Eat Cake and Bake the World a Better Place

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY TAMARA PALMER

Bluestem Brasserie’s executive pastry consultant Lori Baker shared an incredible Simpsons-themed Chocolate Chip Cookie D’Oh! Cheesecake in Issue 1 of California Eating, and she’s currently featuring an all-cake menu for the month at the San Francisco restaurant, which she kindly made for me one recent night for dinner. Yep, for dinner — other diners wondered why they didn’t go that route, too, when they saw our table overflowing with Baker’s tall cakes.

Bluestem’s second annual Bake the World a Better Place bake sale on September 12 benefits CUESA’s paid job training program Foodwise Teens and will feature some of Baker’s work alongside baked goods from top-notch places like State Bird Provisions, b. patisserie, Stonemill Matcha, Waterbar and Trailblazer Tavern.

Here’s a look at what you can get every day at Bluestem right now:

Cake for dinner with Janine Kahn of Knotwerk; her incredible macrame installation is above her

Honolulu Hangover (Janine’s wedding cake!): coconut rum-soaked chocolate devil’s food cake with coconut rum filling, toasted coconut marshmallow meringue, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce and whipped cream

My favorite: Bellini Cake (peach Bellini soaked almond cake, peach cheesecake, peach buttercream, peach purée, fresh peach, Champagne gelée)

Another Day in Paradise (Key lime pie cake, graham cracker crumble, mango purée and lime cream cheese frosting)

Black Forest “Cake” Sundae (gluten-free chocolate cake, vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate sauce, cherry compote and whipped cream)

Icebox Cake (angel food cake, lemon Bavarian cream, lemon curd, plum jam, whipped cream, candied fennel, olive oil)

Owner Adam Jed is a self-proclaimed “cookie monster,” so the one non-cake item on the dessert menu right now is Old Fashioned Cookies & Milk (warm brown butter bourbon pecan chocolate chunk cookies, bourbon cherry milkshake)

Bluestem Brasserie, 1 Yerba Buena Lane, San Francisco