Kiss My Bundt needs to sell 5,000 mini bundts to stay in business

The charming 3rd Street bakery Kiss My Bundt, which we have featured a few times in this blog (since its bundts and cupcakes are so tasty) is in a bit of trouble. Due to the recession and the rising cost of ingredients such as milk, butter, sugar and Belgian chocolate, the little bakery is struggling to stay afloat.

Last week, investor Erin Hill sent out an e-mail saying in part:

Chrysta [Wilson], the owner of the bakery, has been fighting valiantly since things got tough in January, but hasn't been able to build the business fast enough. So it has come down to the next few weeks, in which she has to sell about 5000 mini bundts to raise the money to keep her doors open into the Christmas season, when business will hopefully pick up.

It's surprising news, since the bakery has become a favorite with a lot of dessert-loving people I know and is often mentioned on popular blogs. Wilson even has a "Kiss My Bundt" cookbook coming out over Thanksgiving.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: A maple bacon bundt cake from Kiss My Bundt. Credit: Noelle Carter / Los Angeles Times

Small Bites: Looking for Thanksgiving pies, cakes, galettes and cannoli? Try Village Bakery, Cake Monkey or Platine

Looking for Thanksgiving desserts you can pick up or have delivered? Here are a few bakeries that are doing all the work for you. There's not only pumpkin pie but double-decker pecan and pumpkin, apple and brown butter galettes, pecan dacquoise cake, and cannoli too.

Holy cannoli! Over at Village Bakery & Cafe in Atwater Village (the bakery that has taken over the former LA Bread space on Los Feliz Boulevard), Barbara Monderine (who was a founder and baker at Auntie Em's in Eagle Rock) is baking three kinds of pies for Thanksgiving. There are apple, chocolate-pecan and pumpkin pies. But don't miss out on her pan forte or cannoli (she fries her own cannoli shells) or maybe the individual lemon-olive-oil-rosemary cakes. Anyway, it sounds like you can't go wrong. Place orders by Monday. Open 'til noon on Thanksgiving for pickups. 3119 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 662-8600, www.thevillagebakeryandcafe.com.

Fake-it-and-bake-it: Jamie Cantor at Platine Cookies in Culver City is offering take-and-bake pies: apple, apple cranberry, pecan, and pumpkin for $25. You need only pop them in the oven; meanwhile, it will look like you've done all the work (rolling out the dough, preparing the filling ... ). It gets even easier: Fully-baked pies are $28 to $30, including a double-decker pecan pumpkin pie. And if cookies are required (who doesn't need cookies?), Cantor's twist on the old-fashioned oatmeal raisin cookie has rolled oats, zante currants, granola, chocolate chips and walnuts (the classier compost cookie!). Place orders by Saturday. Pick up  on Wednesday (delivery can be arranged); closed Thanksgiving. 10850 Washington Blvd., (310) 559-9933, www.platinecookies.com.

Did you say toasted marshmallow? Online bake shop Cake Monkey's quirky, refined-retro aesthetic extends to its Thanksgiving offerings. Honey braised pumpkin tart with heirloom pumpkin custard in a graham cracker crust is topped with toasted marshmallow ($40, serves eight). Mini galettes are made with rustic pastry dough filled with either cranberry preserves or roasted apple with brown butter and Vermont cider jelly ($3.75 each, or $37 for a 9-inch that serves eight to 10). Pecan dacquoise cake is layered with brown butter cake, pecan dacquoise and caramel buttercream (individual, $7; 9-inch serves 12 to 17, $68; 10-inch serves 18 to 24, $80). Apple crumble cake has layers of burnt-sugar cake, roasted apple filling, crumble and burnt-sugar buttercream (prices and sizes same as pecan dacquoise cake). Order by Monday. Pickup or delivery. Call (877) 640-CAKE (2253) or (818) 841-0202, www.cakemonkey.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Pumpkin pie by Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

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-- Kelsey Ramos

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Photo credit: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times

Moon Festival: Chinatown throws a party Saturday, and where to get moon cakes

Break out the moon cakes. Chinatown will be hosting Southern California's oldest annual mid-autumn Moon Festival on Saturday from 5:30 to 10 p.m. in Central Plaza, pictured above. The Shaolin Warriors of Chinatown and Chinese acrobats will be putting on a show, followed by a demonstration of moon cake making -- with free samples. Not to be missed is the 2009 Miss L.A. Chinatown Queen and her court explaining the origins of the Moon Festival at dusk. And Griffith Observatory is making telescopes available for the event, demonstrating how to get the best views of Jupiter and the moon.

New to the festival this year is a 5K run, a 5K walk and a 25-mile bike ride. The Moon Festival Fun Bike Ride starts at 4 p.m., with a scenic ride to the Pasadena Rose Bowl and back along the Arroyo Seco bike path, through Lincoln Heights and South Pasadena. The Moonlight 5K Walk/Run starts at 7:30 p.m.; its route includes the L.A. State Historic Park and a sunset view of the old rail yards and downtown Los Angeles.

Central Plaza, 943 to 951 N. Broadway St., Los Angeles. To register for the Moonlight 5K Run/Walk or the Moon Festival Fun Bike Ride, go to www.ChinatownLA.com. Entry fees will apply. Lot parking. Metro Gold Line, Chinatown station. For information, call the Chinatown Business Improvement District at (213) 680-0243, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce at (213) 617-0396, or go to www.ChinatownLA.com.

And where to get moon cakes? See the jump for a listing of bakeries that sell them.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Central Plaza. Credit: Benjamin Reed / Los Angeles Times

Rustic Canyon and Huckleberry's Loeb and Nathan to open ice cream shop in Brentwood Country Mart

The owner of Brentwood Country Mart, known for his painstaking pursuit of tenants he thinks belong in his casual neighborhood hangout, has scored a coup in signing rising culinary stars Zoe Nathan and Josh Loeb to run an ice cream parlor.

