Boston Bakes For Breast Cancer Event

With Carol Sneider (l) of Boston Bakes For Breast Cancer and Susan Holaday (r) of Food Service East, who served as one of the judges.

We recently attended a charity bakeoff to benefit Boston Bakes For Breast Cancer and sponsored by Chile Olive Oil.  The event featured four local pastry Chefs who had the challenge of creating an original dessert using Chile Olive Oil products.  The winner would receive a donation made in his/her name.

We began by tasting two varieties of the Chile Olive Oil, smooth and bold.  The smooth had a grassy, fresh, sweeter taste with a slight warmth as an aftertaste.  The bold maintained the green freshness but also had a bit of a kick.  It was great to see the olive oil tasting done without bread, the proper way to really get the taste of the oil itself.

The first dessert we sampled was this Vanilla Bavarian Cake with grapes, almonds celery and olive oil jam from No. 9 Park.  Inventive and rich in textures, including that inspired jam, the bar was set high already.

Sofra Bakery provided the next entry:  Brioche Donut With Salted Caramel Glaze.  Decadently rich but surprisingly light, they had me at salted caramel glaze.

Our third sample was from Isabelle's Curly Cakes, a longtime fave.  These Citrus Cupcakes had a blood orange curd filling and a spiced buttercream frosting.  That frosting was every bit as delicious as it looks, with a creamy yet slightly firm texture.  Their frostings are among the very best in Boston.

Treats On Washington was serving up these delectable Fig Pudding Cakes.  The sweet freshness of the figs were a perfect backdrop for the olive oil.  By this point we were happy that we did not have to judge the competition.  They were ALL so good.

Jessica Brown and Dana Briley of Treats On Washington.  It was great to see two young woman entrepreneurs on the food scene in Boston.  We need more of that.

Our last taste was this dessert by freelance Chef Jon Sargent.  A Rosemary and Olive Oil Orange Cake with local blueberries and cranberries steeped in Chile Olive Oil, served with orange creme fraiche mascarpone and topped with microbasil and almond crumble.  Complicated, full of surprising tastes and an absolute standout.  I concur with the judges, who chose this entry as the winner.  You can get the recipe on Jon's website:  Let's Cook.  Congratulations!

Of course, we HAD to have a photo with our good friend Bianca Garcia of Confessions Of A Chocoholic, who also served as a judge at the event.  We only regret we didn't get a pic with her Mom, who we met last Fall at another food event!  Great job everyone and all in the name of breast cancer awareness.