Ever since your earliest birthday you’ve probably had a sweet spot for the delicious gift of cake.
A staple of celebrations just oozing with positive vibes, cake is one of life’s little indulgences.
The experience of walking into a bakery and being surrounded by shelves of gorgeous treats that all look to die for is something we should all treat ourselves to every once in a while.
Is the thought of innovative and imaginative cakes making your mouth water?
You should definitely check out Satura Cakes to make your next celebration more special.
History of Satura Cakes
After studying and rising under Masahito Motohashi of the famous Japanese bakery Anniversary Co., top pastry chef SeungHo Jung moved on to become the owner of Satura Cakes, a European-Japanese fusion bakeshop in Los Altos, California.
European cakes are known for their stunning quality and taste, evolving from their simple history into their current status as a classic global phenomenon (from the Victoria sponge, to tiramisu, to the Madeira cake, and so on).
The Japanese cake tradition began modestly and mostly in imitation of European styles, eventually transforming into its own separate style of appearance, taste, and texture. Although Japan has no native wheat crops, baking spread throughout Japan once it was introduced by the Portuguese. Later on, Japanese pastry chefs traveled to France and Italy for classical European training in the art of pastries. They put their cultural spin on it and became known for a style all their own.
Japanese cakes are lighter, less sweet, and more detail-focused. The style emphasizes the importance of each ingredient’s flavor and texture coming together as individuals (rather than blending together) to create something wonderful. It’s important for the cakes to be aesthetically pleasing and carefully arranged to showcase how the colors, textures, shapes, and overall design work together in delicious bliss. Japanese cakes always look as good as they taste.
The name Satura comes from an ancient Roman cake made from barley, raisins, pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, and sweet wine – it was a cake saturated with good things, hence the name. While the origin of the word is not Japanese, the word satura itself sounds Japanese, and was favored by Japanese team members during the decision-making processes for the bakeshop’s name.
Inspired by the connection to the past and the new interpretation of the future, Satura was eventually picked as the name. It has a base in European history with a refined Japanese spin – matching the European-Japanese fusion cakes Satura specializes in.
What Makes Satura Cakes Special?
Satura bakers approach their work as artisans.
They’re devoted to delicious cakes based in European tradition with high standards of Japanese refinement, subtlety, elegance, delicacy, seasonality, and meticulous preparation.
Satura Cakes uses high-quality, organic, and fresh local ingredients for its cakes, pastries, and desserts. There’s a focus on taste, freshness, beauty, and fine ingredients – they don’t downgrade to inexpensive, artificial, or easier-to-work-with ingredients.
Satura knows that it takes more than cake to make people happy – it needs to be good, quality cake. They use real butter, dairy, flour, eggs, sugars, fruits, nuts, chocolate, and other natural flavors like bourbon vanilla to bake their cakes from scratch daily.
Their thought process is that if you’re going to be gaining the calories from a dessert anyway, you might as well truly indulge in the cake you’re eating to make the calories worth it. Plus, in moderation, the desserts are typically more nutritious than the alternatives due to the use of fresh, quality ingredients (less trans fats and no overuse of sugar).
Satura strives to make cakes you want to immediately want to hand to your significant other to have a taste, cakes you want to tell your friends about and share with them the next time you get together.
Recommended Satura Cakes
Yelp reviewers are in love with Satura Cakes, with most customers recommending the cream puffs (specifically the matcha green tea, and vanilla cream puffs), earl grey cake, mango coconut mousse cake, and strawberry shortcake as some must-try desserts. Dessert-lovers rave over the perfect balance of sweetness and creaminess found in a Satura pastry.
Satura is also especially well-known for their wedding cakes, taking after their Japanese partner bakery Anniversary Co., the largest wedding cake producer in Japan. Japanese wedding cakes started out as inedible decorative symbols at weddings until Anniversary Co. started selling real wedding cakes, now making about 500 a month. Satura Cakes shares some of those recipes.
Their signature cake flavors are:
- Strawberry shortcake
- Mango coconut mousse
- Shortcake with mango passion fruit fresh cream
- Green tea cake with vanilla bean cream
- Chocolate cake with caramel mocha cream
- Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and fresh blueberries and raspberries
- Classic rich chocolate sponge with light and dark chocolate mousse
- Classic rich chocolate cake with bittersweet whipped ganache
(The rich chocolate cakes and the mango coconut mousse are only available as sheet cakes).
They also have plenty of other interesting desserts including maple-syrup basted French toast, gluten-free flourless chocolate cake, and salty chocolate tea cookies (with great ingredients like Himalayan rock salt and Swiss chocolate).
Here’s a more specific look at some of the pastries and their ingredients:
- Mango Coconut Mousse – Coconut dacquoise, almond powder, and coconut fines layered with mango and coconut mousse.
- Tiramisu – Light sponge cake layered with Italian mascarpone and hand-pressed espresso from Mr. Espresso.
- Café Noix – Layers of walnuts, dacquoise, and coffee butter cream with fine European butter.
- Satura Shortcake – Extra-delicate Genoise sponge cake layered with fresh cream and strawberries.
- Original Cheesecake – A soft, souffle-style cheesecake with a pecan and walnut-crusted graham cracker base.
Their online pre-order whole cakes will cost you from about $32 to $53 depending on the particular cake and size (full sheet cakes for larger crowds can go up to $300). Their online pre-order desserts are all $5.95 each, the same as you’d find the individual-sized treats in their bakeshop. They’re a little pricey for the serving size, but reviewers guarantee the cakes are worth it. Their smaller desserts include slices of some of the larger cakes and rolls as well as pudding and tarts. For wedding or specialty cakes, you’ll have to contact Satura for an estimate or consultation.
Are You Craving a Satura Cake Now?
So are we.
If you live in or around Los Altos, California, you’re in luck – you can just drive on down to the shop to snag some tasty desserts.
You can find Satura Cakes at 200 Main St., Los Altos CA 94022.
They’re open Monday through Thursday from 8am to 7pm, Friday and Saturday from 8am to 8pm, and Sunday from 8am to 6pm.
You can call Satura Cakes at 650-948-3300 or fax them at 650-559-0950.
If you want one of their gorgeous wedding cakes, catering, dessert bar, or a special occasion cake in general, you can schedule a complimentary tasting and consultation with them by emailing [email protected], calling 650-948-8846, or filling out their online form. They’ll deliver all around the Bay Area.
If you’re corporate or you’re interested in a wholesale account for a local bakery or restaurant, that’s also something you should email [email protected] about. Pricing depends on frequency and quantity.
Want to place a pre-order you can pick up from the shop later? Give Satura at least 24 hours in advance and treat yourself to the whole cakes and desserts you can select right on their website. You can pick up your orders from the shop from 9am to closing – they won’t deliver for online orders.
If you order over $40 worth of cake through their website, you’ll get 10% off (except with the Chef Special Rose Design, Satura Shortcake Dome with Flowers, and Satura Shortcake Dome with Fruit).
If you need to cancel your order you’ll need to let them know 48 hours ahead of time, and any necessary changes should be sent to [email protected].
If you’re not already in the California Bay Area, I’m sure you want to be now that Satura Cakes’ cookies, pastries, and desserts are on your mind. It’s definitely worthwhile to stop by the bakeshop during your travels or for a local celebratory treat.
Keyword: satura cakes