Let Us Eat Cake!

The result of this Friday's cake tasting? mmeeeeeeeeeeeh. This is a really harsh review, but only because I love cake! Seriously, Los Angeles needs to shape up in the bakery department. None of these cakes, from some of the top 10 bakeries in the city, blew anyone away. They were certainly good, and it's great to sit around with the pals and eat so many kinds of cake, but I'm not chomping at the bit to drive back to any of these places soon.

SWEET LADY JANE

So vaunted, so talked about, and ultimately so disappointing. I could live my whole life without eating a SLJ cake again.

The chocolate raspberry cake was fine, but frankly not very raspberry-y. The ganache was good, but the cake was a touch on the dry side.

I love lemon curd cake, but this was a pretty poor version. There wasn't enough lemon curd, the curd itself didn't have much fresh lemon flavor, the frosting didn't have any lemon zest or oil in it, and the cake itself had no lemon flavor and was dry and crumbly. Almost everyone's first comment about any of the cakes was that the lemon one kind of fell apart on the fork.

The triple berry shortcake was better than the other two. The fruit was really good considering it's the middle of winter, and the flavor of the cake was really pretty fantastic. But again, the cake was dry and kind of crumbly--though not as bad as the lemon cake. And one really gross thing about all the SLJ cakes was the frosting. I don't like buttercream to begin with, but the dark colored frosting was truly revolting. My sister said it tasted like sewage.

PORTO'S

I do like Porto's. I like the vibe, the variety, the prices, and the product. I don't like that it's so far. Even so, none of these cakes were perfect. The carrot cake was really great with delicious cream cheese frosting, but my friend Paul's comment that he's had carrot cake just as good before is true. The Cuban cake with pineapple filling and brandy glaze was too sweet for everyone, and the opera cake was just bad. I think I've decided I don't like chocolate cake that has an overpowering coffee taste to it.

BEROLINA

I think I liked Berolina's cakes the best. Too bad the bakery is far and expensive. I love princess cake, and theirs was perfect except that the marzipan should have been rolled out thinner. The canoli was crispy with a light, not too sweet ricotta filling (but too many chocolate chips). The cheesecake had an incredibly fluffy but not souffle-like texture, but the flavor needed a little more oomph. Oh, how I love for a Schubert's princess cake from San Francisco!

This was a kind of mean post, and my search for the perfect cake will continue. But i have to admit, this plate was pretty tasty.

My sister came over to eat cake and pick up the bibs and blankets I made for her friend's baby shower. Didn't we do a fantastic job wrapping the gift? She's going to tie a rattle or pacifier to the top after she goes shopping this weekend.

Summary: the cake hunt continues. I mean, until I find something that tastes better than your average Chinese bakery cake, why pay American bakery prices? If any of these bakeries had to go head to head in a cake contest with Tartine, Schubert's, Delessio, or even Citizen Cake in San Francisco, it would be a sad sad contest. None of them were any better Whole Foods on a good day.