Sometimes the journey can be equally as exciting as the destination. With the Chinatown Cake Club, it all begins very secretive and clandestine.

You must apply via email to attend. On the day of the event, you receive a text message with location details. That location is deep in Chinatown, on the fifth floor of a walk-up. You’re greeted at the door by the “mouncer” - the money collector/bouncer (more hipster than intimidating pumping iron kind of guy), who takes your $20 entrance fee. Now you’re in someone’s apartment, starring at strangers, who are all eyeing a countertop filled with various desserts.

The host emerges. She is beautiful and a bit shy. Once the first cake is cut, people gather around the counter and slowly, everyone warms up and the informal gathering begins.

Pastry chef Victoria Howe started the cake club in December of 2009 as a private fan club for dessert aficionados.  Once word got out, sugar junkies all over the city deluged her with emails, clamoring for a spot in the following month’s club.

Ten desserts are offered, ranging from traditional (dark chocolate fudge cake) to more exotic (durian poundcake, banana leaf sticky rice, soy sauce ice cream) and usually one or two cakes devoted to a famous artist (Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, Notorious B.I.G.).

How did you decide to start the Chinatown Cake Club?

Initially, I had the idea of doing a secret bakery when I was still living in Seattle. I had a really great apartment and I wanted to turn it into a secret shop, where I would let strangers in maybe once a week and just get the word out through cryptic fliers.

I've always loved to bake, but I didn't have any professional training, and I thought it would be a mutually beneficial food/social experiment that would allow me to bake as much as I wanted to, try new recipes, and meet strange people. Unfortunately in Seattle it never panned out and I mostly forgot about the idea. But after I had been living in Manhattan a little while I remembered it one night, made up a mock invitation in bed, and had it up and running the next day.

What was your initial vision and has it changed over the months since you’ve been hosting the club?

At first I wanted it to be a very small affair, just with friends and friends of friends.

I have a background in literary arts and I liked the idea of paper invitations or fliers, calling a number to RSVP, that kind of thing. Intimate, old-fashioned, and a little weird. But after I emailed a few people about it, a friend of a friend posted it on their blog, and within hours I had literally hundreds of people emailing me, asking to come over - which was exciting, but definitely disconcerting. I thought about it awhile though, and I realized then that it meant I could make even more cakes and try out more recipes I had been waiting to test. And what was the worst that could happen? The first one went pretty good, so I just kept going. There have definitely been some difficulties and trial-and-error, but overall this has become a really positive experience for me.

How do you decide who and how many attend the Cake Club nights?

It's pretty much first-come, first-serve, and since my place is really small I can only feed so many. Although, if you live in Chinatown or send me a nice email, that helps swing things in your favor. Or flat-out bribery...just kidding!

Is it odd to have people you don’t know in your apartment?

No, not at all. I like seeing strangers come into this very personal space and how they respond to the setting, myself, and my food. I like to people-watch. I haven't really had anyone that creepy or weird, so far at least. Knock on wood.

What kind of pre-production is necessary before the big night?

I do a ton of prep, but spaced out in between lots of NPR, old movies, and Law & Order re-runs (my guilty pleasure, only when I am baking!) it doesn't seem like so much. One day I will make all my simple syrups, another I will weigh and portion out dry ingredients, etc.

Aside from all the actual food production, I buy tea and make coffee for everyone, put out books I think are interesting to browse through, sanitize all surfaces, and make sure to hide anything in my apartment that's incriminating!

You use exotic ingredients - durian, taro, soy - which many people might be fearful to experiment with in baking. How did you learn to bake with these kinds of ingredients?

My mother is Chinese-Malaysian and I end up using a lot of Southeast Asian ingredients in my cooking because that's what I like and what I know. I have lived in Hong Kong and Malaysia and this type of food is what I gravitate toward naturally.

I also have a lot of Chinatown pride and I like shopping around in all the little markets and finding weird little packets of ground spices, or fruits that I think are under-represented in the pastry world, and finding a place for them that gives them a wider audience.

What's the most unusual thing you've done so far?

I don't think anything I have made has been too wild, since I do like to keep things edible. Taste-wise, the soy sauce ice cream or durian cake were probably the strangest things I've made. People really love/hate those - I had people request more and take some home, and then I had other (non-Asian, ha ha) people say it made them want to vomit, which I thought was amusing. As far as pure aesthetic goes the David Wojnarowicz cake was probably the most visually weird. It looked like his face was erupting out of the top of the cake, like he had been buried alive and was trying to escape out of the frosting. He is one of my favorite artists and that was one of my favorite cakes.

What is your background in pastry?

I worked in accessories/fashion design and literary arts for a long time before I ever worked in a formal kitchen. But when I moved to the East Coast about two years ago, I was burnt out from that and I wanted to do something different. I got lucky and found a job as a cake decorator, something I thought always sounded kind of interesting and odd. Who works as a cake decorator anymore? From there I started doing freelance work for an organic market, delivering baked goods on my bicycle, and then when I moved to Manhattan, I trailed in a restaurant kitchen until I became a pastry chef.

Will you go beyond sweet and add savory?

Nah. I love savory food and I love to cook, but pastry has a more mad scientist feel to it for me. I also like the visuals of baked goods very much, the decorum and gilt and plastic-ness of it all. I think I like the display and decoration of cakes more than the actual baking sometimes. My friends can cook me dinner - I like to be the one that makes dessert.

Tell us about the artist series.

Every month I do a cake tribute to an artist I admire. I select an image I like, print it on edible rice paper with edible ink, and then transfer it on the cake. I got the idea after doing a job for another company where I had to learn how to use the transfers for the first time. After seeing how easy it was, and how other cakes using this technique were so cheesy and predictable, I wanted to try using them to make a more surrealist cake.

Do you have a go-to knife, gadget or ingredient that you would advise a baker to stock?

A Kitchen Aid mixer is essential for me. Other than that I am pretty bare-bones. I am used to working with limited space and tools.

I think having good music on hand is just as important as any ingredient. I need a little distraction to keep me going. Making food can sometimes feel like a dance, moving quickly in a small space, you develop rhythm.

Do you have an unsophisticated dessert little secret that you love (e.g. Twinkies)?

Um...no? I think all the desserts I like are sophisticated in their own little way. I am kind of a hippie when it comes to the food I eat (I used to be vegan for a long time) and I very rarely eat anything processed.

Occasionally I'll get a bubble tea craving, but it passes quickly. A couple weeks ago I ate an entire durian all by myself, though - it was rather shameless!

Who are the purveyors that inspire your creativity?

Street vendors in Chinatown, old school bakeries with scary looking Styrofoam wedding cakes in the windows, the produce trucks underneath the Manhattan Bridge, the boxed-baked goods aisle at low income neighborhood grocery stores... I get inspiration everywhere. I try to shop in my neighborhood and buy things from small vendors as much as possible.

What is the future of the club?

I'm not sure. Summer is coming and I don't know how well the Cake Club will fare in New York City humidity. I would like to keep doing it because it's fun and good exercise for me, but I also don't want to end up burning myself out. I have a few other projects in mind for the future that tie into some of my other interests though and those might end up materializing after the summer is over. I will continue to do freelance projects, but I'd also love to open a cake shop/book shop someday... we'll see!

April 27, 2010

Cakes / Pastries / Ice-cream

Chinatown

Chinatown, NY

Website:

www.chinatowncakeclub.com

- Recommendations: Victoria Howe

- Etc: Regional Chinese Cooking

- Recommendations: Ed Schoenfeld

- Recommendations: Chef Joe Ng

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