Bella Cakes (Sapperton, New Westminster, BC)

Bella Cakes recently hit my radar as I was going to my little aunts (sai yee yee!) house for dinner and wanted to bring something. Dessert, maybe?

It ends up that there are two great bakeries in the Sapperton area of New Westminster, separated by just half a block or so. Since I was driving towards Coquitlam, I wound up picking up a cheesecake from Farm Cottage Bakery just up the street, which was great, albeit a little sweet (little yee yee asked me for the location and wanted to pick something up that weekend. :)

This time I got out of work a little early and took the long way home through New Westminster.

Surprisingly, it was actually faster than I thought! Next time there's an accident or traffic jam on the Knight Street, I'm cutting through New West and picking up some baked goods to console myself!

While I picked up a small box to sample Bella Cakes creations, I'm told that their real mastery lies in their specialty cakes. Browsing their website, it deems true. Unfortunately, it may be out of the way oftentimes, so I will have to see if I can work Bella Cakes into a special occasion or something. (Or I could be like my mother and buy birthday cakes [with bogus birthday names!] just because she wanted to have some cake! haha! Oh boy. Thunder gods are going to have my neck.)

Anyways, I ordered up a pistachio cream tart, a hazelnut cream tart, a peanut butter nanaimo bar, a pair of cookies, a cheesecake, as well as a nameless chocolate slab which I *really* wished I had taken note of.

Note well: I had high hopes for the pistachio and hazelnut cream tarts. But they were devoid of little (if any!) fragrant nut flavour. The pre-made tart shells were filled with a light buttercream, coated with a shell of chocolate, and sprinkled with some crushed respective nuts. They were, as far as I could tell, exactly the same except for the hazelnut or pistachio garnish. The cookies, while cheap, were quite average and forgettable.

On the other hand, the peanut butter nanaimo bar was delicious. Even M, who does not crave sweets, wished I had brought home another one! The peanut butter flavour was pronounced, and the smooth flavour was echoed in the texture of the PB layer. The "nanaimo" layer / crust of the bar was a nice complement, and was not too sweet - there was ample coconut and chocolate, but it did not overpower the peanut butter.




The "nameless" chocolate bar (all I can remember now is that was definitely *not* either of the brownies) pictured above was rich, decadant, and exactly what a chocolate treat should be. Should only be consumed with a tall glass of milk. :)

The cheesecake, although small in stature, was slightly denser that what I had experienced nearby at Farm Cottage Bakery. However, it was not overly sweet, so it was an appropriately portioned treat with some dark coffee.

Glad that I found the two "hidden gem" bakeries in Sapperton! I will be back for more sweet treats, and to discover more in the coming months.




Bella Cakes
459 East Columbia Street
New Westminster BC
P: 604-777-2524

Recipe: Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

This is rich stuff. Although we were full from dinner last night, we helped ourselves to some dessert at home in celebration of Ms big birthday. I love you baby!



I took some inspiration from OneOrdinaryDays' recent Daring Bakers blog about valentino cake accompanied by strawberry cheesecake ice cream, and adapted it to make some blueberry cheesecake ice cream.

Boy, was I glad I did!!!!

I borrowed my mothers manual Donvier ice cream maker and I have to say, it is definitely a great recipe for manual ice cream makers!!!

The cream cheese had a higher freezing point than the half & half and cream that I used, making for a nicer texture and churn. Food Technologists use terminology like "overrun" to describe and calculate the amount of air that is incorporated in the churning process.

While different regulatory standards (pdf) (i.e. milkfat / m.f. solids) define the different types of frozen treats (ice cream, ice milk, frozen yogurt), the different quality of ice cream is defined by the amount of overrun. Typically, the more overrun, the lower quality of ice cream.

I can tell you, the ice cream that I made would definitely fall into the "ice cream" category (tons of milk fat. yum!). And as for quality? M appreciated the birthday wishes and the gesture!

Ingredients
1/2 cup half & half
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg

1 250g container of Philadelphia spreadable cream cheese, softened
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Method
In a small bowl, beat together sugar and egg. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the half and half over medium-low heat until tiny bubbles start to form. Temper the egg mixture by adding a couple tablespoons of the hot cream to the egg, and mixing until incorporated. Slowly add the remaining hot cream and mix until uniform.

Return the mixture to the small saucepan, and heat over medium-low heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Cool down the mixture by plunging the bottom of the saucepan into a cool water bath and stirring the custard mixture. Transfer to refrigerator.

One hour later, beat the softened cream cheese in a food mixer until fluffy. Mix in cooled custard mixture. Mix in whipping cream. (Mixture will be lumpy.)

Pour mixture into ice cream machine; add blueberries on top, sprinkling to disperse. Process according to machine manufacturer instructions. Transfer to a suitable ice cream tub, and freeze overnight.

I served two quenelles of the ice cream (formed and froze them ahead of time) with a ginger snap, a candied hazelnut, and some of the sugar that I had formed ahead of time.

While the recipe was delicious, next time I would use less sugar (1/3 cup) and perhaps use a light cream in place of the half and half. Look forward to making this again!!!



More photos at my flickr photoset.