Dulche de Leche Napoleon from Porto's

Los Angeles Dessert Tour (a work in progress):
Truly Divine: Divino’s
(Almost) Too Cute to Eat: Three Apples at Royal/T
You Absolutely Must Visit: Porto’s
Deliciously Creative Ice-Creams: Scoops
My Favorite Cupcake: Swirls Desserts
Sweet Hart Sweets (Melissa Joan Hart’s candy store)
Gourmet Churros on the Boardwalk: Xurro

Lady M Confections

New York City Dessert Tour:
High Tea, Wonderland style: Alice’s Tea Cup
Vegan desserts in the Big Apple: Babycakes
Feels like Paris: Cafe Lalo
(One of) my favorite places in the world: Dylan’s Candy Bar
Authentic egg tarts: Egg Tart King
Breakfast in Snow White’s cottage: Good Enough to Eat
Too pretty to eat: Lady M Confections
Cookies as big as my head: Levain Bakery
Desserts made out of tofu: Kyotofu
Best birthday dessert: Nizza
Every flavor you would ever want: The Original Ice-Cream Factory
Indulge like Eloise: Plaza Hotel
(Another one of) my favorite places in the world: Serendipity
Super super yummy and photogenic Asian desserts: Taipan Bakery
For the healthy: Union Square Greenmarket

Chocolate Crepes at Jean-Philippe Patisserie

Las Vegas Dessert Tour:
Carnival World Buffet at the Rio
World’s Largest Chocolate Fountain: Jean-Philippe Patiserrie

Hello Kitty Waffles

Hello Kitty Desserts:
Hello Kitty Heaven: Hello Kitty Sweets Bakery/Cafe
(Almost) Too Cute to Eat: Three Apples at Royal/T

Sorry everyone, I haven’t really been floating around the blogosphere since I’ve been catching up over here.  But I have been working hard on my new project for Dessert Obsessed:

I have decided to do a Dessert Tour of Los Angeles, since my Dessert Tour of New York City was so popular!  This tour will definitely take more time and each review will be more detailed, as I actually live in L.A. and have more time to spend at each place, instead of cramming six dessert restaurants into each (of my four) days and trying to sample as many sweets as possible without feeling like I was commiting Cavity Suicide in NYC.  

My first stop on my Los Angeles Dessert Tour is Sweet Hart Sweets.  I actually found this place while sitting at a traffic light.  I was sitting in traffic (this is the annoying part of doing a Dessert Tour in L.A. – you have to deal with traffic everywhere you go), and impatiently waiting for the light to change, when I noticed a sign across the street that boldly declared “the second happiest place on earth!”.  Underneath the sign were some of my favorite words: “desserts”, “gelato”, “yogurt” and “candy”.  Of course, I absolutely HAD to go!  The second happiest place on earth right across the street from me?!  It was fate!  After finding parking (there is a small parking lot in the back of the store but I didn’t notice so I parked on the street), I made it to “the second happiest place on earth” to find that it was actually a sweets shop, by the name of Sweet Hart Sweets.   

 The first thing I noticed about Sweet Hart Sweets was the decor.  Very, very, VERY cute, and all purple and white.  Vintage inspired chairs and walls, but very modern tables.  The tables were my favorite; they’re clear but embedded with candy and glitter.  So fun!  The best part is the giant table and giant chairs in the back of the store which are fun to take pictures with.

Sweet Harts Sweets has a wall of fat free frozen yogurts in various flavors (from peanut butter to raspberry), and a selection of toppings (fruit, chocolate, etc), all yogurtland – style.  There is also glass case hosting gelato, which also comes in a variety of flavors (tiramisu to spumoni), and a second glass case boasting cupcakes and cakes.  Cookie jars along the counter sport nicely sized cookies.  The majority of the wall of the store is dedicated to candy.  They have all sorts of candy there, but nothing I haven’t seen before.  Hello Kitty candy, Disneyland-esque lollipops, your usual grocery store candy, the usual movie theatre candy, some imported candy, and candy from your (well, my) childhood (Now and Laters and Poprocks!).

 

All in all, I wasn’t impressed by Sweet Hart Sweets.  It was way too mediocre for a sweets shop in Los Angeles.  L.A. has too many amazing dessert spots, and its hard to compete.  If you want to go to a real candy store, visit It Sugar (to be reviewed as part of the LA Dessert Tour soon!), or Dylan’s Candy Bar.  Sweet Hart Sweets has a fraction of the candy offered at It Sugar or Dylan’s Candy Bar.  Sweet Hart Sweets also does private parties, like Dylan’s, but I have no idea what those are like.  Furthermore, I was actually disappointed by the frozen yogurt and gelato.  Both were extremely watery, and I have no idea why.  Not melty, the way it should be, watery.  Probably the worst gelato I’ve ever had, as the watery texture just made it weird.  Also, the worst frozen yogurt I’ve ever had.  The taste is artificial, as well as the weird watery texture.  Yogurtland (another stop to be reviewed on the Dessert Tour!) is defintely the place to go for fro-yo.  Also, the cashier girl charged me for a gelato when I actually got frozen yogurt!  (there is a difference: yogurt is 38 cents/oz. while gelato is 75 cents/oz.)  And I left so I wasn’t even able to tell her she had it wrong and get my money back!  I didn’t try any of the baked goods, but I have a feeling they won’t be amazing.  I asked the kids working there if they were baked in the store, and they told me that all the baked goods were baked off-location and brought over in the morning

