Sweet Baked Heaven

I blame living in Austria for my obsession — it’s more of an illness, really. After all, a nation that comes up with a cake that involves first baking a cake, grinding it into crumbs and then cooking the crumbs in whole milk and butter is a nation that takes cake seriously. Austria is home to the masters, the Leonardos of baking, the Demel, the Gersnter, the Zauner. It was in these classrooms of cake that I studied, partaking, in one 10 day immersion course, of no less than 27 different varieties of cake. Just so it’s clear, my coursework was in the consuming of said cake samples, not in the baking thereof — though I’ve been known to tackle one or two of edible miracles, my skill lies in eating and wallowing in a sugar and carbohydrate induced coma of bliss.

Fully aware of my epicurian cake eater cred, it was with some trepidation that my real estate agent and good friend invited me to lunch at the recently opened Bakery Nouveau. This was a little over two years ago – we would pull property listings at his West Seattle office, go out to look at a depressing array of ramshackle homes, and then, get coffee to refuel. “I’m nervous about this,” said my friend, “because of your whole Austria thing, but I really want to know what you think.” We ordered sandwiches, coffee, a treat.

I swooned and fell in love.

There are two things I do not like about the bakery. One, the space is not inviting. It’s noisy, on cold days, a draft whooshes in from the north any time someone opens the front door. The seating is insufficient for the crowds and while I am happy to share and/or double up, there is no cozy kaffeehaus vibe here. Our response to the univiting space has been to take our treats to go — it’s a short hop from the bakery to our house so we make coffee at home and eat our desserts at the kitchen table.

The other issue is that the bakery is far too close to our house. In summer, we walk there, often on farmer’s market day, but in winter, we’re not so sturdy and we’ve been known to jump in the car, forgive us. Bakery Nouveau is on the way to and from everywhere, almost, for us, so it’s easy to stop in a grab a little something, is that brioche? Throw in one of those, please, and oh, the baguettes are just out of the oven, yes please, though it will not make it to the car before it is half eaten and, ah, that’s new, what did I come in here for anyway?

On Sunday, we zipped up to the bakery and bought a passionfruit mousse tart, a hazelnut praline (in the photo above), a vanilla bread pudding of epic proportions, and two twice baked croissants, one almond and gooey with marzipan, one chocolate, still warm enough so that the chocolate stuck to your fingers when you touched it. We ate everything, all five pastries divvyed up between three humans who really felt no need for self control and then, we sat in the backyard in the sun.

Bakery Nouveau is at 4737 California in West Seattle. Skip the Sunday crowds and go for kaffeehaus hours, Vienna style, weekday afternoons around three. It’s easier to get a table, it’s less noisy, and there are still plenty of amazing things to choose from in the bakery case. Call me, I’ll meet you there.