Before arriving in San Francisco, my husband and I had a list of restaurants and bakeries we just had to try. There were only two bakeries on the list that we didn’t get to enjoy because they closed earlier than I expected (poor planning on my part!), but we were both so delighted by everything we ate anyway. Since we walked miles and miles seeing all the sights, we got to eat a whole lot of food. That’s the magical thing about San Francisco – the walking counteracts the eating so you don’t feel bad about the calories for a second.

If you have yet to read about our epic road trip to San Fran and the things we did (besides eat!) while we were there, check out this post about the journey and this post on the fun San Francisco adventures we had. And just a forewarning on the current post you’re reading: I am about to seriously nerd out. Ya with me? Here are all the amazing things we ate on our trip:

Favorite Bakeries

I asked around on Instagram for your suggestions about what bakeries to try (thank you all, by the way!) and after hearing your recommendations, I expected great things from the bakeries of San Francisco. The best thing was, my expectations were far exceeded! There were two on the list that we didn’t get to try (B. Patisserie and Mr. Holmes Bakehouse), and I was a bit sad about missing those two, but these other ones made up for it in a big way:

Tartine

As soon as we got to Tartine, there was a line out the door. The sweet aroma of the bakery added to all the excitement and I found myself at the cases in no time, presented with so many pastries and breads that I was a little overwhelmed! Luckily, the lady next to me was a local who told me all about what to order. While I was tempted by the sweet pastries (as per usual), she nudged me toward the croissant and the morning bun, for which I was so grateful. I took one of each, plus two pastries: the chocolate hazelnut tart and the toasted lemon meringue cake. Josiah and I walked a block to picturescue Dolores Park to have our feast.

First we tried the croissant. It was flakey, buttery, and honestly the best I’ve ever had. Crunchy on the outside, and melt-in-your-mouth soft on the inside. Just look at the layers are in this thing!

Then we tried the morning bun. This was the number one thing that the lady next to me in line told me I had to get. I wouldn’t have chosen it without her recommendation, but I’m so glad we ended up with it! The morning bun is packed with amazing flavor – cinnamon, orange zest, and sugar – yet it wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet. It reminded me of Christmas morning in the best way.

Now for the sweets. I was eager to try the chocolate hazelnut tart first, because of my giant sweet tooth and the fact that I love chocolate hazelnut anything. What I did not expect was the hint of orange! It really tied the flavors together in the most unique way, and I was in heaven. It was the perfect textural blend of soft chocolate tart and crunchy hazelnuts. And it was just really pretty!

And lastly, the toasted lemon meringue cake. This one was Josiah’s pick, and I am really thankful he chose it. Underneath the toasted meringue topping were so many tiny layers of vanilla cake, caramel, and lemon curd.

I would never think to put caramel and lemon together but holy smokes. It worked!

Miette

This one definitely wins the award for cutest storefront. The inside was equally charming, with colorful rows of candy and pastel tables full of housemade confections. The Parisian vibes were strong.

I ended up getting a chocolate cupcake with Italian meringue frosting and it was real tasty. In hindsight, I wish I would have tried the macarons as well, but my brain was swirling from all the choices yet again!

Dandelion Chocolate

This place was unexpectedly awesome. It’s a small batch bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the Mission District, and as soon as you walk in, you’re greeted with a whole wall of chocolate bars made from beans sourced all over the world and you can taste as many as you want! I was on nerd overload here.

When I got to the counter there were so many well-designed chocolate desserts to choose from. I was very pleased to see that they had an entire Chef’s Tasting Menu of desserts – mini versions of the cacao spritzer, profiterole, s’more (hello!), passionfruit macaron, and husk panna cotta. I swear, everything I tried, I literally said “wow” out loud!

My favorites on the Chef’s Tasting Menu were the s’more and the husk panna cotta. The s’more featured a spicy (maybe cardamom?) crust, well-toasted marshmallow, and chocolate from Ecuador. The panna cotta was creamy deliciousness infused with cacao husk from Costa Rica. There was also a cacao crumble on top.

Stonemill Matcha

This was another “line out the door” space that was worth the wait. The matcha served at Stonemill Matcha comes from the shade-grown farms of Kyoto, Japan, which is actually the birthplace of matcha, and just like the name suggests, it’s stone ground (and hand whisked!) to perfection.  

