Ling

Darn...I'll be in Seattle on Friday.

Happy Date (in the complex across from Richmond Center) also has good egg tarts. Their almond cookies are pretty "meh" though... Hey, those walnut napoleons are my favourite treat from Anna's! However, I'm not a fan of those Chinese-style mousse cakes. They are too light for my tastes...it's like eating air. But I think Anna does the best job with them. (Give me a big wedge of something dark, chocolate-y and rich anyday. )

no apologies needed....what a beautiful cake you made!

stuff the figs with ganache, and then dip the bottom of the fig in ganache would make a lovely garnish for a chocolate dessert! I'm actually going to do this soon for a special dinner I'm making.

My friend will be driving, so it looks like I'll be going to Fran's as well. I've already decided on the caramel with dark chocolate and grey salt. Mmm...salted caramels. Glad to hear the two bakeries are not too far from one another! I plan to take pictures of the baked goods and I'll post them in this thread when I get back.

My parents get the pastries from the Richmond location. The cocktail buns always look very pale...I prefer a dark crust like the ones from Keefer. The Portuguese tart from Michele's looks really good...I'm liking the browned edges.

Oh yes, I've heard of Dahlia! Is it relatively close to Macrina? Maybe I'll stop at both. Sounds like I'll have to fit in the coconut cream pie from Dahlia in my eating schedule. How are their chocolate desserts? Also, is Fran's Chocolates close by these bakeries? I've read her cookbook and I'm dying to try the treats there.

I'll be in Seattle next week checking out Salumi, hitting up Pike Market, and shopping. I'm looking for a good midday treat from a bakery that's close to where I'll be (downtown?) and isn't too difficult to find, since I'm unfamiliar with the city. Is there a particular bakery that's known for something I shouldn't miss? Thanks.

especially like the last one, zucchini mama

still workin' on those chocolate cakes I made last week and decided not to use for my birthday cake...only 1 cake left! I ate it straight from the freezer. There's a lot of fat in the recipe so it was still quite soft.

^Tapenade? I've eaten there...

^I actually don't think the sake that's served in the bamboo tastes very good. I'd rather get a bottle of something that tastes better to me...but then again, I don't know much about sake.

I'm not too impressed by Pine House. Lots of bready dough in their cocktail buns, and the filling is kind of mediocre. I like the filling to be quite salty and buttery-tasting, and the coconut texture to be quite fine.

YAY! I have a FLAVOUR COMBINATION TWIN! (Only on Egullet would you hear something as geeky as that..haha!) Glad I could help!

You could top a plain cheesecake with a caramel apple topping...just cook it over the stovetop, and arrange the slices in concentric circles on the cheesecake. Or how about baking a gingerbread cake, mixing cooked pears and pastry cream, and layering it with the cake? You could frost it with cinnamon buttercream. A "homey" dessert could be a standard apple coffee cake, with cinnamon streusel topping drizzled with a thick caramel sauce. How about a marzipan and pear cake?

This looks so tasty! All that lovely sausage...mmm. What's that sauce covered mound on the right side of the plate? Some sort of mashed tuber?

Woohoo! I'm so there! Will report back as soon as I get off work. Cocktail buns are one of my favourite Chinese pastry buns! I haven't had them recently, but I remember my favourites came from Keefer Bakery in Chinatown. Lots of buttery filling, and it was a bit saltier than the filling from other bakeries. too. (And Keefer also has my favourite Chinese bun--dao sa yong--a deep fried, sugar-coated, red bean paste filled lovely ball of greasy doughy goodness.)

Especially when the shoo-flies are out of season, and all you can get is canned. ← I had a monster of a date square today. I swear, it was like a 4" x 4" cube! It was really difficult to eat.

This is a recipe I've adapted from a pumpkin mousse recipe. (I also adjusted the amount of spices and vanilla from the original recipe by increasing the amounts slightly. Also, the original recipe called for 3/4 cup of white sugar, but I decreased it to account for the natural sweetness in the sweet potatoes, and use brown sugar because I like the flavour. ) Sweet Potato mousse Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups cooked sweet potato, pureed until smooth 1 1/2 cups whipping cream 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed 5 egg yolks 2 tsp. vanilla extract 2 tbsp. dark rum 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 3/4 tsp. ground ginger 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/8 tsp. ground allspice pinch of salt 1. Whisk 3/4 cups whipping cream, sugar, and yolks in a saucepan until thickened over medium heat. 2. Transfer mixture to a large boil, and mix in the sweet potato, rum, vanilla, salt, and spices. Refrigerate until cold, about an hour. 3. Beat the remaining whipping cream until stiff peaks, and fold into the sweet potato mixture. 4. Refrigerate the mousse for at least 4 hours, and up to a day before serving.

Cacao Berry chocolate

^Actually, my birthday is on the 30th. That was a trial cake I made.

Aww...that was what I was going to suggest! I actually liked the idea about making croutons out of the stuffing. I don't think it would be too difficult--just cube the stuffing and dry them out a bit on a baking sheet. Plus, if it's a sausage stuffing, you're building some much needed (imo, anyway) umami into your plate of greens. And sausage browns up nice and crisp, providing your croutons with a bit of crunch! I'm sure you could do lots of things with sweet potatoes besides sweet potato pie. How about sweet potato mousse with cinnamon whipped cream, or sweet potato cheesecake with a gingersnap crust? Cranberries would also be simple to incorporate into dessert. A cranberry-gingerbread trifle with a spiced whipped cream sounds pretty good. Or a pumpkin and cranberry swirled cheesecake. Or maybe a riff on those "icebox" cakes (with the layers of chocolate wafers and cream) by using gingersnaps and a pumpkin mousse or a cranberry mousse?

My metabolism is failing me...I packed on quite a few pounds in the summer. You're welcome to borrow it, but I think there's a waiting list floating around on Egullet somewhere. (Oh yeah, and you can serve that flourless chocolate cake with a side of whipped cream, chocolate mousse, and maybe some caramelized hazelnuts. A nice, thick river of chocolate ganache would be nice too!)

cassoleut flourless chocolate cakes creme brulees sausage stuffing potatoes dauphinoise (sp?) peanut butter cookies shortbread braised pork belly

chocolate cupcake and frozen cookie dough (gingersnap) mmm....!