Interview: pastry chef Elizabeth Belkind (Cake Monkey)

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Pastry Chef Los Angeles

Photo courtesy of TJ Scott

Growing up, the idea that pastry chef Elizabeth Belkind would one day be making refined versions of American snack treats like Sno Balls and Ho Hos would have been been unimaginable. They simply didn’t exist in her hometown of Mexico City, where the locals favored much different flavors, including tamarind, chile and salt. At age 10, Belkind moved to the States and eventually followed a culinary path. She attended Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena and worked for Campanile and Grace before Craigslist called to her. That’s where she connected with long-time TV producer Lisa J. Olin, who already had the concept and branding in place for Cake Monkey Bakery. After six months of testing Belkind’s recipes, they partnered on the bakery in 2007. Since then, Cake Monkey has gradually expanded their roster and presence in Los angeles. I recently caught up with Belkind at Intelligentsia Silver Lake, where she discussed her background, approach and the future.

What is it that inspires you about pastry?

People’s reaction to it. It’s something that I think all across the board makes people happy in a really rudimentary, simple way. If anything that helps me get out of the grind, when I’m around people that eat what I make and when I get feedback from them and sense their immediate reaction. That definitely is the biggest inspiration.

What originally motivated your interest?

I went to culinary school to train to be a chef, a savory chef. A year into my first job at Campanile, I was miserable. I hated it. Roxana [Jullapat], her station was right next to mine. We were on the back line at Campanile and every night I would watch what she was doing. At the time I was covered in fish stock and veal bones. It was delicious food but disgusting smells, and I would look over at her station and it looked so serene and so clean, and it smelled so good. I thought, I’m in the wrong end of this business, so I started training to work in the pastry kitchen part time and in the regular kitchen part time, and within two or three months I had switched to pastry altogether. I was thrilled. If I was going to have a place in the culinary world, that’s where I was going to be.

What are the desserts or pastries you remember loving as a kid in Mexico City?

I mostly had little snacks, like they do here. There was one called a Gansito, which means a “little goose,” and it’s a yellow cake, the inside has a marshmallow filling and a strawberry jam filling and it’s all dipped in chocolate. I used to love those as a kid. Then there are a lot of candies made with cajeta, which is dulce de leche made with goat’s milk, and pumpkin seeds and cinnamon. Whenever I combine those with what I’m making now, that reminds me of my own tastes. Something I don’t know how I would recreate at all in this context are the Mexican candies that are tamarind and chile and salt based. That’s really what I ate as a kid.

Would you say that you have any pastry mentors?

Absolutely. Nancy Silverton, without a doubt. When I graduated from culinary school, I applied for one job, at Campanile. That was the only job I wanted. And it was a combination of her and Mark Peel’s cooking. I’m definitely inspired by her work.

When I first started, Claudia Fleming was a big inspiration. She toyed with flavors that were a little bit on the edge, incorporating herbs into pastry and incorporating savory elements into pastry in a way that was still homey and approachable and delicious, but different.

I don’t really identify with the whole food chemistry, food scientist type of pastry chef. Like Wylie Dufresne. I admire what he’s doing, but that doesn’t inspire me necessarily.

What do you think is the key to having a great dessert?

Approachability, first of all. Something that you see on a plate that just calls to you and you just have to eat it. When I was pastry chef in a restaurant, I always wanted to do all my desserts to order, to put it in the oven right before it went on the plate, to put it in a fryer, as in the case of donuts, right before they went on the plate. In a restaurant context you can do that. In a bakery, like I have now, I can’t. I love desserts that are a combination of warm and cold, sweet and savory, crunchy and soft. When all those elements are incorporated into a dessert, that’s satisfying, and without having it be contrived. I don’t like contrived.

Is there anything you miss about being in a restaurant?

No, except for the ability to fire things right before they go on someone’s plate.

How did you and Lisa end up teaming up?

I left Grace restaurant to open my own restaurant. I was looking for consulting work in the meantime, to freelance. I remember I got on Craigslist and there was an ad that said, “Pastry chef who loves cake.” I thought that’s really funny, I love cake. I responded to it and we met for coffee one day. Two weeks later we got together to start product development. She already had come up with the branding and the name, and she just wanted to test recipes, so I did that with her for about six months. At some point she said, “Would you like to be my partner?” Here we are, two-and-a-half years later with Cake Monkey.

What’s the latest pastry or dessert you developed, and what was your approach?

There were two yesterday. One is these peanut butter bars. A customer called and his wife was having her 50th birthday. She remembers these bars that she used to eat, and he wanted them recreated. For the last four months I tested recipes based on a picture, no clue what else happened, how it was made or what ingredients went into it, and every month gave him something to taste. He would give me feedback and I’d go back to the bakery, change it and come up with a solution to what he needed. Here it is, a dessert. It wasn’t my idea at all, it was something that someone requested.

What was the bar called originally?

A Nabisco Ideal bar. It’s peanut butter and shortbread with a milk chocolate coating. What they remembered was a very dry shortbread with a very dry peanut butter filling and milk chocolate. Getting the “dry” was difficult because it’s not at all what I’d think to do in the first place. They were thrilled with it in the end.


Chocolate Bar Los Angeles
The other is a new muffin for Intelligentsia. They’d like to change things seasonally, so I’m switching up the blackberry thyme muffin for an orange, cranberry and rosemary muffin. I was testing that yesterday. To go back to this idea of incorporating as many different elements into a dessert as I can, even though it’s now just now a muffin, that one incorporates the tartness of the berries, savory in the rosemary and then just the essence of the orange. I try to put things on there that are crunchy, maybe pine nuts. I’m not sure how it’s going to end up, but those are the two latest.

What’s the criteria for a Cake Monkey dessert?

The core of our brand is straight up Americana, so the flavors are pretty simple. Vanilla, chocolate, bananas, strawberries, cinnamon, nuts. They’re pretty standard flavors. Coconut is getting a little exotic. Then there just has to be this sensibility that is reminiscent of an American childhood.

Is there any single pastry or dessert that you can’t imagine in the rotation or not making anymore?

The ‘Nuff Said cookie. That’s my personal favorite. I think we have a pretty big fan base for it, so I don’t think I’d ever want to take that out, and it’s good for all year long.

What does the future hold for Cake Monkey?

A lot. Hopefully we’ll start opening storefronts in L.A. starting next year. The idea would be to be able to open stores all over the country and internationally as well. We’ve been approached by a woman who wants to open Cake Monkey Dubai.

Is that a possibility?

Yeah. I would love to open Cake Monkey in Southeast Asia, Korea, China. That would be great to do. We’re opening a big commissary. That will allow us to grow, a lot. Right now we don’t have the space to it. There’s nowhere to put things, or people.

The space in Silver Lake where you had the pop-up, is that going to be a storefront?

We hope so. There are two spots where we’d like to open on the Westside. With the capital that we raise from those two stores, then maybe we can open ourselves in Silver Lake without having to attract investors. That would be the ideal. We have the lease for 10 years. In the meantime we’ll sublet it until we can get it open ourselves. We love the storefront and we understand Silver Lake.

What’s a great dessert recipe for people to make at home?

CLICK HERE FOR CAKE MONKEY’S ‘NUFF SAID COOKIE RECIPE

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

Blog Comments

I can’t wait for CakeMonkey to open a physical space–in the meantime I’ll be lurking & shopping @ Intelligentsias, Silver Lake Wine & Umami Burgers.

H.C.,

It sounds like the first Cake Monkey storefront will either be on the Westside or in Dubai. Are you willing to fly?

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