The Pastry

4 Photos

by Ingrid Peterson
on Monday, February 04, 2008 12:00 AM

This small storefront along Hongfeng Lu's new development is noticeably lacking in flowery, candy stripe cuteness. Instead, the clean lines and brown and white interior give its cake center stage and professional young men greet you at the door. The Pastry isn't limited to cakes and cookies, there's also a modest but comprehensive bread selection, and fine chocolates for sale. Everything from tiramisu to hand dipped chocolates are made on premise in small batches for freshness.

Onto the goods! All items I sampled from the pastry counter were fresh, and smacked of true quality ingredients. Cakes were available by the slice or whole (by special order). The fruity mousse had flare, but I thought the best looking had to be the hazelnut cake. It's cream and dense hazelnut layers stood vertically at attention, flavor was sophisticated, intensely sweet and nutty. If you are looking for a cake to please all ages, try the Black Forest. Big black cherries and generous chocolate folds top mild layers of cream and chocolate cake. The Pastry's walnut brownie, 22rmb, is served in huge share-friendly wedges. Makes you wonder if you'll ever settle for the Starbucks version again.

The breads covered all the important bases. There were square loaves of fluffy sandwich bread, hearty and heavy Bavarian ryes (35rmb), and airy baguettes (12rmb). The prices were moderate to high, but there were some unique finds. The dense wheat bread with figs was worth the extra dough.

The Pastry transforms fine Swiss chocolate into truffles, various shapes made with antique moulds, and some unbelievably rich hot chocolate. Truffles are available for 8rmb apiece, or 72rmb for box of 9. The Valentine's box for 108rmb seems appropriate for a chocoholic man or woman, thanks to the understated box design. Don't expect to walk in February 14th after work and pick one up though, order ahead to ensure brownie points from your ai ren.