But the worst part about Sweet Hart Sweets was not the sweets; it was the service.  I don’t know if I just went on a bad day or what, but the service was very bad.  There were three workers (all kids) that day.  One was the manager, but she doesn’t do anything.  She spent the majority of her time in the back, and was not available to answer questions or listen to complaints.  Arielle, the girl working (the one who overcharged me; do avoid her if you visit) at the time, was extremely rude and unhelpful.  She rolled her eyes when customers asked for samples, didn’t know the answers to any questions, and complained when customers took photos, never smiled, and spent her work shift examing her fingernails.  On the other hand, Ivan, the boy working with Arielle, was extremely nice and helpful.  He gave out heaping samples to every customer, and actually offered samples to everyone who walked through the door.  He also answered questions as much as he could, and was very polite.  But only 1 good employee out of 3?  Not good enough for me.

So why did I include Sweet Hart Sweets on my Los Angeles Dessert Tour?  After I got home, I googled the store and found that it is actually the brainchild of Melissa Joan Hart, of Sabrina the Teenage Witch fame!  Sabrina was quite popular during her time, so there are probably a lot of people out there who would like to visit Melissa’s sweets shop, so I thought it was worthy of a review as part of my LA Dessert Tour. Oh, and the interior makes for really cute photos!

Essentially, Sweet Hart Sweets tried to cram Dylan’s Candy Bar, Yogurtland, Sprinkles, and gelato all into one place… and kind of failed.  The second happiest place on earth?  Nice try, Melissa.  I definitely have some suggestions for the business model of this place, but that’s another blog post for another blog.

One of the things that the readers of this blog do not know about me is that I am a Huge Hello Kitty Fanatic. I can’t believe I have managed to blog for this long and not mention my Hello Kitty obsession! Hello Kitty is not just an adorable character to me, she is a friend and source of inspiration (do I sound crazy? I hope not). I wrote my college admissions essay on Hello Kitty (she got me into UCLA and every other school I applied to), wrote two term papers in college about Hello Kitty, flew across the country to get my hands on a Hello Kitty Tokidoki, obsessively play Hello Kitty Online (if you’re into gaming, I recommend Hello Kitty Roller Rescue; its superfun), collect everything Hello Kitty; I will buy and overpay for ANYthing with Hello Kitty on it, my bedroom looks like a 4-year-old lives in it… yea, you get the idea. I love Hello Kitty!

And so, ever since it opened its doors January 2008, it has been one of my life goals to go to Hello Kitty Sweets, the official Hello Kitty themed restaurant and bakery in Taipei, Taiwan. I believe this is the only official Hello Kitty themed restaurant in the world! A fantasyland of Hello Kitty AND dessert?! My idea of heaven! And lucky me, I was able to go and now I get to share the fantasy with you!

fantasy decor

Hello Kitty Sweets is AmazinG, even for non-Hello Kitty aficionados. The décor is pure fantasy, and the food has all been “Hello Kitty-ized”, and everything is so adorable you’re afraid to eat it and destroy the fantasy. The entire building is pink, and done up with ribbon trimmings and sparkling chandeliers. The walls are quilted (think faux-Chanel), and even the staff are part of the fantasy, with cute pink aprons and kitty ears. Everything is fit for a princess!

Hello Kitty Puff Pastry

The food is extremely fusion, but very tasty. Everything on the menu is a set meal, aside from the cakes and pastries available in the bakery. We had a baked rice dish with cheese (Taiwanese attempt at risotto), and rice and seafood puff pastry in the shape of Hello Kitty’s head. Each entrée comes with a side of potato salad, an appetizer of sweet corn chowder, and a drink of your choice (we had the mint frappacino and the kiwi smoothie). Every entrée is gorgeously plated with a pretty salad and hello kitty designs made by condiments and spices. Each meal also finishes with a tiny piece of cake and fruit. The dessert was probably my least favorite, as it was light fluffy asian cake that looked like chocolate, but tasted more like vanilla. But the entrees and sides were all delicious!

Hello Kitty "risotto"

kiwi smoothie

 The Menu is another source of fun at Hello Kitty Sweets. It comes in the form of a giant book, with full page color photos of Kitty in various outfits and settings, as well as pictures of every entrée and pretty desserts. Everything has detailed complete description so you can make an informed choice. One of my favorite parts of Hello Kitty Sweets is the window where you can watch the bakers making Hello Kitty desserts. All of the desserts are either Hello Kitty shaped, or have impressions of Hello Kitty somewhere, and are just completely Hello Kitty-ed out!

the making of Hello Kitty sweets

Momoberry-esque Dessert Kitty

Hello Kitty Sweets also has its own line of specific Hello Kitty Sweets merchandise. The Hello Kitty Sweets Kitty has eyelashes (somewhat like the Momoberry Kitty), wears stripes, and is always seen holding a cappuccino or slice of cake. Supercute!