The case featured an all-matcha dessert menu, so I ordered a matcha latte and a matcha cream puff (mainly because it was so cute!). I know I’ve said this about all the things, but this was real tasty and also pretty to look at.

Favorite Restaurants

As far as savory things go, Josiah and I got to try a few different restaurants in San Francisco and while everything was amazingly good, these are the two standouts for both of us:

Brenda’s French Soul Food

My oh my, this might be my favorite restaurant of all time. I love soul food and this place had some of the richest flavor I’ve ever tasted from a New Orlean’s style restaurant. It was beyond. Josiah and I decided to split a few things because we just couldn’t decide. We ended up with crawfish beignets, hushpuppies, and shrimp po’boys. It was another experience where everything I tasted I involuntarily said, “wow” out loud!

The hushpuppies were served with a chipotle rèmoulade, which was the perfect spicy compliment to the sweet corn goodness.

Gracias Madre

Gracias Madre is a plant-based Mexican food joint, and while I didn’t really think that vegan Mexican food would be any good, I was proven very wrong. All of my experiences with vegan cheese before this were very negative (aka it tasted like glue to me every time). We weren’t sure what to order so we asked our server, who was quick to point out the Quesadillas de Camote and the Coliflor Frito. I thought, “great, two vegan cheese things,” but when I tried them I was shocked to find that they tasted so flavorful and complex (in the best way). No glue taste at all!

The Quesadillas de Comote tasted like Fall, packed with sweet potato and caramelized onion, wrapped in a warm corn tortilla, and topped with melted cashew cheese, mild green salsa, and pumpkin seeds. So good. While Josiah wasn’t a huge fan of the Coliflor Frito (fried cauliflower with melted cashew cheese and lemon) I thought it was really tasty, but part of me wished the Quesadillas de Comote were twice the size and the serving of Coliflor Frito was half the size.

We can’t wait to come back to San Francisco again to savor our favorites and try some new things! Have you ever been? Let me know your favorite SF restaurants in the comments. And PS if you want to read about our favorite things we did while we were in the city (besides eat!), check out this post.

The post San Francisco Favorites: What To Eat appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

I’ve got a major business crush on Tea Bar for a few reasons: their tea is organic and ethically sourced, the drinks they make with it are innovative (and delicious!), and their entire team is made up of strong, inspiring women. They’ve made a mark on the Portland tea market but I can easily see them taking over the world. After all, who doesn’t love a good cup of golden milk or a matcha latte? If you’re a Portlander and have never been, give them a try next time you want to meet up with a friend!

In addition to selling their fabulous teas online for drinking at home, Tea Bar offers Culinary Grade Matcha for baking that’s organic, hand picked, stone ground, and sourced from a tiny family farm in Uji, Japan. I was so intrigued that I had to try it in a cake recipe. I am so glad I did, because the results were mind-blowing! The cake itself is light and fluffy, and the Matcha powder makes it flavorful and aromatic without being over the top. Oh, and it’s pretty to look at. 

I chose to pair the Matcha cake with this raspberry buttercream as filling, then topped it with an eye catching vanilla-matcha buttercream ombre and white chocolate geometric shapes. These flavors ended up being very complimentary. It was a hit with the Tea Bar ladies, and I’m sure this cake will impress all of your Matcha-loving friends!

You can use any Culinary Grade Matcha in this recipe, but I can say from experience that not all Matcha powders are made (or taste) alike. If you want try using Tea Bar’s, you can purchase it on their website and they’ll ship it right to your door. It’s so worth it. PS: This is not a sponsored post, Tea Bar really is my favorite Culinary Grade Matcha! 

Print

Favorite Matcha Cake

A light and airy matcha cake filled with raspberry buttercream and topped with a vanilla-matcha buttercream ombre.

