Extraordinary Desserts

After a few days vacationing in San Diego recently (boogie-boarding, Shamu), en route to the Wild Animal Park, my kids and I decided to stop for a little civilization in the form of tea and dessert.  Not just any dessert, either, but the cakes and confections at Karen Krasne's sugar palace, Extraordinary Desserts.  It was a place I'd heard about (in reverential tones) from foodie friends and pastry chefs but had never visited. 

Krasne, who holds a Certificat de Pâtisserie from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, opened the original Extraordinary Desserts near San Diego's Balboa Park 19 years ago; a second store opened in 2004 in Little Italy, near downtown.  We hit the original location, where we found tranquil tables alongside cases filled with a vast selection of beautiful cakes and tortes and tarts --many of which were decorated with edible flowers Krasne gets from a local organic farmer. 

While my daughters sipped cups of Mariage Frères tea and I knocked back a double cappuccino (Seattle-based Zoka beans), we stared at this stunning creation, a Pavlova filled with white chocolate cream, studded with fresh berries and flowers, and napped with an elaborate painting of raspberry, blackberry and strawberry sauces.  I thought it looked too pretty to eat.  My daughters, however, had no aesthetic qualms and demolished it.  Along with a Valrhona chocolate (both dark and milk) pot de crème and a bowl of nougatine ice cream (they'd just run out of salted caramel, much to the girls' dismay).  Armed with a substantial sugar high, we set off north, taking a lemon bar (shortbread crust, candied lemons, more flowers) for the road. 

Extraordinary Desserts, 2929 5th Ave., San Diego, (619) 294-2132, and 1430 Union St., San Diego, (619) 294-7001.

-- Amy Scattergood

Photos by Amy Scattergood