Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Around the Kitchen Table: Our Favorite Chocolate Desserts + 6-Book #Giveaway!

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Around the Kitchen Table: Our Favorite Chocolate Desserts + 6-Book #Giveaway!

KIM DAVIS: February always means a couple of things to me: first is Valentine’s Day – whether you celebrate yourself, a loved one, or a friend, it’s still a day to cherish love and to share chocolate (or eat it all yourself)! One of my go-to chocolate cake recipes is this Tunnel of Fudge Cake which is featured in my Valentines’ Day-themed cozy mystery, Chocolate Can Be Deadly, along with other chocolate recipes.

The second is my husband’s birthday which comes the day after Valentine’s Day. Since his birthday is practically intertwined with Valentine’s Day, we forego the commercialization of the holiday and instead focus on what is important to us, like family. Given that we have a special needs granddaughter, we skip eating out (too many crowds and long waits, even with reservations, which doesn’t work well for her), and instead, I cook a dinner and dessert of my husband’s choosing. Lately, his favorite has been these No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecakes in a Jar (many thanks to Korina Moss for introducing us to her delicious recipe!), and he requests these fun dessert jars often.

Calling all chocoholics: do you have a favorite chocolate dessert, whether you make it or buy it?

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LESLIE KARST: I'm not much of a baker, being a "pantser" kind of cook (baking requires measuring and weighing--oh, no!). But I do like desserts, and I do love chocolate. And one of my favorite things to make here in Hawai'i where bananas are so plentiful and delicious, is this Crispy Fried Banana Sundae with oodles of chocolate sauce.

Yes, you do have to prepare it to order--i.e., right before service--but if you have all the ingredients ready to go, it's quite simple. And so tasty!

Happy Valentine's and Galentines Day to all!

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Years ago, a friend gave me a button reading "If wearer is found depressed, administer chocolate immediately." Still a motto to live by. In that spirit, I've posted a LOT of chocolate recipes here over the years. Two well-suited to this cold, dark time of year -- any wonder that we break it up with a sweet, romantic celebration? -- are my Almost Flourless Chocolate Cake and these Salted Chocolate Sablés I first made the cake right after my neighbor gave me a pressed-glass cake stand that had belonged to her mother, an avid cake baker, who had just passed away, and I love thinking of her whenever we use it. (I never met her, but I adore her daughter!) You can see the lovely gold edging in this photo.

The cookies are a delicious recreation of a favorite from Le Panier, a French bakery in Seattle's Pike Place Market that shows up in both my cozy mystery series -- as itself in the Spice Shop mysteries, and as the namesake of a bakery in Jewel Bay, in my Food Lovers' Village mysteries.

From my heart to yours.

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MADDIE DAY: With my anniversary falling on Valentine's Day, you can bet I love coming up with chocolate desserts. My first post here as a regular blogger was Mocha Kahlua Valentine's Cookies.

I've also posted about Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies.

And my recipe for Mexican Chocolate Mini-Cakes came straight from Nacho Average Murder, in which Robbie Jordan went back to her native Santa Barbara for her high school reunion - and a California-flavored murder investigation.

Check out my post here on the 13th for a yummy Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake!

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ANG POMPANO: I don’t make chocolate desserts often, but Annette does and her Surecelle Chocolate Cookies come from a cherished family recipe. “Surecelle” means “little sweets” in the New Haven Italian-American dialect, where they’re especially popular.

I’m obsessed with these. They aren't your traditional Italian bakery cookies, so you likely won't find them in a cookbook, but they are rich, chocolatey, and wonderfully nostalgic. Hints of cinnamon, toasted nuts, and orange peel are what really make them special.

They’re baked in loaves, frosted with melted chocolate once cool, and then sliced into thick cookies. They’re perfect for Valentine’s Day... or for sneaking a few when no one’s looking.

Annette and I are away right now, but I'll try to post the recipe soon. In the meantime, we wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Surecelle Chocolate Cookies:
Little Sweets from New Haven
(Ang's recipe post to come.)

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LUCY BURDETTE: This may get me banned from the blog, but chocolate is not my favorite! If I need to choose, it will be homemade cake. This Guinness cake turned out really well so I will share it with you!

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PEG COCHRAN: Ah Chocolate. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...I adore chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Hubby likes milk chocolate and our granddaughter likes white chocolate so we never have to fight over a box of candy! Oddly, I don't care for chocolate ice cream and I hear that's fairly common among chocolate lovers. I'm sure there's a brand out there that does it well but I haven't found it yet. I'm not crazy about chocolate layer cakes but any kind of flourless chocolate cake is right up my alley. And brownies! Especially these Palm Beach Brownies that combine chocolate and mint and these frosted Celebrity Brownies!

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MOLLY MACRAE: As with my children and grandchildren, whom I love oodles and oodles and more than tongue can tell, I don’t choose favorites among chocolate desserts. Like Peg, though, chocolate ice cream does nothing for me. I have a couple of recipes for chocolate layer cakes that I bet Peg can fall in love with. One is called Ultimate Chocolate Cake and the other is Total Blackout Cake. I haven’t made either one in years. Hmm. I’ll see what I can do about that.

In the meantime, here’s a recipe for FlourlessChocolate Whisky Cake. It’s fantastic and includes a surprising ingredient.

And here’s a picture of Night Sky Cake. The cake, but not the recipe, makes an appearance in Heather and Homicide, book 4 in my Highland Bookshop Mysteries. It’s chocolate cake with a swirl of lightly sweetened mascarpone inside and on top, sprinkled with flakes of Himalayan salt. When asked about the cake, Basant (the shopkeeper who created the recipe) says it’s “The night sky brightened by a path of moonbeams and sparkling stars.” Sometime later this year I’ll post the recipe for Night Sky Cake. Not for Valentine’s Day, though.

On Valentine’s day my post will be Depths of Sin Hot Chocolate—oh my goodness are you in for a treat.

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CLEO COYLE: Happy February birthday to your husband, Kim! (And to me.) I’ll be celebrating my own birthday tomorrow (Feb. 2nd) along with Groundhog’s Day. My cake of choice will be a Mocha Chiffon Roll Cake from our local Red Ribbon Bakeshop. But for general Chocolate Therapy, especially in winter, I’m happy to prescribe these DOUBLE-CHOCOLATE BROWNIE MUFFINS. They are incredibly easy to make and the perfect RX for all our fellow chocoholics out there. Have a delicious winter, everyone. Stay cozy! ~ Cleo