August 20, 2010 in News · 2 comments

Note: this post is also published on Leslie Seaton’s Fresh-Picked Seattle. Thank you so much for inviting me to guest-post, Leslie! To read this post on Fresh-Picked Seattle, click here – and then take some time to browse this truly encyclopedic collection of local food-related resources and events.

Earlier this month, the cozy little space at 415 E. Pine St that is home to the CakeSpy shop was overflowing with eager bakers, their cheering friends and families, expert judges, and at least 20 different desserts competing in the Cake vs. Pie contest organized by CakeSpy, Jenise Silva and Edible Seattle.

Heading east on Pine, I craned my neck in an effort to spot the storefront, driving as slowly as I could without risking the ire of the police, who were right behind me. I drove a block, then another, realized that I must have missed the shop, parked around the corner, and, for a moment, was ready to panic when I thought that maybe I wrote the address down wrong and it was really 415 Pine, not East Pine, and that I would now have to drive downtown.

Then I saw a girl walking down Pine Street in the direction that I had just come from, a large cake carrier in her outstretched hands. “I think we’re in the right place after all!” I told my husband. “Quick, let’s follow her!” Sergey picked up my contest entry, which was packaged in our improvised version of a cake carrier – a flat cardboard box topped with a plastic cake cover that I’d gotten from the QFC bakery department that morning – and we sprinted to the corner before the girl with the cake disappeared from view.

Within moments, we were standing in the doorway of the CakeSpy shop, waiting to check in my cake. There were only a couple of people ahead of us, plus two or three more who had already registered their entries and were mingling in the back of the room. However, a line formed quickly behind us and was soon winding out the door and spilling out onto the street. The spilling-out-onto-the-street pattern continued throughout the night, with people periodically leaving the cute-but-crowded space to take a breath of fresh air, pet one of the adorable dogs who joined us for the occasion (and watch one of them try to lick a smudge of pie filling off the sidewalk), or simply enjoy their cake and pie samples while staying out of the way of the sugar-fueled masses.

Several bloggers have already described the contest in some detail, so I won’t repeat everything here. Instead, I am going to thank the participants, organizers, judges, and sponsors of Cake vs. Pie (with special thanks to the cake judges for awarding second place in the cake category to my honey cake with sour cream frosting – recipe coming soon on my website) and give you my notes on the six beautiful and delicious cakes and pies that I was lucky enough to taste.

Note: I realize that cakes are overrepresented on my list – four against two – but this is not because I favored cake over pie. On the contrary, I actually wanted to try more pies than cakes. I don’t eat pie very often and was excited by the variety of pies represented – Blue Hawaiian! Rhueberry! Ginger Peach! However, after the judges had done their sampling and everyone was finally free to dig in, the pies disappeared much more quickly than the cakes. In fact, many pies were consumed in their entirety, while sizeable chunks of all or most cakes remained on serving platters at the end of the night. I attribute this to pies’ smaller size and to the difficulty of cutting them into tasting-size slivers, which you can easily do with most cakes. I refuse to believe that there was any sort of prejudice involved!

• Gateau a l’orange: If I had my camera with me, and if I could choose only one cake to take a picture of, I would pick this cake. The brightly colored sliced oranges against the backdrop of snow-white cream were so pretty! I once made a cake topped with candied lemon slices, and while it, too, was pretty to look at, it was a letdown when it came to eating because I did something wrong and the lemons turned tough and bitter. This cake, however, did not disappoint. The orange slices were soft, moist, and not at all bitter, and went perfectly with the delicate Bavarian cream.
• Chocolate fudge cake: The cake was very yummy – fluffy and not too sweet, just the way I like my chocolate cake. But, for me, it was the luscious chocolate ganache topping that truly made this dessert – it was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Jeanne – will you share the secret on your blog? (Update! Check out the recipe here!)
• Blueberry maple pie: What I loved most about this pie is that the berries remained intact inside the crust rather than disintegrating into a jam-like mash, as my berries usually do when I bake with them. Not that there is anything wrong with blueberry jam or with pie filling that’s a bit on the runny side, but the sweet, plump, fresh-tasting berries in this pie were a very pleasant surprise.
• Cheesecake with chipotle chocolate pecan butter swirls: I am not normally a huge fan of cheesecake. It’s not that I don’t like it – I’m just not passionate about it the way I am passionate about chocolate, for example. I’ve never had a cheesecake craving. I can take it or leave it. I’m pretty sure that during my 15 years in the US, I’ve eaten a total of fewer than 15 slices of cheesecake. This cheesecake, however? I could easily eat a slice every day – some days after dinner, other days as a before-bed snack, and sometimes even for breakfast. And I’m not saying this just because there was chocolate involved.  The subtle kick of chipotle lent the dessert extra sophistication and provided a great counterbalance to the sweetness of the cheese filling. Also, the graham cracker crust was extraordinarily good.
• Lemony chocolate cake: How do I even begin to describe this stunning creation? It was lemony, it was chocolaty, it was decorated with a magnificent flower (which, as I heard somebody say, was edible), and it was made up of so many different components underneath that robe of chocolate that every bite offered a taste of something new. Truly, an astounding accomplishment.
• Bourbon pecan tartlets: I actually took one of these home because I really wanted to try it but was physically unable to eat another bite while at CakeSpy. I had it the next morning. I have to admit, pecan pie has never been one of my favorites, mostly because it tends to be too sweet, sticky and rich for my taste. I wanted to see if this one little tartlet could change my opinion of pecan pie – and it sure did. The saltier-than-usual crust did a great job of offsetting the sweetness of the filling.

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