Cake Run 4: Icing's Bakery and Cafe

Welcome to the 4th episode of Cake Run. For this wonderful Sunday evening, I shall give my two cents on a cake shop called Icing's. For someone like me who is a cream lover, hearing the word "icing" is already a red flag for me to march inside the shop and gaze upon the different selection of cakes.

As my usual dilemma, there are just so many cakes to choose from and I do not want to single handedly pick one and risk not trying out the others so I opted for two different slices. Out of whim, I decided to go for black and pink.

Cake Number 1: Pretty in Pink

Visual: Make no mistake. Contrary to its appearance, pretty in pink can actually be mistaken for a chocolate or a variety of that given the chocolate cream layer on top with matching black and white candy swirl. I think this is actually a marketing scheme of the makers to make one really take a second look at this creation and wonder, where is the pink?

Turns out it is just right below the black blanket of cream. At a glance, the layers are quite diversified. There’s your chocolate on top followed by cream which is then succeeded by strawberry bread, chocolate bread, chocolate cream and concluded by another strawberry breading. So in total, there are just two layers of pink out of the six and yet the pink really comes out in contrast of all the darker colors. Don’t you just love it when creators pull out a stunt like that just to catch your attention twice?

Reminds me of a debut I once attended wherein the color scheme is black and pink which seems strange since the color scheme of girls at my time who are about to come of age is usually pink and purple. Times are changing and eventually, I now prefer black and pink as a combination over pink and purple.

Taste: The taste of chocolate dominated. You have to eat it layer by layer to actually have a better appreciation of the strawberries that pale in taste when eaten altogether with the chocolate. As I delicately separate each level with my teaspoon, I cannot help but feel slightly pity that the creative effort put into making this confection will be put to waste if the taster is not the type who will eat their cake deliberately. The light taste of strawberry flavored bread can easily be ignored while missing out on the custard hidden in between the strawberry and the chocolate bread. What’s more the hidden custard has another hidden secret. It has strawberry bits and how cool is that?

After finishing the cake while taking turns eating the layers altogether and eating it layer by layer, I wished for this cake to have stood out better for its name. It should be obvious that having pretty in pink as a name, the taste should have been focused on the pink parts of the cake which in this case are the strawberries. The taste of the chocolate is not bad at all but I was expecting a perfect blend of black and pink not just in appearance but also in taste.

Cake Number 2: Guiltless Strawberry. We are still talking about pink even in this second cake, given that this one is mainly focused on the strawberry as its primary ingredient.

Visual: The pink cream with red laces that blankets this cake reminds me of one of those Disney princesses when they are wearing their royal gowns. Layer-wise, it is mainly composed your classic strawberries (bread) and cream which is simply repeated creating a total of five layers.

Taste: So, is it really guiltless? I believe it is. It is like eating soft strawberry bread mixed with cream as a filling. It is not filling and you will barely feel full after eating a slice.

Eat the layers at the same time, the taste of the cream dominates. There are two kinds of creams in this cake. The first is the strawberry cream on top and the second one is the regular cream which serves as a layering.

I am not exactly a fan of the strawberry cream given its artificial taste. Even the strawberry bread tasted differently from the one in Pretty in Pink. I think it is because they made use of an artificial sweetener. However, the layers of cream tasted good and are even better than the cream used in Pretty in Pink.

The surprise is not found in the layers. The hidden factor is found on top of the strawberry cream itself. Based on past experiences, red laces on top of cakes are usually made of syrup but for this one, it is made of an extremely thin jelly which could pass off as a line of syrup at a glance.  

The cake may be guiltless but it sacrificed the natural taste of the strawberries. I mean yes, being healthy requires that we eat less sugar but it also means that we eat more natural food and this one needs to improve on that aspect.

May your days be filled with the fullness of Icing! Feel free to comment and share your thoughts on the comment box below.