The Bake Shop

Happily over Halloween, we woke up this morning to an extra hour, which gave us time to go for a sweet bite at Neldam's before heading out of the neighborhood. This little neighborhood bakery specializes in Danish pastry, allegedly the oldest scratch bakery in all of Oakland. It's pretty charming, with a genuine DMV style numbering system and generically festive decorations strung all around and classic cakes that can be ordered ahead and customized with things like "Happy Retirement" or "It's a Boy!" This morning a young couple sat in the bakery's classic lawn chairs looking through a three ring binder to pick out their wedding cake.

Every time I've been there, no matter the day of the week, someone is picking up one of these cakes, which leads me to believe that a Neldam's cake is a sort of tradition in lots of Oakland families. This morning a woman who looked to have stopped by on her way home from church, dutifully took a number ticket though she was the only person in line and said, "It should be under Tina." No bother mentioning what should be under Tina, of course. The lady behind the counter produced the box and opened it so she could look over the script. "Oh yes," she granted, "That'll be fine."



It reminds me so much of Gene's Bake Shop, the downtown bakery located conveniently next door to my parents' store when I was a kid. I used to eat their seventy-five cent eclairs or M&M cookies while my parents were working and they were the go-to Saturday morning donut destination when friends slept over. Gene's was a scratch bakery too and everything was made fresh at the bakery, every single morning. When I was in junior high it went out of business after a fire and never reopened, but it was certainly around long enough to make an impression. It's no wonder I'm such a floozy when it comes to the smell of frosted cake.


Neldam's doesn't do eclairs or donuts, but I can highly recommend the bear claw: in this case, a chocolate almond croissant with course sugar dusted on top. And someday, I'm going to invent a special occasion for one of those cakes.

Ack!

How does a girl get so busy?! I've been downright neglectful. It all started because I was thigh high in caramel. It sounds hot, but not like you think...



Caramels are so much work! The craft fair was fun, but exhausting. So I had to do some really heavy duty relaxing after that. A good night's sleep, donuts, a trip to the flea market, lunch at Jen and Larry's house, a hike at the park and then a rare treat.

Thanks to Marianne for keeping me well fed, always. This is called a "Cookie Connection"

You know how there's a man's man? Well this one makes me want to coin the term, Sundae's Sunday.

Whats Better than Bananas?

Banana Bread of course. I even have proof. While a bunch of bananas sat untouched in the fruit basket in our kitchen for a Week, people, that loaf of banana bread was half gone by the time we went to sleep. And that's after it popped out of the oven at 6 o'clock. PM. That's a lot of nibbling to happen before bedtime.

The chocolate chips scattered in there may be partly to blame, because last time I checked regular bananas don't come in a chocolate chip variety, though if God knew what was good for him he might try making that happen.