If you're looking for a piece of traditional white cake in Paris, like you'll find on every counter of every Greek coffee shop in New York, just forgetaboutit.
If you're looking for a mountain of whipped cream with even more whipped cream on top, that you will find in just about any patisserie on any corner in any arrondissement.
This white cake with the Frenchie name of St. Honore was found in the Japanese shopping mall at Mitsuwa Marketplace in New Jersey not Paris.
This is one quite superb white cake you will find in Paris.Every French girl's dream it is too, since it's a wedding cake.
But your average white cake (icing and layered) as we know it since childhood birthday parties, has yet to hit the streets of Paris.
Could it be the next big tendance/trend when the cupcake begins to pall in Paris?
While we're on the subject of white, I was walzing through Bloomies last nite and found this exquisite display honoring Vera Wang. Wang has been creating perfect white wedding gowns for 20 years. It's on the 4th floor by the way.
A true American Horatio Alger story - Wang could not find a wedding gown for her own wedding, so...
Et voila! We are the happy beneficiaries of her divine ingenuity.
Her gowns truly are a 'piece of cake'.
Her gowns truly are a 'piece of cake'. Perfectly simple yet quite complex and often poetic...
Here's a very nice French 'piece o cake' seen in Bergdorf's windows last week from M. Alber Elbaz of Lanvin. Ruffles are IN, in case you hadn't realized.
I got this in the mail today from M. Pierre Herme...
Here's a very nice French 'piece o cake' seen in Bergdorf's windows last week from M. Alber Elbaz of Lanvin. Ruffles are IN, in case you hadn't realized.
I got this in the mail today from M. Pierre Herme...It's Fête des Mères this Sunday.
I suppose if one must make do with a non-white cake in Paris, this will do the trick quite handsomely.
And who 'takes the cake' in yesterday's contest?
Aquarose that's who.
Let me know where to send it in Alaska Aquarose svp?
BONJOUR WHITE GATEAUX!
Beautiful post Carol! The Mozart gateaux from Laduree is perfection! I now want to want to watch Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette!
ReplyDeleteI want to jump into that strawberry cake right now! ;-)
ReplyDeleteVera Wang is one well-deserved winner, as are all your French cakes, white or large or small or everything in between!
very difficult to find white cake in Paris, maybe made with meringue and crème Chantilly ?
ReplyDeleteThe Mozart gâteau is an exception !
A+C+++
Quite an astute appraisal of the saddly lacking White Gateaux situation in Paris.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if there were more or any for that matter, Greek coffee shops in Paris we could say otherwise...
I shall be thinking of white, layered cake with icing all day no thanks to you!
I consider you are an expert regarding all things Paris!
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I are going to Paris for 10 days mid-October and are trying to determine where to stay for about $200. - $250. per night (US) with breakfast.
I realize that you usually stay with friends, but do you have any suggestions for the Left Bank area (St. Germain)?
I usually rent an appartment Frances.
ReplyDeleteThe place I like the best is near the louvre, Hotel place du la louvre
But it's under $200 I think..
if I could I'd stay here in the Marais 'cause it looks pretty but no idea if they are nice too...
I can survive nicely in Paris without ole white cake with bakery icing! :) Bring on the macarons and pain au chocolat. BTW, that little white ruffled number is fab!!!
ReplyDeleteIf I had to eat nothing but cake, I'd be okay with that. It's one of my major food groups.
ReplyDeleteI can't tell you how much I love your Paris Breakfasts posts.
ReplyDeleteAs a
Francomaniac (francophile is too tame), I appreciate the French eye
but I really love is your artistic eye.
You take the ordinary and turn
them into mini works of art. Felicitations!
Ruffles are the stuff dreams are made of Virginia...
ReplyDeleteIn my old age I'm drawn to ruffles.
ReplyDeleteNot around the bum but around my neck and down the front!
Love a ruffled scarf, sweater....
Thanks for letting me know I"m
"IN"!
Ha
v
I don't think a ruffle has ever come close to me :(
ReplyDeleteBut MARC JACOBS loves ruffles up the whazoo this season!
YUMMY
Your gateau paintings are absolutely beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteIt is possible to eat cake and still be slim.
ReplyDeleteIt is an art.
I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I do drool at windows in Paris...
ReplyDeleteBoy those cakes look good! Great photos, Carol.
ReplyDelete(The gowns are nice, too :)
No white cake? Pas de problem! No white dress? aussi, pas de problem! I'm chocolate girl myself...unless we're talking macs!
ReplyDeleteI will try to make some research to find the "white cake" in Paris!
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteYOU are my devil's advocate!
Bon chance finding white cake and I don't mean those heavy rectangular things we call a 'loaf' either.
Tee-hee
cg
Dear Carol,
ReplyDeleteI am one of your fans, waiting every day your blog in my inbox.
I am very excited about the idea that I could meet you personally and also see your work in the flesh at the Chelsea Arts Club.
Kind regards,
marisol
Lovely cakes and baked goodie watercolors, Carol! My daughter-in-law had a Vera Wang wedding dress--she looked tall and stunning in it. (Me--I made my own wedding dress.)
ReplyDeleteThe photographs of the cakes as well as the lovely dresses make the mouth water!
ReplyDeleteThe cake from Laduree is GORGEOUS! You should check out Cake Opera Co., at first I thought it might be from there....
ReplyDeleteHowever that St. Honore is nowhere near right! St. Honore is the patron saint of bakers. A St. Honore starts with a puff pastry base, a ring of pate a choux (cream puffs) dipped in caramel around the outside, pastry cream in the middle piped in with a St. Honore tip, and spun sugar on top. It is considered a true test of skill for a baker to be able to manage all these different techniques correctly! (I am sorry because I am afraid you may not have really cared!)
I had a very pleasant tete-a-tete with M. Elbaz when he came to me in Paris to surrender his green card and apply for a tourist visa (you remember he is Israeli, not French).
ReplyDeleteHe was shocked and crushed that I did not know who he was, but of course after our meeting (and a subsequent one after I got his papers in order) I started seeing his photo in all the fashion mags.
He was quite charming.
nancy now in Savannah
I loved this post but I hate cake. I'm a pastry and tarts lover and it can be awkward living in the States. People try to treat you with a cupcake or a slice of white cake with that yucky fluffy icing made from shortening and seem insulted with a "no thank you."
ReplyDeleteThe Mozart gateaux looks too pretty to eat.