Cioccolato

Good morning.  I am busy working away on re-formatting two of my marketing classes and close to the launch of a new digital magazine.  Did I tell you about the project?  You will get to see a sneak peak soon and the full version by end of July.  The topic of the digital magazine is entertaining (at home) globally and I have been working with a really talented graphic designer who has made the visual process a lot more enjoyable than I could have ever imagined.

In my role as marketing lecturer, I have to admit, it is quite nice to have the summer “off” so I have time to think about how to better present material, make my business classes more interactive, creative and fun for my undergrad students in September.  I am surprised by how creative the process is to develop and create lesson plan decks.

On to more visually attractive topics this morning: How amazing is this bakery/pastry shop/decor spot in Mexico City?  It reminds me of the stylish Mexico City macaron place I wrote about two years ago called Theurel and Thomas.  Cioccolato (website under development) is shiny and white with a laboratory-esque feel.  The interiors are kicked up a notch with a heavy dose of  colour, fun and playfulness as a result of the plentiful eye candy around the shop from the pictures on the wall to the center “work bench/island” that looks like it had a bucket of pink paint or icing was dumped down its side leg.   The branding and interiors were done by a fabulous firm named Savvy Studio (based in Nuevo Leon, Mexico) who has also worked on some cool projects like Villa de Patos and Costa Nueva. Why am I not in Mexico City enjoying all of these fun restaurants and bakeries?  As a blogger, the travel list gets longer and longer by the day….

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

The Doughnut Vault

Happy Monday.  I am back in Prague after spending a couple days extra hot days  in Vienna with our house guests.  We had 35 degree plus weather every day but still managed to tour new parts of the city and stay cool with lots of gelato (even tried poppy seed gelato)!

Before I delve into Vienna later this week, I wanted to  briefly blog about the Doughnut Vault in Chicago.  This place looks awesome for a couple reasons.

#1 The Doughnut Vault makes fresh, home made doughnuts in interesting mouthwatering flavours such as Dreamsicle, Coconut Old Fashioned, Powdered Sugar Stack, and Double Chocolate Yellow Cake (to name a few)….

#2 The Doughnut Vault close after they sell out of their doughnuts- which is usually sometime before noon!  Using various forms of social media these doughnut experts alert customers what doughnut flavours (their blog/Twitter) they will have on offer that day and how long the line up is out the door. Brilliant digital marketing!

If you are not in Chicago, or don’t have a plan to visit the city, I thought I would provide you with a visual of the Doughnut Vault process.  Below is a beautiful time-lapsed video to illustrate the company’s popularity and impressive sell out rate.

Doughnut Vault Timelapse from Mark Pallman on Vimeo.

And don’t think I would leave you without some pictures!?!

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

Fluro Beads + Japanese Donuts

There is something about these handmade beads that are speaking to me today.  Jess, from LoveLoveCollective in Brisbane, Australia makes them and I love their shape.  They remind me of little donuts! (found on Etsy)

Photo Source: 1, 2, 3

Speaking of donuts, have you heard of Hara donuts in Japan?   Do you see the similarities? These donuts are soy based and less sweet than what you would get if you bit into a Krispy Kreme, but fluffy and doughy.

Photo Source 1, 2, 3

I am off to Vienna next week for a quick jaunt, so be sure to check back on new Vienna city updates.

Superette

What a bummer for me.  I woke up on Saturday morning to find out that my fridge died.  It was off the entire night so I had to clean all the perishable items out.  As a result, my baking plans for blueberry pie had to be shelved as I could not store dairy products.   I did salvage my two blocks of butter and resourcefully turned them into a batch of shortbread before they turned.

On a happier design note, I love everything about the branding, retail merch and cafe interior of Superette, a neighbourhood cafe in Cape Town, South Africa.  The individuals behind Superette also run Neighbourgoods Market– another cool food/retail concept in Cape Town.

Photo Source: 1 logo, 2-8 from Superette

The hybrid restaurant, bakery, grocery store, and retail store has always been a favourite of mine.  Daylesford Organic in London is another example of this hybrid concept.  Superette offers sandwiches, salads, breakfast, baked goods and a supper club, which is something a bit different.  Those plates of theirs are adorable (last picture).  I would love a set.

