I have always had a respect for bakers especially seeing that I myself am not one. Baking is such a science, so exact, no teetering to the left nor to the right like stovetop cooking. It is super essential that measurements are spot on, that the ingredients you pick are not only in season, but the most premium for the dessert at hand, and when those things are not aligned, then you have something short of a mess.

I typically do not blog about desserts and not because I don’t eat dessert, because I certainly have my fair share or else I wouldn’t be having the daily discussion about whether or not I should go to the gym today or not;  but when I am blogging I tend to focus on main meals, and to be quite honest I throw shade on dessert and I don’t give them the props they are do, but today that stops and it stops now. 

Today’s trip was all about dessert from the Sweet Red Peach in Inglewood, California. I first heard about the Sweet Red Peach from Chef Duff Goldman, you know the guy on Food Network? Well to commemorate Juneteenth, Duff decided to shout all of the black owned bakeries that he deemed imperative that you check out in certain states, and when I knew that I would be in Los Angeles the Sweet Red Peach was first on my to do list. 

First up, the blue velvet cake, yes you read correctly blue velvet cake. People often favor the red velvet cake, but the blue velvet cake is basically the fraternal twin to the red velvet cake. They look a little different, but they are still from the same egg that split in two. Cakes in my estimation are a tricky thing, and not everyone executes perfectly. For me the cake to frosting ratio is super duper important, oftentimes you find cakes where the layer of cake is so miniscule and the icing portion is a behemoth, and when that happens the whole thing goes to pot. But the Sweet Red Peach had the impeccable quota of both. The more than right size of cake and the precise amount of cream cheese icing was divine. The cake was moist, it was the perfect amount of sweet, the icing had the right amount of tang for balance, but more importantly it tasted homemade.

If you are a dessert eater your nose and your palate knows the distinct taste between homemade and store made. It is super hard to convey with pen to paper, but homemade goods have a special aroma, that store bought doesn’t, homemade has a special taste of care and delicacy that store bought doesn’t, and homemade somehow taste cozy, it somehow gives me the simulation that my big breasted grandmother is holding me in her bosom with one hand and feeding me cake with the other, it was positively one of the best blue velvet cakes I’ve had.

Second up, the chocolate chip cookie. Chocolate chip cookies are like baseball. It is truly America’s favorite pastime and right up there with apple pie for being America’s favorite dessert. But not all cookies are created equal, and not all bakers can master the favorite cookie, and there are plenty and I do mean plenty of masquerading out there. With the level of cookie imposters it’s hard to choose who is going to be legit. I find myself leaning toward the large cookie, the cookie that has the best aesthetic, but even with that you can be fooled. But when I took my first bite of this Sweet Red Peach chocolate chip cookie there were no charade games being played here. This cookie with a mix of milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate was savory, it was sweet, but there were no chocolate chips as the name suggest, I believe they used shards of chocolate so you could get a visual of the different chocolates and also get an understanding that it was going to be decadent and that they symmetry between sweetness and smoothness went hand and hand. Each time I have a chocolate chip cookie, I put it through the refrigerator test. I want it to be slightly chilled, a little firm, but not crispy, and I want it to stand up to each bite without crumbling. I put this cookie through my test and it passed with flying or should I write edible delight colors. After taking it out of the fridge I was able to get more of that chocolate goodness in every bite that resonated to biting into a chunk, the center of the cookie was still homemade chewy, and the edges had a small crunch. In one bite I got all my palate desired in this life, sweet, savory, chewy chocolatey, and crunchy, to sum this up, this was a win win.

Last up, the namesake, the peach cobbler. Now when making peach cobbler I think it is essential that the baker be part scientist, part a God-fearing baker who totally understands that the good Lord has made fruit for humans to enjoy in this earth and when the two come together heavenly things tend to happen. There are alot of peach cobblers out there, some super sweet like eating melted jolly rancher syrup, some with too little peaches, some with not good crust, some just simply not understanding that it’s the peach here who is the work horse. But the Sweet Red Peach understood thoroughly who was the star of the show and who had the obligation to work the hardest to make this production a success. 

The crust was thick enough, but not doughy, it was nicely sweetened but not overly so, it was golden brown on top to signal me that this has been made with all the love their heart had to give. The peaches inside were just the right slice, no a slither, but a gratuitous slice, the peaches were sweet all on their own like I picked the peach from the tree myself. When peach cobbler is cooked correctly the peaches secrete their own nectar, their own sweet juice that graces the bottom of the cobbler, it’s not a syrupy fest where the peaches are overtaken by the syrupy juice. No, these peaches had a specific job to do and the baker let them do it, no extra sugar here, the sweetness was so satisfying I didn’t even need a glass of water to remove the sweetness that lingered on my tongue. This was peach cobbler, not candied sweets assuming the character of peach cobbler; this was the namesake dessert and it did the name justice, it was simply delectable.

Well done, Sweet Red Peach, I plan to visit you more than I should, but every bite is worth the extra time in the gym🍴