Lovely little cakes

Bien sur, the chocolates in Brussels were divine. But so were the cakes—at least the ones I had from Saint-Aulaye.

The very charming owner of this French patisserie in Ixelles, Jean-Louis Barré, was proud of his offerings. Not only the chocolates created in-house by Belgian Chocolate Master Ryan Stevenson, but the traditional tarts and gateaux as well.

With good reason.




He boasted that the bakery uses more butter in their croissants than any other bakery in Brussels. As I was there in the afternoon, I didn’t sample any veinnoiserie. But I took home (and shamelessly annihilated) a few cakes, including…

The Mikado: Chocolate mousse with roasted pecan nuts, on a thick chocolate brownie layer with Guérande rock salt.

And The Vegas: Dark chocolate mousse with caramel cream and roasted hazelnut biscuit.

I think the case for visiting Brussels is pretty clear, n'est-ce pas??

A sampling from Dominique Ansel

I held out three long weeks before sampling the newest kouign amann in the city.

Friday morning was Breakfast Club with Bennie. We had heard about the perfectly petite egg sandwiches at Soho newcomer Dominique Ansel, which was enough to get us to eschew Peels or Morandi.

And while I wouldn’t turn my nose up at this billowy sandwich smothered in melted Gruyère...


...it clearly took a back seat to the sweets.

Ansel is a former pastry chef at Daniel and Fauchon. Though extremely pricey, his viennoiseries are to die for.


Dominique's Kouign Amanns (DKAs), for example, are the most buttery baked bits you will ever put in your mouth, made chewy and sweet from caramelized sugar.


And the almond croissants are heavy hitters, laden with marzipan and dusted with slabs of sugary crumble and almond slivers.



A brilliant way to begin the day. And clearly...



... the place where I’ll go to pretend I’m in Paris once in awhile.

This. Is. Big.

Ladurée is coming to New York, mes amis! In two months’ time, I will be able to have a salted caramel macaron on a whim.

I wonder if they’ll also have the Religeuse, the Savarin Chantilly, or the luscious Saint-Honoré?



Viennoiserie?


Or just…

…lovely, lovely macarons.

(And, psst... could M. Hermé be far behind??)

Le Boulanger des Invalides

As I wrote for HIP, the beauty of a great city is you’re never done with it; there’s always something you still haven’t discovered. And while I feel like I became intimately familiar with many of the city’s boulangeries in my two-year stint—a little too familiar with some—grace à my friend Britta, I discovered a gem in the 7eme while I was there last month: Le Boulanger des Invalides.


It’s a Belle Epoque beauty, crunched on a corner of the sprawling Avenue de Villars. We sat for savory tarts and watched the never-ending line of come in for takeaway lunches of quiche, sandwiches and salads. My own Provencal tart was pitch-perfect: a thin, crisp pastry, topped with grilled eggplant and sweet tomatoes, seasoned perfectly.

But of course, it’s all about the desserts.

They had sweet praliné escargots—only the mini ones lasted until the lunch hour.

Of course I had to sample, hoping for the same taste of heaven that the Praluline gave me. But not quite.

But there were plenty of pain aux raisins and pain au chocolat.


Spreads of beautiful tarts, with those perfectly fanned fruits, dusted in confectioners sugar or drizzled in chocolate.


Along with some more atypical gateaux and tartlettes…



In other words, a huge selection. Enough to keep me coming back again and again.

L'escargot aux praliné

Some Parisian pastries are elegant and exquisite. Others, like Du Pain et Des Idée's escargot aux praliné are even more beautiful in their simple, rustic ways.

A trio of treats to try

I have my eating cut out for me this weekend. First on the agenda is Cowgirl's Baking.


With cupcake flavors like Elvis (chocolate cake with chocolate chips, banana filling and peanut butter frosting), French Toast (cinnamon vanilla cake with butter maple frosting) and Coffee & Donuts (vanilla cake soaked in coffee with coffee frosting and a mini doughnut on top), how could I not?

Tribeca has a whole bunch of bakeries I'm dying to try, including the newish Josephine, opened by two Frenchies (mom and daughter), featuring macarons, tarts and viennoiseries.

And I'm even keen to try Magnolia again.


The pistachio Priscilla cupcake sounds—and looks—pretty over the top.

Photo credits: Cowgirls, DNAinfo.com; Josephine, Tribeca Citizen; Magnolia, Genevieve Rafter Keddy

The most charming baker in Paris

Christophe Vasseur confesses: “I’ve always been good with my hands.”

Add this to the fact that he wanted to quit school at the age of 12 to become a baker—who were like magicians to him, “transforming something so simple into something so good and beautiful with their hands.”—and it makes sense that he’s running one of the most esteemed and delicious bakeries in town: Du Pain et des Idées.

Where to begin? With the bread? (Bonne idée!)

There’s the famous pain des amis, a wonderfully slightly nutty flatbread that is now served at Alain Ducasse’s Plaza Athénée restaurant.

Le Rabelais, a dense brioche with saffron, honey and walnuts.

The mini paves, jammed with deliciousness like sundried tomatoes or spinach and goat cheese.

But really, it’s all about the sweets, isn’t it?

Just look at his viennoiseries: millions of layers of crisp and flaky dreaminess.


They take 34 hours to make. Of course they do, he makes his own (divine) pastry dough.


The chausson aux pommes, made with real apples, not minced jam.

And, my favorite, the tendresse aux pommes, a dense brioche flan with raisins and apples and cinnamon.


Greedy me, I am already plotting my return visit so I can get my own hands on more.