Cookbooks: Chocolate Cakes: 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion by Elinor Klivans

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, let them eat cake.

And though cookbooks that focus on making things that feature chocolate are not so very rare, as the title indicates Chocolate Cakes: 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion (Chronicle Books) covers a very specific -- but delicious -- area of chocolate fancy: cakes.

As you will expect, with 50 cakes featured, and all of them tied by that single ingredient -- chocolate -- the cakes author Klivans includes in the book run the gamut of cakery. From a Chocolate-Apricot Pudding Cake to Chinese Five-Spice Chocolate Chiffon Cake to a s’mores cake and even a chocolate croquembouche. There is a cake here for all -- and every -- occasion.

Klivans has written for Fine Cooking and The Washington Post, among others. She is also the author of several books, including The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookie Book, Big Fat Cookies and several more.

Chocolate Cakes: 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion is a splendid book. Many of the recipes are easy, but even the ones that are somewhat complicated -- the New Brooklyn Chocolate Blackout Cake, for instance -- feature concise instructions written in plain language. And the photos and food-styling are stunning. All together, it's a great package. True chocoholics won’t want to miss this one.