Mmm, cookie! SuVan's Cafe and Bake Shop

Mmm, peanut butter.

This is a cute little bakery across the street from Starbucks near my Aunt and Uncle's house. I saw them. I read about them in TimeOut. I had to go.

So the Mom went to Starbucks and I went to SuVan's.

A peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. It was 3-inches round, very home-made-y. The peanut butter dough was studded with bittersweet chocolate chunks.

It was moist, it was buttery. It was good. Yum-o!

SuVan's - A!

SuVan's Cafe and Bake Shop
3351 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657
773) 281-0120

Hedwig!

*ahem*

*clutching my head*

Is it possible to be hung-over without, you know, actually drinking?

My head is thumping, I think it's finally getting over the cold/sinus-thing and is now protesting everything that happened this weekend. *snerk*

It's a short week, and yet it will be so long. I have graduation tomorrow...well, the department has graduation tomorrow and that means I have to haul ass today to finish up projects that I never got last week (re: name-tags and programs, I'm having KP-issues!).

What I'm thinking about? Hedwig. Coffee. Friday. Breakfast with Chip and Dale on my Birthday. And? Watching The Muppet Movie with my parents on Saturday, in celebration.

I'm not sure if that's sad or not. Let's go with NOT, OK? ;)

Birthday Fun (part one!)...

Yum-o!

And? I got many Mini-themed presents. Snerk. Too funny.

The party was relaxing and fun. The food rocked and the red velvets? Dude. :)
Everyone climbed all over Hedwig and checked her out - they all approved. *ahem*

Well, would you look at that?

Huh. Those look like keys to a Mini Cooper.

Mmm, cake! Rolf Patisserie (Whole Foods)

Seriously, what is not to love with a cake named Death by Chocolate?

Hee.

This was my back up cake, in case the Tiramisu was lacking. And it was. But that was for another review, this is about the chocolate goodness that was Death by Chocolate.

It was a wedge of sliced cake, in a cute little plastic container with a spork attached. Hee.

And wow, was it chocolate. Chocolate walnut brownie base, two layers of chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling, iced with chocolate buttercream and decorated with chocolate curls.

Ahem. I wish I had more now.

It kind of looked like it had been dropped a few times, but that didn't really hamper the chocolate-y coma that resulted. In fact, the layers had completely separated into individual segments, but the it tasted good - I think that speaks to the quality of the product, really.

The whole mess was moist, buttery and yummy. The buttercream was kind of grainy, but really, that was because it was ice cold and I was impatient and didn't wait. Snerk.

Rolf Patisserie - B+.

Rolf Patisserie
4343 Touhy Avenue
Lincolnwood, IL
847) 675-6565
http://www.rolfpatisserie.com

Whole Foods Lakeview
3300 North Ashland Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657
773) 244-4200
http://www.wholefoods.com

Mmm, entrement (mousse cake)! Vanille Patisserie

I so wanted to be impressed by this place and the mousse cake. And I was. Kind of. It was as small store front in Chicago and it felt both homey and very refined, all the cakes and macarons beautifully displayed.

I got a tiramisu entrement and a chocolate macaron. I ate the macaron first, but the picture sucked. Sorry.

French macarons are made with egg whites, creating a pastry that is crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside - think of a dome of meringue, with filling. Yum. This one was delicate and chocolate-y. It was about 1.5-inches in diameter and a nice treat.

The tiramisu was light and delicate, made of marscopone mousse, coffee mousse and a thin layer of cake. It was soooo pretty, 3-inches round and about 3-inches tall. It was decorated with lines of chocolate and a little chocolate sign for the pastry shop.

Adorable!

But kind of lacking in execution. It was airy, it was kind of just there. All I remember is that it tasted lightly of coffee. That's it.
Oh well.

Vanille Patisserie Macaron - B.
Vanille Patisserie Tiramisu Entrement - C.

Vanille Patisserie
2229 North Clybourn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614
773) 868-4574
http://www.vanillepatisserie.com