Larnicol

The weekend is here and I could not be happier.  While the weather continues to push 25 degrees in Prague, there is finally a breeze which makes nights a bit more comfortable sans a/c.

A couple weeks ago when I was in Paris, I forgot to blog about a cool experience I had at a chocolate store.  What made me remember is that I still have a small (but melting) bag of chocolate covered cherries from this place and as I was thinking about eating on, a light bulb went off in my brain.

I did my fair share of sampling sweets around the city: A macaron here, a chocolate there, a palmier here… you get the picture.  I don’t think I had a bad “sample” anywhere but there were a few spots that stood out from the rest.  One of which was La Maison Georges Larnicol.  Are you acquainted with this place?  It is a chocolate store with two locations in Paris (I visited the one on rue de Rivoli (4th)) that offers customers an interactive chocolate experience:  SELF SERVE.

Photo Source: 1

All of the chocolates are displayed in self-sever, bulk barn-esque bins where you can mix and match whatever items you want and simply pay by weight.  You can cross over between chocolates, caramels and the famed Kouign amann cakes (a special pastry originating from Brittany that tastes like a cinnamon roll, a palmier and a stick of butter rolled together).  If you are curious about these Kouign amann, I would recommend reading David Lebovitz’s post on this special delicacy and his experience at Larnicol.  I tasted half of one just to have the experience.  The Kouignette was dense, heavy and would have tasted better warmed up to make the sugar/butter/caramel gooier.

Photo Source: 2

In my experience roaming the chocolate stores of Paris, there is a beautiful glass case between you and your chocolate.  Not here.  The only things behind an official glass case are the macarons.  Otherwise it is a chocolate free-for-all.  The entire perimeter of the store is filled with chocolate covered everything, sometimes three or four bins deep, not to mention the displays of chocolate sculptures, products and gifts around the shelves and centre display cases.

 Photo Source: 3

Have a wonderful weekend.  Meet you back here next week.

Let me know what you tasted at Larnicol if you have been.

(Cup)cake Amsterdam

Did I ever tell you about my cake tasting experience in Amsterdam when I was originally planning my destination wedding?  As a diligent researcher I spent my time finding different bakeries in the city, plotted them all out in Google Maps and reached out to a few who I thought would fit the bill.  In the short period of time I spent in the city I corresponded with a few and only visited one (actually two- but that is part of the story) for a tasting.

Our tasting at the first place was quite standard.  We discussed cake expectations, number of guests and potential flavours.  What I didn’t realize before speaking with the baker was how vastly different Dutch wedding cakes were from North American wedding cakes.  On the outside the cakes look the same, but the type of cake and filling that is used is different.  If you are expecting a spongier, moist consistency with buttercream, think again.  I tried something delicious called (pardon my French) called a “chocolate slut” that was the consistency of a dense chocolate brownie with dried cherries and nuts.  Delicious, but not what I imagine in a wedding cake.  The same goes for the version of carrot cake I tried.  Decent tasting but it was missing all the spices, the spongy texture and the cream cheese icing.  I also sampled a few vanilla cake items with creams and mousses inside.  Not the texture for me.  Fundamentally, there was nothing wrong with what we tasted, it just wasn’t right for us.

On my second last day of wedding planning, discouraged and upset over the thought of not having a delicious piece of cake I could identify with at my wedding, I found Zoe at Cake Amsterdam.  Zoe is a New York City expat living and running a successful baking/catering business inc the city.  When I contacted her, she was nice enough to squeeze my fiance and I in for a tasting (I got hopelessly lost trying to find the shop along the canals of the RLD) and finally, our taste buds were at peace.  We sampled a round of cupcakes in death by chocolate, lemon coconut, carrot cake, red velvet, and Dutch orange (vanilla cake with an orange citrus buttercream).  All flavour combinations were outstanding, the cake was the right consistency and the buttercream was sweet and not too buttery.

We were so pleased that we had found a North American baker living in Amsterdam and had a lovely baking conversation during our tasting in her shop.

Photo Source: Cake Amsterdam

While my excitement may be bordering overkill, if you have lived as an expat anywhere, sometimes when you find something familiar to the palate you appreciate it just a bit more.  We were sorry that we weren’t able to work with Zoe in the end, as we moved the wedding back to Toronto, but we look forward to the next time we are in the city.  Her bakery is not to be missed if you are craving a North American style (cup)cake.