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Satura Cakes and Cinnabon, a closer look
Aloha!
1/16/09 - There sure is something to be said about quality in baking. And there's also plenty to say about the shameless, excessive use of overwhelming amounts of sugar, as well! We'll check out both extremes today - Satura definitely takes the cake when it comes to fine desserts, while there's not many things on the planet more indulgingly sweeter than rolls at American-style fast-food franchise Cinnabon, which we'll check out in the second half of today's closer look.
Satura Cakes was started by a Japanese businessman, who, while working in California's Silicon Valley, was surprised to find that the quality of desserts in the States was very much lacking in comparison to the Euro-inspired designer bakeries he was so accustomed to in Japan. Seizing an opportunity but also wanting to enjoy the same fine desserts while in America, he took Japanese Chefs trained in the fine art of European-style baking, who then built on it to create a product that has become uniquely Japanese - modern-style Japanese, that is. I say that because Japan, as you know, while being unbelievably harmonious, is also highly dichotomous, fostering tranquil, traditional images of Zen priests, serene gardens, and hunch-backed obachan's working rice paddies just as easily as it inspires images of global conglomerations, ultra-modern cities, and a disciplined, hyper-technological population waaay out on the cutting edge.
Satura Cakes symbolizes the Japanese penchant for progressive refinement through a stylish presentation of hip, modern stores, almost along the lines of super-fancy Starbucks outlets, with an end-product that strives for confectionary perfection. Everything here is made labor-intensively from scratch, from real butter and natural milk fats, which are much more difficult to work with because they spoil faster and are more expensive than industrially-manufactured mixes used at most bakeries in America. These easy-to-use powders combine with artificially hydrogenated shortenings (or come already combined in a dough), which not only contain trans-fats, but also taste bland and leave a chemical-like film on your mouth (not that anyone really notices anymore). Personally, I'm more of a butter than margarine and whole milk than Skim kind-of-guy, so that suits me just fine. Anyhow, and in a final double-whammy, such inexpensive, inferior products force everyone to overcompensate by adding even more sugar and more unhealthy fats! No wonder...
For an interesting twist, though, I've actually heard on more than one occasion opinions that find such high-quality cakes wanting, mostly from those who find them not as sweet nor satiating as regular cakes. True, it is, that if Hostess Twinkies, frozen pies, and other Supermarket-variety cakes are your thing, you may not be quite as gratified by the more subtle qualities of high-end cakes. Fair enough, I say! Stick with whichever side floats your boat! After all, if I didn't appreciate the taste nor artisanship, I'd sure hate to fork out the over-$30 price tag on cakes like this chocolate-layer cake, which comes less than half the size of a typical cake, and at more than double the price! As you can see, it was around Christmas-time (on Christmas day, actually!), and these pics were taken through reflective glass-display cases.
Personally, I must say, if I could dump, exclusively, every single twinkie, donut, and cookie out there in favor of products like here at Satura, I'd do it in a heartbeat! The only thing stopping me are higher prices, not to mention the total ease of finding cheaper varieties basically everywhere you go! It's hard to go a day or two at the office without someone flashing you some type of sweet, baked treat, and chances are, they'll be of the artificially-hydrogenated kind.
But are items from the real deal not quite as sweet, as opined earlier? I'd have to say yes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing all the time. Cakes of this nature are so much lighter, so much more natural-tasting, so much more full of refinement and quality that you just don't need as much sugar and heavy flavors to gain a healthy appreciation of them. In fact, there is simply no way to appreciate them in the same context as attention-grabbing levels of sugar and shortenings in desserts found just about everywhere. As a result, they do get drowned out amongst such bold applications of ingredients. It's like comparing a finely-crafted David Oscarson pen to a bucket of paint - different strokes for different folks, is all.
This strawberry shortcake, like the chocolate cake earlier, ran north of $30, and, like everything else here, came with the unmistakeable quality that sets Satura and other like-minded bakeries apart.
Another aspect about these cakes is that they look a bit denser than most cakes, but when you slice into them, they feel much, much lighter on the tongue, with smaller pockets of air but more of them, and a soft, moist, feather-light body. I see why some people don't feel quite as satiated after eating one of these, though. One slice of a normal cake or pie, as fabulous as it may taste at the time, usually leaves me with a bloated, heavy feeling that makes me wanna take a long snooze on the sofa afterwards. Some associate this particular feeling with a bliss, and others, with bloat! Satura Cakes are different, never weighing you down nearly as much, still leaving you clear-minded and light on your toes. It's kinda like the difference between a bbq-meat-filled plate lunch and a tempeh scallopini plate from Well Bento.
The same goes for other varieties of sweet treats, like this delicious chocolate tiramisu, strawberry shortcake cup, and blueberry parfait, all in the cutesiest individual-sized servings.
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Satura Cakes is very similiar to another great Euro-Japanese-inspired designer bakery, Patisserie La Palme D'or, at the Ala Moana Shopping Center, a store perhaps slightly more elegant and ritzy than Satura Cakes, which tends to carry a bit more of a casual, mainstream feel. Their end products, however, are indistinguishable to me, and both the envy of my dessert world.
We'll leave Satura Cakes with a final view from inside the store on Ward Ave. As you can see - clean, classy, sophisticated, yet casual, with a superior line of desserts that will impress the most discriminating of tastes - perfect as a treat when visiting your rich uncle high atop the Hokua building or Nauru Towers.
One sweet treat that will leave you weighed down and feeling like Rusty the Honolulu Zoo Orangutan lost in a Kaneohe Banana Patch is the infamous Cinnabon, from none other than... Cinnabon, thank you.
This outrageously sticky, gooey, sin-filled wrap of layer upon layer of warm dough, Makara cinnamon, and most of all, a cream cheese/sugar mix measured by the cup instead of tablespoon, will leave you tapping out as quickly as Georges St. Pierre will when he faces BJ Penn later this month in Las Vegas (ouch!). Just kidding - it'll be a tough fight, for sure!
Anyways, just take a look, and tell me what ya think...
How's that for indulgent? Worse yet, I have a friend who orders these things with extra white glaze poured on top! What the...?#@!
You know how most biscuits, rolls, cupcakes, or muffins leave you savoring the glazed or sugar-coated outer-surface layer, all because the entire inside area is not quite sweet enough? Well, don't worry about that here! Cinnabon takes wide, thin strips of dough, bathes each piece on all sides with a glaze of white frosting and a sticky, super-sweetened cinnamon sauce, then rolls them into concentric circles to produce a single roll with a surface area as large as 10 Krispy Kreme donuts! No matter how far you go towards the inside, you'll still find the outside! Aaah, excess - it's the American way!!!
Recently, they've brought on another worthy item, calling it a Pecanbon. It uses the same principles as a Cinnabon, only it's topped with chopped pecans and a rich, sweet caramel sauce. And yes, my friend also orders extra caramel sauce, too!
Amazing, I tell you. I know just as many who swear by this gooey mess as do the cleaner, more refined tastes at Satura. I do believe most are actually well-acquainted with desserts like Cinnabon, however, if you haven't given the other side a chance, I implore you to give it shot sometime. You may like it, you may not, but first and foremost, you'll have tried something new.
Because Gold, it is, when tasting from something you've never tried, seeing from an angle you've never viewed, or experiencing from a side you never even knew was there! The adventurer always tells the best stories, gets the best shots, and lives the fullest, most envious of lives. It's all about covering new ground, expanding the mind, and always, always learning something new. That's what makes it all worth it, ey? The actual taste is only frosting on the cake, so just rush 'em!
Take care and Aloha till next time!
Sweet dreams,
Aku
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