B&L and Viktor Bene's Princess Cakes

Finally! Awesome princess cakes less than half an hour away.

Overall winner goes to B&L on 3rd near the Beverly Center. I like the delicate flowers on their cake, the relatively pale green color they use, and their friendly staff. Slices are $3.50 and the whole cake is $28.

The cake itself was great too. Light, fluffy whipped cream that's just barely sweetened, a fruity jam layer, and very thin marzipan that's fresh and not grainy. The jam could have been just a touch more tart, but that's a very picky comment.

Their napoleon, by comparison, was kind of bland and buttery tasting. Stick to the princess cake, folks. B&L is also the only place I can remember decorating and puting fresh fruit on their single slices of cake, which is a really nice touch. And, best of all, sheet cake versions aren't expensive!

I also bought a slice from Viktor Bene's inside the Century City mall. For being half a mile from me, this was pretty darned tasty. The jam was super tart, and they use a light custard mixed in with their whipped cream, which I like. The slice was smaller and the same price as B&L's though, and their whole cakes are not as pretty and are kind of a scarily dark shade of green. So you know who wins, but Viktor Bene's is still delicious. I think it was $4-5 a slice.

I liked both of these better than Berolina, which was a gorgeous shade of pale green but had extra thick marzipan and kind of fell apart while I was eating it--and was expensive. I remember $5 a slice but might be wrong about that. Thee's at the Farmer's Market at The Grove is also pretty good, but it's been a long time since I've gotten a cake there.