La Monarca Bakery: Finally Represent'n

I'm still tripping out, the words

East L.A

on the front page of the food section on the L.A times? I couldn't believe it. They were doing an article on bakeries and someone finally shined some light onto the Latino culinary community. Finally, people have appreciated all the hard work that goes into making a decent pastel. Whether it being the balancing act of a Tres Leches Cake or a simple Relleno De Fruta, it's about time!


La Monarca bakery's Ricardo Cervantez said that he wanted to target a Latino market that is often neglected by the retail food industry. Since it was my little sister's B-day, i figured why not support the cause?


Of course i had to order the Dulce De Leche cake. I called to order and was suprised to find out that for a "cuarto de plancha"(25-30 people) only cost $40. Normally the places that are mentioned on the paper tend to be on the pricy side and this was just the average cake price you would find anywhere.


When we went to go pick it up, all the pastry's on display got the best of me. Like always, I couldn't wait for later. I ended up with their Fruit Tart, a couple of "Bolillo's Integrales"(Whole Wheat Rolls), Whiole Wheat Biscuits and some Whole Wheat Cemitas lightly sweetened with Piloncillo(unprocessed brown sugar).


The Fruit Tart was unexpectedly light. Normally Mexican Patisserie tends to have a heavy amount of butter or lard. But this was different. The crust was light and flaky without being greasy. The custard was nice, not overwhelmingly sweet. And the pear on top happended to be in season. And if it wasn't sweet enough, it was all glazed in a simple syrup.


The Dulce De Leche cake looked beautiful enough to be accepted by my little sister, who's poor life is about to be tortured by the problems of "Teenagerness". And yeah, it was also tasted as good as it looked. Moist and airy and not overwhelmingly sweet. Again, this had that light taste that the tart had earlier. They were extremely generous with the whipped cream but that wasn't a bad thing in this case, the custard inside was a different one that i had earlier, also delicate. It was nice to know that they don't use the same one for everything much like other bakeries do.



Score one for us, finally!