Sweet Lady Jane

Sandi and I went to see the movie, Dough at the Laemmle theater in  Sta. Monica. After the movie, we decided to visit my brother in his new office in Santa Monica. He sent me a text of his address with a notation that it was across Sweet Lady Jane, the upscale cafe and bakery. I have had some of their desserts long time ago but couldn't remember what I had or what was good.

We found  Gary's office. We parked, said hello and announced we wanted to stop by the bakery. He was so kind as to chaperone both of us as if we were not capable of crossing the streets of Sta. Monica. I strongly suspected he had an ulterior motive.

Seeing all the beautiful cakes and pastries got me all excited. I knew I had to be careful on choosing which ones to buy and sample. I saw a whole (small) Lemon Cake with lemon curd. I was ready to buy it till I found out it was $40.  That would have been an expensive experiment. I opted for a slice of the White Chocolate Raspberry cake (large) for $7.95 and the 4" Lemon Meringue Tart, also $7.95. Just before paying for both slices, I saw the Sea Salt Brownies and the Sea Salt Caramel Brownies. I had to try those as well. Gary's ulterior motive was the English Trifle. We didn't even make it out of the bakery when he started to devour it. I was too busy trying to figure out if I needed to get something else. The something else I forgot was the Tarte Tatin.

Sandi and I had to tackle the 405 Fwy. at rush hour. It took us almost 2 hours to get to our area. Neither of us were in no mood to cook. The funny thing was I thought of the Mashed Potato Bowl from Kentucky Fried Chicken. A minute later, Sandi asked me what I thought about getting something to eat at Kentucky Chicken. Yikes!!!  We're beginning to think like a married couple! We found one near her house; ordered 2 of the bowls to go and headed on home.  We enjoyed the our bowls while we looked forward to dessert.

We started sampling the White Chocolate Raspberry. We both agreed it was good but not good enough. If you want a light cake with great flavor and not too sweet, I would highly recommend the Coffee Crunch Cake from Red Ribbon in Carson. The brownies were way too sweet. If it had the salted caramel that Ana used to make from L'Amande Bakery ( a hint of a burnt taste), it would be amazing. The Lemon Meringue was excellent. It had the right amount of tartness with a crust that had the right amount of sweetness. The meringue was just heavenly.

The saying, "You can't judge a book by it's cover" is so true. In this case, you can't judge a cake by it's looks all the time. There may be times when it will taste as good as it looks but many times, it will not taste as good as it looks. I would much rather have a lopsided chocolate cake that is unbeatable in taste  (You know who you are) any day!

Sweet Lady Jane has several locations in Los Angeles and now in Corona Del Mar.