Chinatown Cake Club

Some people would like to have you believe that this is way more exclusive than it really is. The intrigue will also make it seem more special than it really was.
$ 20 buys you an hour in a cozy Chinatown apartment, home of Victoria, the chef, [who, by the way, is gorgeous] and a sampling of about 8 different kinds of desserts (¾ inch sliver of cake). Well, sign me up. I had high hopes about this; I imagined a slew of dessert enthusiasts sampling bite sized cakes in a pastel colored room with antique cake racks. This, my friends, is not a scene from Marie Antoinette.
Victoria’s cakes are American in texture [in my opinion], heavy, flaky, sometimes grainy, with heavy frosting, as opposed to being finer? It was kind of like… cake mix cake? But flavors are more varied, which helps break it up a bit.
So you pay, grab a menu and wait for Her Highness to break into the pristine cakes, one of which had the face of Biggie Smalls printed on it. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful especially since she was nice enough to host complete strangers in her apartment. But the set-​up is a little awkward. No one wants to be the thirsty firsty to ask to cut into a cake, and Victoria seemed a little reluctant to do so herself. Um, we’re here for the cake, why are we sitting around playing coy? I understand she is soft-​spoken, but the hosting is a little passive. I felt uncomfortable asking her for cake. It was not the convivial fête I imagined.
Of the cakes I sampled, the highlight was the artist tribute, biggie cake which had Hennessey sauce and plantains, but because the cake was cut so thin, you end up scrambling up crumbled pieces.
The ice cream was runny and icey. I tried the soy sauce ice cream, because I just love being weird. Spent the next three hours wanting to throw up.
Overall, it’s an interesting way to spend an hour of your Sunday, but I’ve had much better cakes elsewhere.

Black Velvet Cake, with Varlhona ganache & Szechuan pepper white chocolate glaze, and the Ginger Goat Milk Cheesecake, encrusted with crushed gingersnaps and garnished with poached satsumas