Course 2: Apple Blossoms and Violets

For class we had to bring with us 2 batches of royal icing.

Royal Icing (Stiff Consistency)

adapted from The Wilton Method of Cake Decorating

4 level tablespoons Meringue Powder

1 lb sifted pure cane confectioners' sugar (4 cups)

5 to 6 tablespoons lukewarm water

Make sure all utensils are grease free. Place confectioners' sugar and Meringue Powder in a bowl. Stir or mix at low speed until blended. Start by adding 3 tablespoons of water and add additional water by the teaspoon until you reach the right consistency. Mix 7-10 minutes at low-medium speed until icing loses its sheen. To prevent drying, be sure to cover the bowl with a damp cloth while working with icing. Place a sheet of plastic wrap on icing and press down and store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Do not refrigerate.

When I was making the royal icing, it looked like crumbled dough pieces at first. I was a bit worried but I just mushed them together with my hand until it looked like one big piece of fondant and then let the mixer go at it. I literally thought my stand mixer was going to break. The royal icing didn't look right, but I just brought it to class anyway hoping the teacher would thin it out for me.

I brought Pete and Wonster to class with me hoping they'd be able to sit in and participate but the instructor wouldn't let them. So sorry guys! They roamed around Michael's while I spent the bulk of the class thinning out my frosting. Actually the instructor is the one that did most of the heavy lifting. She told me it was way too thick and she had to borrow another classmate's frosting and combine the two. We had to make 4 different colors of frosting so I was busy mixing together the colors once she made them into the right consistency. I added some water to my frosting because it still seemed stiff and she almost shrieked. I guess the littlest bit of water can ruin your icing and I was suppose to add one tiny drop of water, but I added a splash. She was pretty peeved at me for ruining the icing after she spent so much time thining it out. She had to add more of my leftover rock-hard icing to bring it to the right consistency again. Oops, my bad.

I should have taken more pictures, but I was preoccupied with stirring and filling my four pastry bags with different colored icing. The thing to note is that since this icing is basically sugar and water, it dries out really fast. So you have to cover it with a damp cloth or baby wipes (in our case). She said we can use baby wipes for teaching purposes but if you plan on eating the flowers, you should use a damp cloth of water instead. Also when you aren't using your piping bags, you should cover them with a damp cloth or baby wipes as well or else the frosting will harden in the tips.

We used the yellow royal icing for the center dots and the pink and purple for the flower petals. First, she taught us how to make apple blossoms. On a piece of parchment paper, you make five petals using your flower nail and then put 5 little dots in the center. You then take off the piece of parchment paper from the flower nail and lay the flower and paper down in this little curved flower former. It looks like half of a plastic pipe but it helps your flowers dry out and harden and also gives it a slightly curved shape. Here are my apple blossoms.

A close up of them. The plan is to make 5 or 6 of each flower and at the end of the class, we use them to decorate a cake.

Next we did violets. In retrospect, I should have made the purple darker, but oh well. It's pretty much the same technique but 2 of the petals are smaller than the rest of the petals. I guess someone at Wilton is responsible for carefully studying these tiny discrepancies. I'm not very good at this so to me, they just look like pink and purple flowers, but in the book, the two flowers look different. Then, once you have your violet petals, you place 2 yellow dots in the center and there you have it! There's a cake in our book with basic white frosting and a bunch of violets interspersed along the cake and it looks super cute.

I'll try to do a better job of taking pictures in the next class. I think we're making daisies, daffodils and pansies next. Ooh la la.

Gingerbread Cookies

While Pete was in town, she requested that we make some cookies for her bf in Tokyo. So how many people does it take to make a batch of Reese's Pieces Cookies? Four girls, one of them almost 8 months preggers, slaving away in the kitchen all day. Mr. BF better appreciate! Well, Pete did most of the baking with those cookies, we were just the taste testers. =)

My friend Mary had previously requested a batch of gingerbread cookies so we decided to make those and regular chocolate chip cookies as well. We decided to start with the gingerbread cookies first since it required rolling out the dough and cutting out shapes and later decorating them.

Gingerbread Cookies

The Gourmet Cookbook

makes about 4 dozen cookies

2/3 cup molasses (not robust or blackstrap)

2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 3/4 - 4 cups all-purpose flour

Decorating icing (see below)

Put racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 325 F. Butter two large baking sheets.

