake filled with custard and black cherries, covered in whipped cream, and topped with Maraschino cherries. By far, this is America's favorite European import when it comes to cakes, and we're happy to have them on the site.

Finally, the German Chocolate Cake, which isn't German at all, but gets its name from a popular type of Baker's chocolate developed in 1852 by a Mr. Sam German and still available today. As the legend goes, the recipe was submitted to a newspaper in 1957 and America fell in love, with the cakes being made at a furious pace each time the recipe was reprinted, helped along by a very happy General Foods, which was only too eager to keep the Baker's German's Chocolate sales high. Apart from the creamy, mild-chocolate cake, the key ingredients are a buttery mix of pecan and coconut used for filling and topping and a thick fudge icing.

All three cakes are available in a seven-inch size, which gives us some smaller cakes on the site, another popular request. Overnight shipping is the only option on these cakes right now, but we'll have Second-Day Air available once it stops being so hot down South. That would be around October, I believe.

The Return of Rugelach

Kosher Rugelach is back at 1-800-Bakery.com thanks to our new partnership with Connecticut-based Challah Connection. It's yummy, it comes in four flavors, and it arrives in a handsome gift tin suitable for storing nuts and bolts, loose change, or small tchotchkes once the rugelach's gone.

If you don't need the tin, grab the Classics Platter, which includes rugelach and the best Black and White cookies I've ever had. So good that my coworkers had to fight me off to get at them. Plus it comes in a nifty wicker platter suitable for storing cooking utensils or the ever-growing collection of remote controls in your home.

Or you can just get a bunch of the Black and White Cookies in the same handsome tin, which will be useful if you have an abundance of nuts and bolts, loose change, or tchotchkes. Holds sewing notions, too, and you get to enjoy some delicious cookies while you think about what you're going to put in it.

Tin and platter usefulness aside, we're very pleased to have these exceptional foods on our site. We've also added Babka and several gift packages that are ideal for those sitting Shiva, including a complete Kosher Dessert Buffet that serves 50 and includes almost 15 pounds of desserts.

It Is Spring, Right?

It's a bit hard to tell what season it is, what with all the snow around here, but the calendar says April and the flowers shuddering against the snow suggest that warmer weather will soon find its way to us.

While we wait, there's baseball, which means Baseball Cookies are back for your gifting and eating needs. They're here until October, but why not enjoy some now?

If you work in an office, or you know someone who does, don't forget that Administrative Professional's Day is April 25. That's two weeks from Wednesday. We'll be taking second-day air orders for delivery on Administrative Professional's Day (or if you're old school, Secretary's Day) until 2PM Eastern on Monday, April 23, which gives you lots of time to procrastinate and then call us in a last-minute fit.