We were at DISH the other night and they had their Mango Cake on the menu. This is a light layer cake with little pieces of mango and cream between the layers. And then more cream on top. This cake is so astounding that I don’t even mind the dried shaved coconut they put on top. And I usually hate that shit.
I have pictures of this cake going back to my earliest use of digital cameras for anything.
Here it is:
This cake got me thinking about one of the strange food puzzles in Pittsburgh. The strangest food puzzle in Pittsburgh is, of course, the fact that there is no hot Italian sausage in Pittsburgh that is better than the Giant Eagle store brand Italian sausage. Which makes no sense whatsoever.
However, next on the list is the fact that there are so few places in town that know how to make cake. Most of the cakes in town fail across at least one of the following dimensions of quality:
Cake too dry. Good cake should have a nice moist feel to it. This is not a cracker pastry or some shit. It’s cake.
Cake too heavy (or chewy). A slice of cake should not weigh a pound, or be eight inches high.
Frosting is all sugar. The only proper icing for a cake is some kind of whipped cream or fancy butter cream. Most icings that people call “butter cream” in Pittsburgh are really just creamed sugar that will melt your teeth from two blocks away.
All topping, no cake. This is more of a problem with cupcakes than cakes. But you do see a lot of cakes in town that are also all decoration and frosting, with not enough cake inside.
Anyway, here are a few places that do know what they are doing.
DISH, Mango Cake
I mean, c’mon. Just go.
Chicken Latino, Trés Leches Cake
The Trés Leches cake at Chicken Latino is a reason to stay alive. All this, and Lomo Saltado too.
Jean-Marc Chatellier’s Bakery
In addition to the best plain and chocolate croissant in town (still!) Chatellier makes sheet cakes that he will sell you single pieces from. The main flavors are Lemon/Raspberry (the best), Strawberry, Opera Cake, and one that’s all chocolate. Here are the first three.
Oh and here is the chocolate cake with a bite taken out of it.
Butterjoint, Chocolate Truffle Cake
The thing here is the flourless chocolate truffle cake. Let it be known that I think flourless chocolate cake is bullshit. You can’t make good cake without flour. But this is the best chocolate cake in the city. So there you go. No picture of this one.
Girasole, Lemon Cake
Girasole makes this lemon cake with whipped cream icing that’s really good.
Mango Mango, Crepe Cakes
These are not really cake. But they are still better cake than most in town. Lots of cream. Nice soft pastry. The place has other things that are more cake-like.
Madeleine, Regent Square
The little bouchon are not really cake. But they are better than cake. These folks also do some small pastry sized cakes that are really good.
La Gourmandine, Brioche Bostok
The Brioche Bostok here is more of a cakey bread than actual cake. But it’s fantastic and you should get it. I have not tried any of their actual cake, but I should. And I would, except whenever I walk in the brioche and the chouquettes are sitting right there and what can I do?
Dianoia’s, Rainbow Cookies
These cookies are really a mini-layer cake. And I think they have done a cake version of this delightful confection in the past. So they get on the list. I’m sure their other cakes are great too. I just have not had them.
Salem’s
Salem’s has a dessert cooler with a few different kinds of sheet cake in it. I can vouch for the strawberry and the chocolate. We also saw exactly the same chocolate cake at the last fish fry we went to this year at a church in Wexford. Maybe they got it from Salem’s. Maybe both places are getting it from somewhere else. Who knows?
Giant Eagle
Do not sleep on the sheet cake at Giant Eagle. It’s better than 75% to 80% of the cake sold at any given bakery in town.
Moio’s, Monroeville
I haven’t had a cake from here in more than ten years. But it used to be good.
Bad Cake That I Love Anyway
That weird Chinese style sponge cake with a tiny bit of cream between the layers that all the Chinese grocery stores in town have. It’s trash but I like it. So there.
OK that’s it.