Combine molasses, brown sugar and spices in a 4- to 5- quart heavy saucepan (you'll be putting all the flour in here so make sure you use a big enough saucepan) and bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in baking soda (mixture will foam up), then stir in butter 3 pieces at a time, letting each addition melt before adding next. Add egg and stir until combined, then stir in salt and 3 3/4 cups flour.

I was busy running around trying to find a rolling pin, so my friends did most of the baking in this one. I was lucky enough to just get in a few pictures here and there. Here's a picture of the dough coming together.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead, dusting with as much of the remaining 1/4 cup flour as needed to prevent sticking, until soft and easy to handle, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Halve dough, then wrap one half in plastic wrap and keep at room temperature.

Roll out remaining dough on lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin (I used a wine bottle wrapped in plastic wrap because I couldn't find my rolling pin) into a 14-inch round. Cut out as many cookies as possible with cutters. Here's a picture of us going at it.

Carefully transfer, preferably with an offset spatula, the cookies to buttered baking sheets, arranging them about 1 inch apart. That's a mini gingerbread man and a little boot.

Here's a picture of a gingerbread family on another cookie sheet.

Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are slightly darker, 10 to 12 minutes (watch carefully toward end of baking, as cookies burn easily).

The cookies puff up a bit, but not by much. We played around with different thicknesses and we thought the thicker cookies looked and tasted better. A glowing gingerbread man.

Transfer to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies with remaining dough and scraps (reroll once).

Put icing in pastry bags (or zip lock bags with one end cut off) and pipe decoratively onto cookies, or spread icing on cookies. Let the icing set.

Here's a gingerbread baby in diapers and a little boot that wonster decorated.

Decorating Icing

The Gourmet Cookbook

makes about 3 cups

1 (1-pound) box or 4 cups of confectioners' sugar

4 teaspoons powdered egg whites

1/3 cup water

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

food coloring (optional)

Beat together all ingredients except food coloring in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until just combined, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and beat icing, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl, until it holds stiff peaks, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer, 4 to 5 minutes with a handheld mixer. Beat in food coloring, if using. If you plan to spread rather than pipe icing on cookies, stir in more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, to thin to desired consistency.

Since I had my handy dandy cake decorating kit, we made several different colors of frosting and got to piping. My friends had a ball with decorating as you can see.

J did a little family of gingerbread cookies. I love the tie and his smile.

Here's a hula gingerbread girl.

Here's an upper east side gingerbread family.

We were almost done decorating all the cookies (some appropriate and others not - wonster!!) until we realized that we would be sending these cookies to my friend Mary. So wonster made a nice cookie especially for her.

It was so much fun. And the best part is that the cookies were really good. I thought the icing would be way too sweet, but the lemon really brings out the flavor of the spicy cookies. I literally had to pack these away in boxes to ship so I wouldn't eat anymore.

Now, I've saved my favorite cookie for last. I've fondly named him "Gingerbread Man Slimed in His Sleep." He didn't even have a chance to crack a smile, he just got buried in frosting. I love it.

Ondal 2 - Los Angeles, CA

Pete was in town and I was excited when she told me she wanted to check out this Korean crab stew place while she was here. She had heard that they mix some sort of rice in the crab shell and give it to you. What!?!? How come I never heard of this place before? I've been so out of the LA Korean food scene that I have no clue what's good anymore.

So Monday night, we met up for dinner. When Pete texted me the address and I google mapped it, I realized it was way south and west of what is typically Koreatown. I had no clue there were Korean restaurants in that neighborhood and almost questioned what in the world a Korean restaurant was doing there in the first place. Around 6:30 pm, the area looked almost deserted. All the stores in that area had closed for the night and there weren't that many people around. I almost missed the restaurant on my first drive through the area. If you blink, you will surely miss it. The sign is definitely helpful. It is basically the only thing that is lit in that part of the neighborhood.

The restaurant itself is very clean quite spacious. I was surprised to walk in and see so many other Korean people south and west of Koreatown. What were you doing out here is what I wanted to ask them. hahaha. But there were several large parties here that night so clearly we weren't the only ones treking out here for some crab stew.

