Tartine Bakery
I finally made a second trip to this quaint and cozy bakery cafe on Guerrero Street. There seems to always be a line winding around the corner outside their doors. I love that we get to line up right next to their kitchen and watch the staff work. I can’t get over the fact how big their mixers and how uniform the cakes and pastries are. Although the line was out the door, we managed to place an order and pay for our tarts within 15 minutes. People would probably buy up the bakery in bulk if they could! Tartine not only sells desserts but lots of bread and sandwiches. We bought the lemon tart and the banana cream tart.
I think the banana cream tart is my new favorite! It isn’t too sweet, but definitely rich. That flaky crust is secured with a thin layer of dark chocolate and some caramel drizzled on top. After that layer comes the banana and the rich custard which is then topped off with their homemade whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings. Delicious. The lemon tart was equally decadent! It was smaller than the banana cream tart and had a crumbly crust. The lemon custard was overly tart but was complimented marvelously with unsweetened whipped cream. It was a nice balance.
My friend, Kim, suggested that I’d try the morning buns, which will probably be my next purchase there. They have freshly baked bread too which I’d be excited to sample. I would highly recommend the tarts there! Each one tastes like it’s been handcrafted with love and care. Come by if you have 15-20 minutes to spare.
600 Guerrero St
(between 18th St & 19th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
Cako Cupcakes
I promise you I’m not hunting for cupcakes on a weekly basis! I’ve been lazy with posting my reviews. Diane and I stopped by for cupcakes in Downtown SF during a holiday shopping trip. It was cold outside and the trip was exhausting. There’s just too many people out! We were getting hungry and the logical idea was to get cupcakes! No it’s really not, but we caved for sweets (as usual).
Diane and I each bought 2 cupcakes. Diane chose the s’mores and the strawberry shortcake cupcakes. I chose the red velvet and s’mores cupcakes. Cako offered minis and an abundant range of flavors from dark chocolate to fruity pink lemonade. We opened our boxes in anticipation. Two cupcakes cost about $6.
Here are the strawberry shortcake and the s’mores cupcakes! So far so good, the ratio of frosting to cake looked great.
And the red velvet and the s’mores.
As delicious as the cupcakes looked, they tasted completely opposite of that. The cupcakes were not moist, and were rather dry. The frosting for the 3 flavors were just fine, but could not compensate for the cake. We didn’t have any hot beverages with us and that may have helped compliment our desserts just a bit.
If they had a bakery instead of a kiosk, I think I would visit that location and give them another chance. I hay have caught them on a bad day, who knows!
SusieCakes
I think I may have accidentally stumbled upon the best red velvet cake I have ever tasted so far. It sounds like an exaggeration but it’s really not. I actually scraped the frosting off the parchment paper— that’s how good it was and I’m usually not a fan of frosting. This picture also does not do this cake justice; although having a whole cake might…
SusieCakes is an adorable bakery in San Francisco on Chestnut St. They have two other locations in Northern California and four other places in Southern California. I was just passing by and the cakes and pretty pastel colored frostings caught my eye. It just tickled me pink seeing cupcakes, whoopie pies, cream pies, cookies, and glass cases of old fashioned cakes that alternated in layers and layers of cake and rich frosting. You can’t say no.
I bought a slice of their red velvet, seeing that most Yelp members recommended it. It was a good choice, guys! $5.50 for a slice. It wasn’t too sweet and the flavors complimented each other marvelously. The cake was moist and not too crumbly. The frosting had that tangy cream cheese that your taste buds would be searching for after every bite. It was just right. My next trip is going to be for the mint or strawberry cupcakes.
2109 Chestnut St
(between Steiner St & Pierce St)
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 474-2253, www.susiecakes.com
La Boulange was a quaint little cafe in North Beach (SF) that Lewis and I visited on our Saturday afternoon. I love these days because we can just sit and chat without worrying about work or going home early. Next to bookstores, I love sitting in cafes. I miss reading or relaxing in them. La Boulange had a great selection of different croissants and served their hot drinks in bowls instead of large mugs. It doesn’t overbearingly smell of coffee nor was it noisy. Everything was more like white noise.
We ordered a large chai latte, a pear and chocolate croissant, and an apple croissant. I’ve read about so many recipes with pear and chocolate together, I just had to try it. It was subtle, sweet, and it made me wish I knew how to make pastries like these. Bliss.
