Eat Cake Cafe, Rowland Heights, CA

I had a wonderful weekend of meeting up with family and friends.  Over the weekend, my sister bought me some very "fancy" and good looking petite cakes from a new bakery, called Eat Cake Cafe in Rowland Heights, Ca.  The cakes are all so cute and hard for me to destroy them and put them in my mouth. 

Bottom left - Mango Mousse Cake
Top left - Italian Tiramisu Cake
Bottom right - Red Bean Cake
Top right - Green Tea Chiffon Cake

Just like its fellow bakeries, 85 degree (Taiwanese mixed with Western) and Cream Pan (Japanese mixed with Western), this is a Korean fusion bakery.  A lot of their creations are inspired by Asian or tropical ingredients (green tea, passion fruit, red beans, mango...), but also they have a lot of Western inspired cakes, cookies and pastries, such as well decorated sugar cookies, strawberry short cakes, tiramisu... 

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

Tiramisu

Inside of the cake

My sister got me a total of four cakes to try out - Mango Mousse cake, Italian Tiramisu, Red Bean Cake and Green Tea Chiffon Cake. The Mango Mousse Cake was heavenly good - very refreshing, light and moist cake.  The Tiramisu Cake with chocolate wrapped around and inside of the cake was a creamy body with a hint of alcohol in it (so sexy).  The Green Tea Chiffon Cake was light, flavorful and fluffy. And last but not the least, the Red Bean Cake was absolutely delightful.  I got lucky to have my sister delivered the cakes for me this time.  I will definitely check them out in person the next time when I am around the area. Based one what my sister and my foodies friends told me about this place and also all the reviews on yelp (4 and a half stars rating), I don't think I am going to be disappointed.  Even better, most of their pastries are gluten free and organic.  I didn't even notice I was eatting some amazing pastries without gluten.

Eat Cake Cafe

19705 E Colima Rd
Ste 6
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

(909) 468-2253
Hours: 

Hours:  Mon-Thu 7:30 am - 7:30 pm

  Fri 7:30 am - 9 pm

            Sat 9 am - 9 pm

(check out their website for more inforamtion and menu) 

P.S. More pictures will be uploaded soon, stay tuned!

Ice Cream Gallery

Summer has not officially arrived yet; however, the tempeature keeps going up each day.  Ice cream is a great way to cure the hotness outside.  If you are an aventurer, the ice creams I am going to introduce to you today will be your "cup of ice cream"=)

I went to Las Vegas during the Memorial Day weekend, and saw a big banner of Lobster Ice Cream at Lobster Me, located inside the Planet Hollywood hotel.  It caught my eyes immediately; unfortunately, we were so stuffed from our very romantic anniversary dinner at Eiffel Tower restaurant at the Paris hotel, so we didn't get a chance to try it.  That even better for adding me an extra reason to go back to Vegas this year=).

The same night, I read an article about an ice cream shop in Hong Kong.  They even take your taste buds farther - Except for their signature French lobster ice cream, they also offer the following unique favors:

French bacon and egg, black/white truffle, foie gras, Japanese sake and black sesame...Check out what the locals said about this ice cream place here.  Since we are going to Macau and Hong Kong this November, even though it might be a little too cold to have ice cream; I still want to put this place on my TO-DO LIST while I am in Hong Kong this winter.

(all pictures are from Yelp.com and OpenRice.com)
 

VG Donut and Bakery (Cardiff [San Diego County], CA)

Picture from Yelp

Picture from Yelp

As many of you know (or don't know), besides my growing cupcakes design and catering business, I am still working as a full timer at an environmental consultanting firm during the day.  One of our nicest and sweestest co-workers always bought us donuts and pastries from her dad's bakery in San Diego, California.  As soon as I saw the donuts I got distracted by them, and I had totally forgot to ask her about where her dad shop at and what the name of her dad shop is.  Finally, this week I asked! 

Blue berry butter milk donut

Inside the donut

VG Donuts and Bakery it is, located in the beautiful City of Cardiff in the County of San Diego, California, just by the beach (and she added you won't miss it because it's by the beach).  YES, I am sure I won't miss it, but not just because it is by the beach, it is because the long line outside the bakery as well!  I went on Yelp, City Search and their website and clearly her dad's bakery is the Top 2 donuts place in San Diego.  And according to the yelpers, people waited in line for hours for their donuts and pastries, so HOW YOU COULD MISS THIS PLACE when you see the lines outside of the shop and hey, four and a half stars on Yelp, it clearly said something speical about this place!  I asked her about a little background of her dad's shop.  She told me her great grandpa bought the bakery back to 1969, and since then her grandpa, her dad, her uncle and some of her cousins are working at the bakery (she worked there when she was in highschool too). 

Sometimes it's so easy we forget about how lucky we truly are.  We got so spoiled by this co-worker because we got free donuts and pastries delivered all the way from San Diego to our Irvine office almost every month.  And sometimes, she even took special orders (especially during holiday seasons), and delivered to us at the office.  Unfortunately, she just recently got transferred to our Carlsbad office since she wants to move closer to her family (o well, she will still be here in our Irvine office 2 days a week though...good news!).  I guess less donuts and pastries for us in the Irvine office.  But I am sure one of these days, I will stop by her shop and buy some yummy donuts to cure my cravings for their donuts.

*PS:  Their cake is also awesome too!

Cream Pan in Old Town Tustin, California

A year ago, I went to get my car fixed and randomly discovered this place in Old Town Tustin by accident.  Cream Pan, a Japanese bakery located in Old Town Tustin, California; if you are familiar with the area, this place is not too far away from the Japanese restaurant, Honda Ya (btw, they serve amazing Japanese food there). 

Thanks to technology!  I immediately went on my iPhone and see what those yelpers recommend to get at Cream Pan.  Everyone said their strawberry croissant is amazing!  And "yelp" (yup), they don't lie!  The custard fillings are so smooth, strawberry is so fresh and the croissant itself is crisply flaky on the outside, with clearly defined layers.  I surprised Mr. G by bringing him some strawberry croissants home, his picky mouth even praised how great they were and asked me to bring him some more the next time if I happen to be there again.

(*Note:  They also offer a big platter of their famous strawberry croissant [the size is a little smaller than the regular one]; that will be a good desert alternative to bring to a party if you want something different.)

Beside their strawberry croissant, I have also tried their banana chocolate croissant, a curry pan (this is kinda of like a round donut with curry potato filling) and a pork cutlet sandwich; they are all amazing.
 

They also have some other interesting Japanese influenced sandwiches and pastries.  So if you are in town, check them out! 

Cream Pan
602 El Camino Real
Tustin, CA 92780-4310
(714) 665-8239
Open Tue-Sun 7am-4pm