Pete initially thought about ordering the large crab stew but the waitress suggested ordering the medium if we were going to get soo jae bi (a Korean pasta/soup dish) and fried rice afterwards. It's a good thing she ordered the medium because it was sooo much food for three of us, granted we were girls, so who knows, maybe three guys could polish this off.

They start with a good array of banchan or side dishes for you to nibble on. They even brought out a Korean pancake for us that was fresh from the fry pan. Then they brought out this huge casserole dish with three big crabs on top. I don't know what kind of crabs these were, they looked bigger than blue crab, but smaller than dungeness crab.
The waiter got to work. He worked furiously with those tongs and scissors and started cutting the crab into pieces.
Crabs, scissors and tongs were flying in the air and none of us managed to get splashed by all this action. Here's a picture of the flying crab leg.
OK, j/k. But really it seemed like that. He was definitely in the zone with those tongs and scissors. He kept on going back and forth between the stew and an empty bowl and I kept on trying to take a picture but he was moving too fast! After he was done cutting up the crab legs, he took the three crab shells and started to divide up the stuffing that was in one of them. The waiter explained that it was a dumpling of crab meat, roe and innards stuffed in the shell. It looked like ground beef though, which was odd. He divided the dumpling in between the three shells and then added a bit of rice and some broth to the mixture and placed each shell on our plates.

He then put some beansprouts on top and ladled on some soup.
It was really good. It was spicy and full of flavor and I loved the fact that it had tons of beansprouts in it. Eating crab is always messy so I joked that we probably shouldn't bring anyone here for our first date. Luckily they give you a bib and a crab fork to pick out the meat, so it's a bit more manageable. It's hard work getting out those morsels, but it's well worth it.

I think at some point, they also brought out a grilled pike fish for us. They definitely don't skimp on service, which is great!

After we made a significant dent to the stew, the waitress came by and poured in more broth and some zucchini. She then had a piece of dough that she tore by hand and put into the stew. We let it simmer for a bit and then ate the soo jae bi.

We were about to explode at this point, but the meal wasn't over. They took out all of the soo jae bi and put it in a separate bowl and added some rice, seaweed, kimchi and bean powder and made fried rice for us. No matter how full one is, there is a tiny, tiny area of your stomach that is reserved for kimchi fried rice and for such occasions. So we tapped into that area of our stomach and ate most of the fried rice. It was tasty. We would have preferred it had it gotten more crispy but they turned off the heat before that could happen. They brought out dongchimi kimchi for you to eat with this, which was really good. It helped tone down the spiciness.

At the end of the meal, they gave us rice punch, which was really good too. They had excellent service overall. I would definitely come back again. It was just a nice change from the usual Korean BBQ and it is a hearty meal to eat especially with the weather getting colder in California, finally!

We asked the waiter if there were multiple Ondal's since we were at Ondal 2. He said that there was another one in LA and one in Garden Grove. It originally started out within the same family, but different family members branched out with the different locations. He said that the menu was slightly different at each place too. Pete's friend who introduced us to this place, specifically told us to go to Ondal 2, so we just followed her advice. I can't speak for the other places since I've never been, but I'm curious to see what's different about them. I'll let you guys know if I hear any more info. Till then, enjoy Ondal 2, it will not disappoint.

Ondal 2

4566 W Washington Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90016

Post-10K Brunch at Cora's Coffee Shoppe - Santa Monica, CA

I ran a 10K this weekend with my friend Juanitah. I'm so proud of us! After the run, I felt oddly nauseous yet ravenously hungry all at the same time. I had looked up some brunch options in Santa Monica the day before and narrowed it down between Cora's Coffee Shoppe and Amelia's Espresso and Panini. In the first mile of the 10K, I distinctly remembered passing by Amelia's (clearly I was focused during my run), so we headed back down to Main Street, but they weren't open yet. Since we were starving, we decided to check out Cora's instead. If you're going up north on Ocean Avenue. It'll will be on your left hand side right before the Lowes Hotel. It basically looks like a square concrete structure with a little retro neon sign on top. You can't miss it.

