bakeries

the little bitty bakery: sweet talk with leslie muir and betsy lewin

~ jama ~ 14 Comments
Dark Chocolate Coconut Eclair via Ang

Roll out the pink carpet and fire up your ovens! Put on your best dress aprons and fill your pastry bags with vanilla buttercream frosting! Bakery babes Leslie Muir and Betsy Lewin are here!

*licks chocolate off éclair*

We are thrilled to be the third stop in The Little Bitty Bakery Blog Tour. It’s no secret that when it comes to bakeries I go a little insane. I think in a past life I must have lived in a French pâtisserie, where I had pain au chocolat for breakfast, cherry clafouti for lunch, and an apple tarte for dinner. Of course there were plenty of macarons for elevenses and madeleines for afternoon tea. Le yum!

So you can imagine how giddy I was to read The Little Bitty Bakery, a thoroughly charming tale of an elephantine pastry chef who bakes away her birthday. How her heart aches when she realizes it’s too late to celebrate. She’d worked so hard making treats all day long, but now there would be no birthday cake for her. She climbs into bed and in the middle of the night is awakened by the aroma of scrumptious “swirls of sweetness.” When she goes downstairs, she discovers a delightful surprise — a Crumble Jumble Cake prepared by the mice! “They had a celebration and nibbled cake till dawn./ When they set their napkins down, every crumb was gone.” Such heartwarming goodness!

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who’s got the best buns in northern virginia?

~ jama

 

According to Champion Cupcake Sleuth (CCS), Sara Lewis Holmes, Best Buns Bread Company in Arlington has some pretty good ones, in addition to a killer Triple Lemon Cupcake.

So Len and I zipped on over to the Village at Shirlington, a cool complex of small shops and restaurants full of happy folks strolling hither and yon, walking their adorable dogs, showing off their shocking pink-purple hair, and gliding by on their tandem bicycles wearing red, white, and blue spandex.

Unlike Bakeshop, which is owned by a young, upcoming entrepreneur, Best Buns is part of the Great American Restaurants family — a popular chain of seven restaurants (8th opening this Fall), based in Fairfax, Virginia. We’ve actually eaten Best Buns’ products many times before, since they bake all the yummy bread served in the restaurants (mmmm, sourdough, carrot banana, raisin pecan).

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hello, mr. cupcake!

~ jama


Bakeshop owner Justin Stegall.

Are bakers getting younger and cuter, or is it just my imagination?

Perhaps in my self-induced sugar haze, the old stereotype of benevolent, rotund, apply-cheeked bakers is disappearing in favor of lean, mean baking machines. To which I say, “Hallelujah, and thank you, Jesus!”

 

First there was White House chef Sam Kass, and now, Justin Stegall. We popped into his brand new Bakeshop in Arlington over the weekend — a cheery, light-filled, spiffy little bakery that greets you with the most heavenly aroma the instant you walk in.

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you had me at hello, or, how i almost fingerprinted somebody

~ jama



Now then. Where were we?

Oh yes. When last we spoke, I was licking the last bits of chocolate ganache and vanilla cream off my fingers after leaving Buzz Bakery in Alexandria. Since our first foray into cupcake madness began at a place that carried a variety of baked goods, I decided it was time to zero in on a few upscale cupcakeries.

THE HUNT

On a rainy Saturday, we headed over to Dupont Circle in D.C., to check out Hello Cupcake and Red Velvet. Never mind that it was almost impossible to find a parking space on the crowded streets of this area, that it was rainy and windy and we had to walk blocks and blocks to reach these places — no, never you mind. We did this all for YOU, after all, and you’re so worth it, right? Besides, it never hurts to burn a few calories before pigging out delicately tasting cupcake finery.☺

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the new and improved pantaloon!

~ jama ~ 1 Comment

Look what just came out this week!

A brand new, updated edition of the 1951 Golden Books classic, Pantaloon, written by Kathryn Jackson. Did you read it when you were little? Somehow I missed this one, even though I had a pretty large collection of Golden Books. It really is a charming story — I find it impossible to say the word, “pantaloon,” and not smile. Knowing it’s the name of a pastry-loving French poodle tickles me to no end. Pantaloon, pantaloon, pantaloon! Isn’t that a great word?

Original version published by Simon & Schuster, illos by Leonard Weisgard.

The story itself has been revised a little in this new Random House edition — a few words changed, an extra bathtub scene added. To refresh your memory, Pantaloon loves loves loves pastry and cookies, and wants to be the baker’s helper. Unfortunately, the baker rejects him, thinking Pantaloon will eat more than he’d bake. Undaunted, Pantaloon disguises himself as an old lady who claims to be a good cook who never eats between meals. The overworked baker is so overjoyed, he dances with the old lady around the shop. Oops! She accidentally loses her shawl and bonnet, and Pantaloon gets thrown out of the bakery again.

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