The couple opened the hit Huckleberry bakery in Santa Monica earlier this year. Loeb also owns Rustic Canyon Wine Bar & Seasonal Kitchen. Both restaurateurs grew up on the Westside, said Loeb, who has a nostalgic connection to the Country Mart.

"I must’ve gone to Reddi Chick 5,000 times," he said, referring to the mart's popular chicken stand. (He told Food GPS 6,000 times.)

The pair plan to open the shop in January, and will make small batches of ice cream daily. The shop has yet to be named, but "it should be fun," Loeb said. "The idea is to go back to from-scratch craftsmanship of making ice cream in eight to 12 flavors. We'll have ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cakes, root beer floats --  all things ice cream."

Loeb promised he wouldn't get carried away making up exotic new flavors. "The idea is to use really good quality chocolate, strawberries and cream," he said. "Flavors will be old-fashioned but with imaginative twists."

Country Mart owner Jim Rosenfield bought the 60-year-old property on 26th Street in Santa Monica in 2003 and has been chasing his favorite retailers ever since. "Huckleberry is our kind of tenant," he said.

-- Roger Vincent

Photo of Zoe Nathan and Josh Loeb by Ann Johansson / for The Times

The Find: Zaatar Factory in Burbank

Sunny-side-up eggs with flowing yolks and house-made Lebanese beef sausage top the khachapuri at Zaatar Factory in Burbank.

Made to order and served warm from the bakery's oven, the boat-shaped flat bread with high-fluted edges has the look of a chalupa. Your topping choices can vary: cheese or sautéed potatoes instead of sausage, or any combination of these. However you order it, khachapuri ranks up there with eggs Benedict or a smoked salmon omelet as a luxurious morning meal (although this 8-month-old bake shop serves it any time of the day).

The tiny shop's repertoire, a mixture of flour, yeast and family baking tradition, is tightly focused on seasoned and stuffed Lebanese-style breads. Pastries, cakes and even basic breads are left to others.

"Baking is in our family's blood," Zaatar Factory co-owner Silva Haroun says as she stacks beef and mushroom-stuffed breads called burek into a sparkling new display case. "Back in Lebanon, our relatives have owned six shops like this one."

Although the Harouns have lived here since 1979, Zaatar Factory is their first foray into the food business. It took their 23-year-old daughter, Annemarie, to get the ball rolling.

To read the rest of Linda Burum's story, click here.

Photo: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

This week's L.A. Times recipes

 

All recipes that appear in the L.A. Times' weekly Food section are tested and perfected in our test kitchen before they're deemed fit to print. (That means you don't have to worry about a trial run before serving one of our recipes to company.) Rest assured, it should work the first time out of the gate.

Here's a look at this week's recipes:

Boudin Bakery's brownies

Norris Hall duck ragù

Pan-fried fish fillet with rouille

Vanilla panna cotta with seasonal fruit

-- Rene Lynch

Photo credit: Kirk McKoy  / Los Angeles Times

RELATED:

More recipes from the L.A. Times test kitchen

Sampler Platter: stinky tofu, vegan desserts, congee & tensions in Mid-City West

Congee, vegan desserts, surreal McDonald's commercials and gay ice cream lead today's food news roundup.

-- Rancid soy bliss at Mama's in San Gabriel. Sinosoul
-- Who profits from inflated fears about food allergies? Slate
-- Hector Vazquez earns a YouTube following with his cooking show "Hood Chef." New York Daily News
-- Ben & Jerry’s celebrates gay marriage by renaming “Chubby Hubby” ice cream “Hubby Hubby” for September. You can still get Chubby Hubby at shops and stores around the country, but in Vermont you can get special Hubby Hubby sundaes.
-- Sugar Plum Vegan bakery from Sacramento comes to L.A. Quarrygirl
-- Tensions run high at Mid City West Land Use Committee meeting meeting re: four new restaurants: Allora, Eva, Lan, Dusty's. Blackburn + Sweetzer
-- Guest list for the annual White House Ramadan dinner. Los Angeles Times
-- If McDonald's hired Salvador Dali to oversee its advertising, it might look something like this surreal TV spot. YouTube
-- Store brands usually taste as good as national brands. Consumer Reports
-- Jook a.k.a. congee a.k.a. porridge: the next best thing to a hug from a Chinese mama. Rants and Craves

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Lai Wan-style congee at Silver & Gold Amazing in Monterey Park. Credit: Nancy Pastor / For The Times.

Kiss My Bundt Bakery's Red velvet cake recipe

Our selfless quest for the best red velvet cake led to the acquisition of Kiss My Bundt Bakery's recipe, which has become a favorite with many of our staff. Owner Chrysta Wilson says it's based on a recipe she learned years ago from her aunt, when, as an 8-year-old, she was baking cakes in her Easy Bake Oven.

Her bakery is celebrating its 1-year anniversary, and the recipe (which follows below) will be included in her upcoming cookbook "Kiss My Bundt Cookbook," due out November 2009.

Yup! It's amazing! Almost as amazing as her maple bacon bundt cake. Only wish I'd asked for both recipes....

Bacon makes everything better. Even bundt cake.

You know we love our bacon around here. Just today, The Times' test kitchen staff was selflessly researching a maple bacon bundt cake -- yes, you read that right, a maple bacon bundt cake -- from Kiss My Bundt* in West Hollwood.

Of course, we are not alone in our bacon obsession. Check out this Time magazine story on this food trend that just won’t go away. (Thank goodness.)

* And check back next week at the Daily Dish for more on this little gem of a bakery.

-- Rene Lynch

Photo credit: Noelle Carter