The building itself is tiny so most of the tables are in the outside patio area. After a bit of a wait, since the place is quite small, we got seated at one of the small tables inside the coffee shoppe. You walk in and there are two two-person tables to the left and right of the door and there's a long counter where you can sit. Half of the square building is pretty much the kitchen. It is quite a feat in space maximization. They even had a small rotisserie oven that I was drooling at. I think Cora's is what my apartment is going to look like one day if I ever buy a place in Santa Monica. A 400 sq. ft apartment with half of it belonging to the kitchen with its own rotisserie oven ... why not add a pizza oven while we're at it. A girl can dream, right? =)

Now to the food. I had my heart set on the Orange Blueberry Pancakes even before I stepped foot into the restaurant because I had heard that they were pretty spectacular and I saw a few orders go by and they looked pretty darn tasty but my eyes kept getting fixated on the Wagyu "Kobe" Style Beef Burger. Who craves a burger at 10 in the morning? Apparently, soomeenshee after a run. Again, it was the half nausea, half delusional state that I was in.

The burger was huge. Do you see that beef patty covered in cheese?

It almost looks like another bun. That's how big it was. I'm kind of sad to say though that I was a bit disappointed. I know it's not a real Kobe burger, but it's gotta be different, right? Maybe I'm just not a beef connoisseur, but it didn't taste any different. Maybe if there was a side to side comparison I could tell but it tasted like a regular burger to me. Their interpretation of french fries was interesting. It was a baked potato that they cut into a thick slice and it almost looked like they pressed it down in a cast iron skillet, hence it's smashed appearance.

Juanitah got the Burrata Caprese Omelette. Doesn't the name alone sound tasty? Yum.

The omelette was really good. The burrata was sandwiched in between the omelette and there was a salad of chopped heirloom tomatoes and basil sprinkled on top. The eggs were nice and fluffy, the cheese mellow and divine and the heirloom tomatoes fresh and ripe. Perfection on a plate. The omelette also came with the thick slice of potato and a piece of toast. I don't really remember the potato or the toast, they all became afterthoughts. I think the saving grace for the toast were the jars of homemade jams on the table. Each table had small jars of strawberry jam, rhubarb jam and orange marmalade. I sampled each one of course and they were all very good. Homemade jam makes me happy.

Their menu says that they use fresh produce and try to use organic products when possible. Their efforts really show and shine in items like their Burrata Caprese Omelette. I would definitely come back for the omelette and I'll have to try the Orange Blueberry Pancakes next time. For those that are not brunch fans, they had pasta, tacos, quesadillas, paninis, salads and other meat entrees as well. I didn't try their coffee, but a lot of people seemed to pick up some coffee to go as well. Next time you're in the neighborhood, keep an eye out for that neon sign and stop by.

Cora's Coffee Shoppe

1802 Ocean Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401-3216

Course 2: A Glutton for Punishment

After complaining about making batches of Crisco frosting and having to clean out the little tips after each class, I signed up for course 2. Cake decorating was a lot more work than I expected and there's a lot of prep and cleaning time that goes into this, but I figure I will never pick this up again if I don't continue and finish all the classes, so I bit the bullet and signed up for another month.

The funny thing is that I was clearly the only person that felt the same way, because I was the only one in class yesterday. Yes, just me and Thelma. We kept waiting and waiting since we moved up the class 30 minutes before our last session, but no one ended up showing up. So I ended up having a private lesson for 2 hours with my teacher. We had a good time just chatting. I learned more about her job as a cake decorator and also about being a Wilton cake decorating instructor. Apparently they have a yearly conference for those that want to become an instructor. After a month of class, I can confidently say my talents are not in cake decorating, but I'm having fun with it.

Since I was being watched more closely this time around, I didn't have a chance to take that many pictures. Last week we did roses on the flower nails, so this time she showed me how to do little rose buds. You first start with the base petal which looks like a little fan. The trick is that you have to have it fan upwards, so it looks like one complete unit once you add the front petal.

Then to the base petal, you add the main petal, which gives it the rosebud look. You literally just squeeze a bit of the frosting out and it miraculously folds over and looks like a bud. It's sooo cool!
Here's the aerial view of the rose bud on your left. The one in the middle and to the right are examples of modified rosebuds that Thelma will make if she has to decorate a huge cake. She says in any given day, she decorates 20 to 30 cakes. Could you imagine?
Since I was the only one in class, she kept on insisting I practice, practice, practice, so I went to town with the rosebuds.

