"A party without cake is just a meeting." - Julia Child
Well-said by one of my favorite cooking icons. *applause applause* I do believe in this saying and for me, my birthday will never complete without cakeS. Yes, plural. I really love having a lot of cakes and while yearly, my family knows this already so we would have at least 2 cakes to enjoy. There are years wherein I'd get 3 or 4. However, this year was probably extra special despite being on lockdown (it was the first day of GCQ exactly on my birthday) as I got not 1, not 2, but 6 amazing cakes which we all enjoyed and shared with the rest of the family during my birthday! I was so touched with all the love and sweetness from my friends and family. One cake that stood out was this. It was from Hearts and Bells who are very popular in the wedding scene as they specialize in creating wedding/tinghun/customized cakes. In fact, they have been my sister's go-to cake supplier as they made her wedding cake and the 1st birthday cakes of my niece and nephew. Anyway, going back to my birthday cake. Take a look at it below.
Tadahhhh! I was so shocked with the size when it was delivered to me. For a minute there, it reminded me of our wedding cake. In fact, I think our wedding cake wasn't this wide. I had to double check if it was really for me but one peek at the cake and I thought to myself.. "yup! That's me alright." It was a ginormous creation complete with a teapot, a dimsum basket and even all the sauces too. I am so amazed at the amount of research, time and creativity that was poured into making this cake. Now, the real test of every cake is how it tastes inside. Can you guess which one has the cake inside? If you guessed the dim sum basket, then you're right! I am happy to share that as breathtakingly beautiful this cake is on the outside, it was also mind-blowingly delicious inside. The cake inside was banana chocolate and really I love this combination. For me, you can never go wrong with banana and decadent chocolate put together. I love how the sweetness level was just right and it stayed moist all throughout. The size was just right and indeed, it was the first cake to get wiped out as everyone just wanted more.
Apart from their customized cakes, they also have their regular cakes which you cane order as a gift or whenever you're just badly craving for really good cakes that's within budget. My family loves chiffon cake as they can never take anything too sweet or heavy with cream. Chiffon cake has that perfect lightness and balance that we all love for our dessert. Together with my birthday cake, I got to also try to more chiffon cakes.
Hearts and Bells makes real good
Chocolate Cake. It's smooth, spongey and the chocolate was so comforting that it's the best thing to enjoy if you want a bit of pick-me-upper. Also, having those strawberries on top just catapulted this cake to the top of my list. In case you do not know, our wedding theme was
Chocolates and Strawberries -- two of our most favorite desserts and this cake was just what it is. We all enjoyed this cake for days following my birthday and it still never fails to make our day extra happy.
Then comes the age-old debate -- chocolates or caramel? If you're more of a caramel fan, you have to try
Hearts and Bells'
caramel cake. Similar to the Chocolate cake, it's made of chiffon and each layer has that light caramel cream in between. It's classic and delicious. I'm just not a fan of any floral icing so I removed mine before enjoying my caramel cake till the last bit of icing. Yum!
I was so impressed with Hearts and Bells' cakes that it was at the top of my mind whenever I need to give cakes as gift. In fact, I ordered a customized cake from them for the birthday of my friend's little boy and they delivered as agreed. Needless to say, we made the birthday celebrants and his family very happy that day. Yay!
A few months after my birthday, I got to enjoy
Hearts and Bells newest cake -- the
Ube Cake. This, I gotta say, they have the best
Ube Cake in town. I'm saying this without any biased but I've tried so many Ube Cakes and I was never blown away by it so it came to a point wherein I told myself, maybe ube cake is not just a favorite of mine. Then, I tried
Hearts and Bells. I had zero expectations and I thought it would be just like all those other ube cakes that I've tried before. I got myself a really small piece and what do you know? The creaminess, the fine bits of ube (purple yam) and the light chiffon cake. This was just perfection. Even Mommy agreed that it's one of the best that she has tried. Bravo!
Lastly, for Paul's birthday, of course we did not forget to have
Hearts and Bells as part of the celebration. This time, for our very own superhero, we had
Mocha Cake. Same chiffon cake enveloped in layers of mocha cream and the cake was topped with their signature floral icing. Taking a bite of the chiffon can easily show you
Hearts and Bells' expertise in baking cakes. With decades of serving hundreds (or maybe thousands) of customers, they have perfected their chiffon cake whereby keeping it light and spongey but still it manages to keep the whole tall cake intact. Amazing. This was once again another new cake flavor.
It's impressive that despite being in the business for so long, they just continue to innovate and update their menu. Imagine from June till today, I have managed to try 5 different cakes from Hearts and Bells and I've been impressed 5x and been to cake heaven 5x as well.
With the holiday coming, I found another reason to buy a cake to celebrate the festivities. It'll be a one of a kind Christmas for us though as we will do away with our family gathering and will instead stay home and celebrate with one another online. We've been doing this for several birthday celebrations in the family this year and it's just better to stay safe for now, keep our distance and enjoy our cake at the comfort of our home.
Check out Hearts and Bells on Facebook and Instagram.
