Photos by Chris Jensen © 2010
"One Cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well", was printed one of the boxes handed to me by dessert maven Kate Slaton Dunbar of Petite Reve Chocolates, a dessert and chocolate specialty company in Ventura. Twice I've been handed such boxes and twice-blessed to taste her creations.
The first occurred at the Ventura Produce Exchange, part of the Ventura Produce Cooperative started by Maureen Durkin which meets once a month. People bring anything they have in abundance from their gardens or yards to share and each exchange yields new surprises. This last exchange featured mason jars of fresh-cut herbs, succulents, tons of lavender, beets, carrots, avocados, lettuces, the first huge zucchinis of the season, and flowers. The last also had macadamia nuts (which I didn't even realize grew here!), lots of tomato plant starters, and even an unusual squash variety we used to grow in Louisiana! The cajuns call it mirliton and stuff it with shrimp while Mexicans know it as chayote. I was excited beyond belief, it was a vegetable from home I'd recently thought of trying to grow here!
This produce exchange took place and Kate's house and along with beautiful produce and getting to admire her gardens, we were also treated with tastes of both her spice brownies and her light cayenne brownies and Maureen had made a lovely orange drink with fresh mint to accompany them.
At the moment of the exchange, our home garden were hanging on the edge of mass production and very few things were ready to pick. If it'd been a only a week later, I'd have had much more to share than one mere, (albeit gorgeous), bok choy I walked in with. No one seemed to mind that though, as quickly as I set it down on the table, a lady started pulling leaves off it and putting them in her bag. It's rewarding to have somewhere to share your extra produce and to come home with something new! But little did I know I'd make it home with something much more substantial than a handful of lavender and a bite of brownie...
As Kate brought me into her home, we cruised past her blond twins to her kitchen and she handed me a box that must have weighed 7 pounds. I peaked in to see a lightly yellow-hued cake with dollops of whipped cream and curls of fresh lemon zest on top. It smelled like heaven and weighed a ton! "It's my lemon crepe cake," she explained. "And exactly how many crepes are in it?" I asked? "16-20", she answered.
I left with more bites of spicy brownies to savor and a whole cake to share. I've never taken a review on the road in a box but what a fun concept. For that week, everyone who stopped by got a bite, as did the party of pajama-clad, breakfast-at-night-eating girlfriends I met later that week. Chris and I even got to play with the cake in the studio for a scant second before cutting the first slice. Who knew one bok choy would turn into a cake-filled week of adventures?
Fresh lemon curd and crepes have to be two of the finest creations on earth. The first is tart, creamy, rich and smooth while the crepe is delicate and thin yet substantial. Both are decadent alone but how do they stand piled up together into a cake?
The Crepe Cake, called Gateux de Crepes by the French, can be served as a warm savory, featuring such ingredients as spinach and Gruyere, or as a chilled sweet like Kate does with her lemon curd and her whipped chocolate ganache versions.
The cake itself is simply beautiful. The browned speckles and slight yellow hue of the top crepe were decorated with swirls of creamy white homemade whipped cream and curly cues of lemon zest looked like it was dressed up for a party. Along the edges, each individual crepe made a small ruffled frill as the concoction isn't covered in any icing, just the layers of crepes topped with whipped cream and lemon curd. My fear with the cake was the lemon curd would be overpowering. How can you have 16-20 layers slathered with lemon curd and not pucker?
I cut the cake and it was as beautiful on the inside. The crepes had softened into pliable bites. Kate had recommended I eat it chilled, right out of the fridge, so I did. My first taste was like light, fluffy, lemony and creamy and anything but tart. I had to try another bite and another. By the time Chris got off the phone to try a bite, I was halfway through the first slice and now dismantling it with my fingers to taste it in peeled layers, crepe-by-crepe. He quizzically looked at me and realized I wasn't going to share after all so went to cut his own slice.
I watched him take his first bite. He does not care for tart like I do so I was curious what he would think. "That's some good stuff Maynard!" came out of his mouth. "Yup, yup, that there's some mighty good stuff Maynard!" he gleefully repeated over and over between bites. I think I've heard this expression perhaps twice? in the time I've known him. He only says it when he goes into this blissful place unselfconscious place. The crepe cake had brought out that soft underbelly of the male we rarely see, like some National Geographic expose'.
I implored him to join me in peeling off the layers one-by-one and eating them decadently with our hands. It's so much fun! but we noticed when you do it, you taste less of the lemon curd. It appeared that the curd was concentrated more in the center and the whipped cream around the outer edges. The lemon zest was a necessary and welcome crunchy punch, like flavor crystals to enhance the delicate bites.
I did find though, upon trying my second bite that I prefer eating the crepe cake after it's come to room temperature rather than straight out of the fridge. The crepes are both quite filling, (really one piece at a time is plenty!), but they were just substantial enough to chill my entire core after eating a cold piece. After my first piece and wanted a warm cup of tea.
Throughout the week I got to share bites with a hungry teen just learning to surf, her mother, a self-professes crepe fanatic and an entire room of pajama-clad women; sailors to entrepreneurs, chocoholics to dog whisperers and I listened to their comments. "Delicate, delicious, different, amazing, oh my god! and unique," were a few. Everyone wanted to know where it came from, it was truly the perfect cake for a party of discerning gals and really how often do you serve something that has a man bear his soft underbelly?
"curiouser and curiouser", Alice in Wonderland
What I didn't realize about the party I was attending was the theme was Alice in Wonderland and we ended the evening watching the movie on a large pull-down screen. As we huddled in the dark together, curled up on couches in our jammies watching Alice grow taller upon nibbling the "Eat Me" Cake I realized how much sharing surprise cake throughout the week with various friends had similarly expanded my world. Luckily I hadn't eaten so much myself as to grow beyond the size of my peignoir but I certainly had created more shared memories with people than I would have. Interestingly enough, Petite Reve literally translates into "small dreams", if this community of sharing and learning about food is indeed a dream, like Alice, I'm not sure I ever want to wake. Thanks Kate!
Petite Reve Chocolates (805)258-9472