We then went over what we would be doing for the next three weeks. She showed me how to make chrysanthemums. You have to pipe each leaf. This one kills your hands. No one is allowed to request this on any cake I make for you. It's off limits ... it's on the do not mention list. This flower is almost guaranteed to cause arthritic hands.

Here's a blurry picture of what the chrysanthemum looks like from the side. Look and admire carefully, because you will never see a picture of a chrysanthemum flower made by me every again. =)

Here's a preview of the different flowers we'll be making this month.

The great thing is that we are going to be using royal icing to make these flowers and since it's made out of sugar and water, it turns into sugar flowers that you can keep with you for awhile. So throughout the three weeks, we'll be making different flower patterns and then incorporating them into a final cake we'll be making on the last day of class.

I'm supposed to make a batch of royal icing for class this week and she warned me that my mixer might break, that's how hard the consistency is. My poor mixer. It's getting quite a lot of use these days from all the frosting and the loads of baking I'm doing. My friend Mare requested pumpkin bread so I whipped up a batch yesterday. I think I'll modify the recipe a bit next time, but it came out great. And the best part is, I used applesauce instead of butter or oil, so it's not that bad for you. I'll post pictures soon.

Soomeenshee's Attempt at Lebanese Style Stuffed Eggplant

So remember how I have a bag full of eggplants from this weekend. Well I had about 9 bambino (also called Baby Bell) eggplants and about 15 small Japanese eggplants. It's a lot of eggplants to cook up. I thought of doing a spicy stir fry with the Japanese eggplants but had no idea what to do with the bambinos. I'm sure these would be perfect candidates for Eggplant Parmesan, but that's so boring and I'm not the biggest fan. So I was perusing through the Gourmet cookbook and found a Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant dip recipe and also found a recipe online for just a simple Baked Eggplant by Mario Batali. I then checked on one of my favorite blogs, the Smitten Kitchen and lo and behold she had a new post about Lebanese Style Stuffed Eggplant. I was even more excited to find out that it was from Gourmet's website. I also happened to have the TV on this morning and Alton Brown was on some morning talk show slicing up grilled eggplants to look like pasta. I felt the eggplant gods were in my favor this morning. =)

Disclaimer: Soomeenshee made several improvisations to the original recipe. First, this recipe called for 6 (5- to 6- inch long) eggplants. I didn't have 6 eggplants, I had 9 and most of them were smaller than what they recommended, so I figured, I could make up for the size by just using more eggplant. But this ended up crowding my skillet, so I ended up needing to use another pan and thus needing more sauce and tomatoes. I also didn't have pine nuts on hand, so I substituted carrots because it was in my fridge and who doesn't like carrots and onions together. I also substituted long-grain rice for short-grain rice because I didn't have it at home. Lastly, I added some red chili flakes. I don't know if Lebanese people use red chili flakes, but I like lots of spice, so I added it.

Lebanese Style Stuffed Eggplant

adapted from Gourmet magazine

Ingredients

6 (5- to 6-inch long) bambino (also called Baby Bell) eggplants (about 6 oz each)

1/2 cup long-grain or jasmine rice (I used short-grain b/c that's what I had on hand)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

6 tablespoons of finely chopped carrots (original recipe called for 3 tablespoons of pine nuts)

3 cups chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 (14 1/2 oz) cans of diced tomatoes in juice

3/4 lb ground lamb or beef chuck (not lean)

1 teaspoon ground allspice

3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 lemon

3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

red pepper flakes (optional)

Slice the ends of the eggplants and hollow out each eggplant with a melon-ball cutter, working from the bottom end and leaving about 1/3 inch eggplant flesh along the interior walls. I didn't have a melon-ball cutter, so I used a small spoon and basically made 4 indentation as follows and then hollowed out the eggplant.

The original recipe didn't call for this, but I salted the insides of the eggplant. I hear that salting the eggplant can get rid of the bitterness (thanks Alton Brown!) so that's what I did.

Rinse rice under cold water until water runs clear. Drain well. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Saute the onions, carrots and garlic, stirring occasionally, until golden, 6 to 8 minutes. I added my rice to this mixture and let it soak up the tasty juices. Transfer the onion and rice mixture to another bowl.