If you plan on going to Hello Kitty Sweets, make sure you plan ahead! It is always crowded and there are always multiple groups celebrating their birthdays/baby showers/etc there. The place is usually packed, so make reservations if you can! Also, I was amazed by the amount of men at a Hello Kitty restaurant! There were a lot of couples, husbands and wives, but also bigger parties with quite a few teenage boys. I even saw one party of 10 where 9 women were celebrating the only male at the table’s birthday (I felt kind of embarrassed for him; they brought out a giant Hello Kitty cake with candles and everyone sang to him).

Hello Kitty seating

But everyone is happy at Hello Kitty Sweets! How can you not be, when surrounded by so much happiness, yumminess, sparkliness, prettiness, and sugar?!

hello kitty dessert

If you are lucky enough to visit, the address is: 90, Da-an Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市大安路一段90號)

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If you like reading about other sweet eats, check out my Dessert Tour of New York City!

Remember when I went on that wonderful dessert tour of NYC not so long ago?  Well, I was sitting around and reminiscing about those wonderful chocolate souffle cupcakes from Kyotofu, and majorly craving them.  They were voted the Best Cupcakes in NYC, and SO good!  They melt in your mouth like truffles, AND have tofu in them (which kind of makes them healthy)!  So I decided that I HAD to have some, even though I was on the West Coast and miles away from Kyotofu!  I mean, I have a kitchen, and I know how to make Chocolate Souffle, so it can’t be that hard, right?

…not really.  I tried variations of chocolate souffles, flourless chocolate cake, and even brownies, and then even combinations of the three, but nothing was right. They were all either too fudgy or too chewy or too crispy (well I think I overbaked that batch)… and if you think a chocolate souffle cupcake is just an overbaked chocolate souffle (like I did), let me tell you, you are wrong (overbaked chocolate souffles are not nearly as yummy as the real thing)!  so I went to plan B – digging around Google with my handy dandy digging around Google skills aquired from college!  I should’ve done this sooner, because I soon found the ACTUAL Kyotofu recipe! YAY!

mini-chocolate souffles cupcakes from kyotofu

I then proceeded to bake them, and they were SO delicious!  Not EXACTLY like the ones I had in NYC, but closer than anything I had tried.  I’m sure they’ll become perfection with more practice.  Here’s the recipe, so try it out for yourselves!  Just remember to use the best quality dark chocolate you can find, and to puree the tofu into smoothness BEFORE you blend it into the batter (I didn’t the first time… and ended up with tiny chunks of tofu in my cupcakes).  Oh, and the recipe says it makes 24 mini cupcakes, but I got 36 mini cupcakes.  The more the merrier!

Kyotofu’s Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes

2 cups dark chocolate (preferably Valrhona pellets, 64 percent)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon white miso
3 eggs
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup Japanese bread flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder (preferably Valrhona)
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup silken tofu
1/4 cup soy milk, unsweetened (preferably Vitasoy)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare 24-36 mini-cupcake liners for baking. (1) Melt chocolate, butter, and miso in double boiler over low heat, stirring occasionally. When only small lumps remain, remove from heat and stir until completely smooth. Whip eggs until they reach “ribbon stage,” then pour chocolate mixture into mixing bowl with the eggs, varying the mixing speed to incorporate chocolate. (2) Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, mixing together with hands or a whisk. Fold the dry ingredients into the chocolate, mixing until fully incorporated. Add tofu and soy milk slowly, mixing until fully incorporated. (3) Fill batter almost to the top. Bake for 20 minutes, rotating tray halfway through, until center springs back when touched. Dust with confectioners’ sugar if desired.

Alice’s Tea Cup

the desserts: pumpkin scone, buttermilk scone, blueberry scone, mocha chocolate chip cake, assorted cookies

tea party goodies

the assessment:  Tea parties are so fun!  Especially at Alice’s Tea Cup!  We had a typical tea party composed of skirts, headbands, raised pinkies, exotic teas, tiny sandwiches and wonderful desserts. 

Inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this shop is absolutely darling.  The walls feature fabulous quotes from the book (one of my all-time favorite books, but the way), and depictions of Alice herself!  My favorite part of the decor were the swinging doors that led to the kitchen with keyhole shaped windows, reminiscent of the door Alice goes through in the story!

And the desserts!  Everything was supercute, and they had the most amazing scones I’ve ever had! They have all sorts of creative scones, like blackberry coconut, and the regular flavors, like buttermilk.  I don’t usually like scones, because I feel like I’m eating bread and not dessert, but these scones did not taste like any other scone I’ve ever had before!  They were perfectly moist and soft, and the texture was more like cake than a biscuit (like scones I’m used to).  They still weren’t very sweet, but I didn’t miss the sugar!  The mocha chocolate chip cake was also delicious, and had the perfect blend of chocolate and mocha.  Deeeelicious!

Our supercute tea party outfits (I'm dressed as Alice!)