Russian Honey Cake

 

When you mention 20th Century Cafe here in San Francisco the first thing that comes to mind is Russian Honey Cake.  It's one of their signature desserts and is so visually stunning and amazingly delicious.  Layer upon layer of cake (they taste like speculoos cookies) filled with a burnt honey and caramel whipped cream.   Absolute heaven I tell you.  I had my first taste in 2016 and was always curious about how it was made.  

Alas, I was never able to find a good recipe to replicate at home so I never attempted to make one, until now!  Recently the cafe's owner, Michelle Polzine, was kind enough to finally reveal her masterpiece.   And to the New York Times no less!

Granted, the instructions to make the cake are very LONG, but don't be deterred.  Admittedly the process is time consuming but all that effort will be worth it, I promise.   I was crazy enough to make my cake in one evening after coming home from work.  Not something I would recommend for the novice baker.  Start to finish I estimate it took me about 4 hours, with a little down time in between.  Next time I'll make this on the weekend to give myself a cushion.

One bite of the cake and I was immediately taken back to 20th Century Cafe.  It seriously is an amazing copycat that you should try for yourself. 

Coffee Crunch Cake

By the time I moved to San Francisco Blum's pastry shops had been long closed, but their desserts continued to live on.  My sister told me about their most famous creation, Coffee Crunch Cake, and brought me a slice from Yasukochi's Sweet Stop in Japantown.  

Coffee-flavored desserts aren't really a favorite of mine, but the combination of sponge-y lemon scented vanilla cake frosted with whipped cream and covered with light, airy honeycomb textured coffee candy was divine.   I had to see if I could make it for myself.

Luckily I didn't have any trouble finding a recipe online, one that was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle.   Overall the cake was delicious and very well-received.  The only adjustments for next time would be to make an oil-based chiffon for the cake and to use stronger coffee, like espresso, for the coffee flavor to really come through in the crunch.