To the skillet, add stock, tomatoes, 3/4 tsp salt, a couple dashes of red chili flakes and 1/4 tsp ground black pepper and simmer, uncovered, while you quickly stuff the eggplants. Add rice, meat, allspice, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper to the bowl with the onion mixture and mix well with your hands.

Stuff the eggplant with the meat mixture, being careful not to pack to the brim (the rice will expand a bit during cooking). Transfer the stuffed eggplants to the skillet with tomato sauce and simmer, covered, carefully turning once, until rice is cooked through, 50 minutes to 1 hour (cut 1 in half to test). Don't worry if the sauce seems watery, it will cook down a lot. I made the mistake of waiting for it to cook down a bit before adding the eggplants and had to add cups of water because the sauce had evaporated.

I ended up having to use the skillet as well as a separate pot to fit the rest of my eggplants. I used an extra can of tomatoes, but I like a lot of sauce so it turned out perfectly.

If the sauce is too watery, you can transfer the eggplant to a plate and boil the sauce separately, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, then adjust seasoning if necessary. Return the stuffed eggplant to the sauce.

Squeeze lemon over the dish and sprinkle with Italian parsley before serving. There you have it. A yummy Lebanese styled stuffed eggplant. The eggplant turns soft so you can dig right in with a spoon.

Update: I just ate the eggplant with some leftover beef bone soup and lots of kimchi. Who knew Lebanese and Korean food could be so good together. =)

Susina Bakery & Cafe - Los Angeles, CA

Susina Bakery & Cafe is one of my favorite bakeries in LA. I fortuitously discovered their Bear Blossom Cake a few years ago and have been a devoted fan since.

I almost forgot Halloween was coming up until I stepped into this place. They did a great job decorating.

I especially love the black birds on the lamps. We were here on a Friday night and there were a few couples and other smaller groups of people there but it wasn't crowded at all. We each got a dessert and tea to share. My friend got a slice of the Bear Blossom Cake and a pot of the White Coconut Creme tea and I got the banana cream pie and a pot of Apricot Escape. I loved that they had interesting decaffeinated teas selections besides the usual chamomile.

Here's a pic of the individual sized banana cream pie. I'm not sure how one person can polish this off by him or herself, but this made for an excellent breakfast treat the next day. =)
I've always stuck with the tried and true, but since my friend got the cake, I finally got to try something new. It consisted of a shortbread cookie crust, coated with a thin layer of chocolate. The pie had a thin layer of banana pudding, packed with sliced bananas and a thin smear of whipped cream with chocolate shavings on top. From the picture you can see the slices of banana peeking out at you.

You know how most banana pies are basically 2 layers - one thick layer of banana pudding, maybe a banana here and there, if you are lucky, and an equally thick layer of whipped cream? This pie is one of the few banana cream pies out there with more bananas than filing in it. That said, you really have to be in the banana mood for this pie, otherwise it's banana overload. Pretty much every bite you take consists of a slice of banana with some trimmings on them. The banana definitely takes center stage in this pie.

Next for my all time favorite, the Bear Blossom Cake. I have no clue why it's called a Bear Blossom, but it's three layers of vanilla sponge cake goodness brushed with orange liqueur, filled with white chocolate mousse and fresh blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. What puts this cake over the top for me is the crumbled meringue and white chocolate shavings on the side and top of the cakes. It's light and fluffy without being overly sweet. It literally melts in your mouth.

I know people are big fans of Sweet Lady Jane's Triple Berry Cake. SLJ's TBC has been the family go to cake for all special occasions in the past, but I never quite enjoyed it as much as some other people. I loved the concept of fresh berries in a cake, like strawberry shortcake, but SLJ's always tasted a bit heavy for me. The yellow butter cake, which is the base of the cake also has a tendency to taste dry from time to time. But that's why Susina's Bear Blossom Cake is so perfect because it's a sponge cake that has been brushed with orange liqueur so the cake stays moist. The mousse filling is also lighter than the whipped cream that is used in SLJ's. The combination of the moist cake, the lighter mousse and the melt in your mouth flecks of broken meringue on the outside makes for a perfect cake. I'm a little peeved, I never thought of this myself. hahaha.

I seriously will make any excuse to go to Susina and eat this cake, or any dessert for that matter. Anyone in the mood for cake?

Susina Bakery & Cafe

7122 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

www.susinabakery.com