A bowl of joy: Death by Chocolate

LIMA — Marilyn Wannemacher's co-workers knew she was going to bring Death by Chocolate to the office last week.

“They told me they're not eating breakfast,” she said.

Wannemacher is office manager at Kesner Insurance Agency. She will have been there 23 years in May. She brings dessert to work when co-workers have a birthday. Little did she know when she started it would last more than 20 years.

The 15 or so in the office have come to look forward to birthdays. Wannemacher doesn't skimp when she makes Death by Chocolate, one of her favorite desserts to bring.

“When I make it for the office, I always put it in the punchbowl,” she said.

The recipe is her favorite because it's simple and it's delicious.

“It's easy. You don't have to frost anything,” she said. “It's easy to make, and it is good.”

Wannemacher also enjoys how flexible it is. She has made it with white cake and strawberries — and the varieties are almost limitless.

Wannemacher and her husband, Melvin, owned and operated the Baskin-Robbins that was in the American Mall. They especially enjoyed visiting with people at the store.

“Even if they didn't come in to buy, they came in to talk,” she said.

She started cooking as a kid out of necessity. Her parents had a dairy farm near Wapakoneta.

“Mom always helped Dad out on the farm. Five o'clock, Mom was in the barn milking,” she said, so she would often start the evening meal. “And back then, every Saturday, you had to bake.”

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