Let Them Eat Cake

By guest columnist Mark Ginsburg

 

One of the striking things about Parisian pastry shops is the absolute consistency of the offerings. There’s a repertoire of 30-odd confections upon which the establishment is judged, which constitute an unyielding part of the French patrimoine. Surprises are quite rare in the French food world.

 

Despite, or because of, the presence of some 50,000 Americans living here, one would never, ever find American-style cake, with its vulgar and unwieldy wedge-like slices, or a slice of pie, with its disorganized fruit, and imperfect strips of crust, in a French pastry shop. The Parisians are warming up to le muffin, and the odd brownie, and cupcakes are sprouting up in some of the ice-cream stores in the 6e arrondissement (think Upper East Side), and le Marais (think Chelsea). Parisians like single-serve items. 

Sugarplum Cake Shop

The new Sugarplum Cake Shop is a total and extremely welcome aberration for Paris. Its unabashedly American-style offerings, and extremely high quality put most Manhattan bakeries

to shame. I recently spoke with Laurel Sanderson, an owner/chef of Sugarplum (she has two partners who also work on-site: Krista, the decorator, and Taylor who is the “schooled” baker who oversees the catering). Sanderson, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, has been living in Paris for many years, and has had jobs at the OECD, and running the student services program for Parsons. Having taken time off to raise her two kids, she observed that  “I kind of lost my flair for sitting at a desk.” Her mother gave her a Kitchen-Aid, and then a batch of her grandmother’s recipes…. “I’m trying to bring in the things we were raised with; that’s where the Rice Krispies treats come in. It’s not a culinary masterpiece, but throw in a glass of lemonade and it’s an American childhood right there in a block.”

 

When a cake isn’t just a cake…

 

When I moved to Paris nearly two years ago it was summer, and I was struck by the lack of flowers in the gardens and the lack of fruit used in baking. Here, a little tart might have blueberries on the top, but this is strictly decorative -- underneath is cream, custard and more dairy. Fruit is expensive in Paris, and travels far to get there; unless it’s heavily sugared or baked, it tends to have a short shelf life. “We have our fruit delivered every day. Very handy,” Sanderson notes. However on a recent Tuesday, sadly, there was no pie offered because the peaches couldn’t withstand the rigors of being put into one. (There’s been a long, dry spell.)

As for the cream cheese deployed in the superior carrot cakes and cheese cakes, the Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese produced in Belgium for European distribution is much thicker (“doublecream”) than the US version, and requires Laurel and Taylor to adapt recipes. “The butter in France also contains 3% more fat than the butter found in America,” Sandborn exclaims, “and makes it hard to have a cookie stand up.” So the two are constantly engineering to make “things look and taste like home,” adding a pinch of oatmeal as they go. Ironically, their kitchen faces the imposing and ancient mur Philippe Auguste, one of the original stone boundary walls of Paris.

Location: 68 rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 5^th arrondissement (at the top of the street, just below the Place de la Contrascarpe, near rue Mouffetard. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 9am to 7pm. Closed Monday.

Clientele: “Switched-on Anglophones.”

Pricing: Not cheap. The baking may be American, but the portions are decidedly French.

Sugarplum caters weddings and events. To place an order: +33 (0)1 46 34 07 43.

 

Unless otherwise indicated, photos by Mark Ginsburg.

Mark Ginsburg lives in Paris and has been a contributing editor of Vanity Fair, Connoisseur, and Interview magazines. He is a frequent contributor to Architectural Digest.