The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection

From Bakery Nouveau’s website:

Phoenix
This cake scored the highest points in the National Pastry Championship, 2005. It is a triple layer mousse cake with a delicate balance of pear mousse, 70% chocolate mousse, caramel mousse, pecan dacquoise and chocolate sponge cake. All covered with a caramel glaze

I’ll be honest.  I had to go to Wikipedia to get the definition of dacquoise, which is apparently a nut meringue.

This was wonderful.  This would have been wonderful after a nice meal at a nice restaurant.  It’s even more wonderful to be able to dash out (see previous post) to your neighborhood bakery (if you happen to live near the Junction in West Seattle) and just pick one up on the spur of the moment.  It was creamy and delicate.  There was nice crunch at the bottom from the dacquoise.  And just to clarify that it was Cupcake Addict appropriate….it was about the size of a jumbo cupcake AND there was a tiny approximately 1/4 inch thick layer of sponge cake in there just under the pecan layer.   (Cup shaped and cake containing = cupcake, no matter how posh it may be.)  I honestly didn’t notice the pear mousse.  Perhaps that was all part of the “delicate balance”…leaving the pear mousse as a subtle accent flavor not a central one.  This was a bit rich, perhaps from the caramel glaze, but not overly sweet.   (You should all know how I feel about caramel by now.)   Mr Shuck had about 2 bite portion (which he thought was “good stuff”).  I had the rest.  It was worth the $5.50 that I paid for it.  It would have been worth the $5.50 AND the 2 mile round trip walk that would have gotten me there and back if it hadn’t been raining.  (Raining in Seattle?  Who’d have thunk it?!)

Phoenix Cake image stolen from Bakery Nouveau

Phoenix Cake Interior: click to enlarge