Best Cake

DeLessio Market & Bakery

1695 Market (near Gough), 552-5559, www.delessiomarket.com

Yes, Citizen Cake does make some nice cakes. Hell, it's right there in the place's name. And if you want to pay as much for a cake as for a small foreign car, go right ahead. But if you want a more reasonable price -- for a cake that's just as insanely exotic and tasty -- go to DeLessio. The Market Street restaurant and bakery's Chocolate Tower Cake is such a stunner that you might find it hard to cut into. If surrealist architect Antonio Gaudí had made a cake, this is what it would have looked like: triangle shaped, layer upon layer of sour cream chocolate cake wrapped in a rich buttercream, made even more epic with huge spikes of chocolate that shoot from its roof. When you finally give in to desire and slice the thing open, you'll find it's got perfect, melt-in-your-mouth texture, a dizzying amount of sugar, and rich imported chocolate. Small wars should be fought over confections like this.