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes

Ingredients

Matcha Cake Recipe

• 2 1/2 Cups (265g) sifted cake flour
• 2 Tbsp culinary grade Matcha powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 Cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 2/3 Cups (330g) granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (120g) sour cream, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Cups (240ml) whole milk, room temperature

Raspberry Buttercream Filling

• 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (5-6g) freeze dried raspberries
• 1 1/2 Tbsp (22ml) whole milk, room temperature
• 2 cups (240g) powdered sugar
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt

Vanilla-Matcha Buttercream

• 1 1/2 cups (339g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 5 cups (600g) powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 Tbsp (45ml) whole milk, room temperature
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp culinary grade Matcha powder

Instructions

Make The Matcha Cake

• Preheat oven to 350º and prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with baking spray and placing a pre-cut wax or parchment paper circle to fit the bottom.
• Whisk together sifted cake flour, Matcha powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• Cream butter on med-high for one minute. Scrape down bowl and paddle. Add sugar and beat on high for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy, scraping down bowl and paddle as needed. 
• Turn the mixer down to low and add the eggs one by one. Scrape down bowl, turn the mixer on med-high and beat for about 2 minutes. Add the sour cream and vanilla, continue beating for 1 minute.
• Add all of the dry ingredients at once with the mixer on low speed until just combined, then add the milk all at once with the mixer still on low. Scrape down the bowl and paddle and mix on low until it all just comes together. You might need to hand whisk at the end to get rid of some lumps, but be careful not to overmix.
• Fill prepared cake pans ⅔ full and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Make The Raspberry Buttercream Filling

• With a food processor, grind the raspberries into a fine powder. Sift out the seeds (if a few seeds end up in the powder that is totally ok) and set the powder aside.
• Whip the butter using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium speed until it’s creamy and light in color (5-10 minutes). Add vanilla, milk, and raspberry powder and continue to mix on medium for 3 minutes.
• Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down the bowl and paddle after each addition. Add a pinch of salt (I like about an eighth of a teaspoon) and mix on low for another 30 seconds.

Make The Vanilla-Matcha Buttercream

• With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the butter on medium-high until it’s creamy and light (almost white) in color. About 7 minutes. 
• Add the sifted powdered sugar, one cup at a time, scraping down after each addition and making sure each cup is fully incorporated before adding the next one. 
• Add vanilla, milk, and salt and mix on medium-low for another two minutes until fully incorporated. Hold off on adding the Matcha powder until you get to the assembly instructions. 

Assembly

• Starting with your first cake layer, pipe a ring of vanilla buttercream around each layer’s edge to create a buttercream dam. Fill the middle of your vanilla buttercream ring with raspberry buttercream until it’s the same height as the vanilla ring. Level the filling with an offset spatula and place the next layer of cake on top. Repeat the vanilla ring and raspberry filling before placing the third and final cake layer on top. 
• Divide vanilla buttercream evenly into two bowls. In one bowl, add the matcha powder to the buttercream and mix until combined. Grab a third bowl and mix together a third of the matcha buttercream and a third of the vanilla buttercream until you get a nice in-between shade.
• Starting at the bottom of the cake, frost with the darkest matcha buttercream until you get a third of the way up the side of the cake. Continue frosting with the lighter colored matcha buttercream mixture until you get to two thirds up the side of the cake. Frost the vanilla buttercream on the top third of the cake, including the top. Smooth the cake until you achieve the perfect finish.
• To decorate, I’ve chosen to stick some white chocolate geometric shapes (made by melting white chocolate onto parchment, sprinkling with matcha powder, and cutting out shapes with a hot knife) into the top of the buttercream cake in any pattern you desire. I also piped a few open stars using leftover matcha buttercream. Feel free to let your creativity flow with this!

Notes

*DIY Cake Flour Recipe: To make your own cake flour, spoon and level one cup of all-purpose flour and remove 2 Tbsp. Add 2 Tbsp of cornstarch. Repeat per the amount of cake flour you need, then sift the flour and cornstarch mixture 4 times (don’t skip that step!). After sifting, spoon and level to re-measure the amount of cake flour you need. 

Make ahead tips: These cakes can be baked, cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap, and left out at room temperature up to two days ahead of decorating. Unfrosted cake layers can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for up to two months before thawing and frosting. 

The buttercream recipes can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use, bring back to room temperature and re-whip with your stand mixer. Add whole milk, 1 tsp at a time, if it needs to be thinned to the right consistency.

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