Basque cake and tea (Fresh Flours, Seattle)

At Fresh Flours I’m usually predictable.  I tend to get their pear pastry or anything with azuki beans. (This bakery has a very Parisian/Japanese flair)  And I tend to have two wild and crazy kids hanging off my legs begging for macarons and a hubby who wants a blueberry muffin.  (He thinks they’re the best in the city, by the way.)

But the other day I popped in alone.  No kids.  No hubby.  Just me and a green tea latte.  (Not my usual coffee-I was trying to find my inner zen.)

And then I was stumped.  What to get with a green tea latte?  I didn’t want to overdo it with a matcha/azuki bean cake and I didn’t see my pear pastry.  And then I saw a lonely basque cake.  A basque cake??? Now that’s something I’ve NEVER tried before.

Maybe it was because I was peacefully alone, but I instantly decided it was the neatest little pastry I’ve ever eaten.  I’m not even sure how to describe it, except for it had the light taste of custard in the middle of a crumbly delight.  So you’ll just have to go there and try it and tell me what you think.

I love that this bakery is so close to the zoo. When I go with the kids we pick out our respective pastries or sandwiches and leave the other customers in their quiet cafe so we can enjoy our spoils wildly on the zoo’s grassy field.

It’s a little delight that makes a day feel like this.

Instead of what it actually is.

And just thinking about these crazy days make me realize it is very nice to do something different sometimes and sit and enjoy a warm drink and something tasty all alone.

(PS. the grassy field at the zoo is one of the best picnic spots in the city.  It is a guaranteed dog-poo and geese-poo free field and that is a rare and beautiful thing indeed.)

(PPS. our other favorite bakery by the zoo is A la Mode.  One delightfully perfect day we stopped at BOTH bakeries on the same day.)