Chocolate cake lined with rolled white chocolate mikados.

By Ashley Troutman

Every morning, Linda Hein opens the doors of her new shop, The Chocolate Tarte, ready to serve her famous handmade tartes, truffles, cupcakes, and custom cakes. The cozy store at 199 Highland Avenue smells of rich chocolate, and houses decadent desserts guaranteed to make your mouth water.

Hein’s signature tartes are made with a Swiss chocolate shell, filled with Belgian bittersweet chocolate Ganache. The shop offers a selection of tartes filled with a tart curd and fresh fruit or mousse.

To craft her truffles, Hein hand rolls chocolate and cream. For the final touches, the truffles are dipped in chocolate and coated with a bitter chocolate powder.

Besides classic dark and milk chocolate, the truffles are available in several different flavors, including classic mocha, dark champagne and white chocolate with candied orange peel and Grand Marnier.

After trying countless different recipes and methods of baking, Hein found a way to create incredibly moist and decadent cupcakes. “I worked really hard to work out formulas to find one that keeps my cupcakes moist,” Hein said. The chocolate cupcakes are topped with a dollop of vanilla butter cream, white velvet cupcakes are frosted with lemon butter cream; both are sold in both regular and bite sizes.

Garuda confections.

Custom cakes for all occasions are, made by hand, from scratch using fresh ingredients. “Everything is made that day,” Hein said, as she sprinkled chocolate powder on a truffle.

Enjoy a fresh cup of herbal tea with dessert, a variety of flavors are available at the shop daily.