Cambie Street shop is small and friendly enough to tailor some offerings to customers’ cravings
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Owner and pastry chef Kaeko Kanno (right), with her daughter, Elina Lawrie, displays some of their cakes and tarts. Photograph by : Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
One cannot wish damaged legs and torn ligaments upon anyone, let alone a sweet and talented woman, but if it were not for a calamitous ski accident, Kaeko Kanno wouldn’t have set up this delectable little shop on Cambie Street.
She wouldn’t have brought blueberry tarragon tarts, poached pear frangipane cakes, Earl Grey chocolate mousse, blueberry ricotta mousse or any of her artfully made delicious pastries to the masses. She would have been working as a pastry chef for some large hotel delighting the palates at weddings and conventions and hotel diners.
Kanno last worked at Senses Bakery before it closed down for the Georgia Hotel redevelopment. Senses, under the consulting sensibilities of Thomas Haas, was where downtowners went for amazing pastries, chocolates and baking.
After a year of rehabilitating her leg, Kanno opened Kreation to gear down, slow her pace and stop lugging industrial-sized tubs of ingredients and equipment around on a daily basis. Lucky Cambie neighbourhood!
Kreation is a family business with husband, kids and friends pitching in. It’s small and friendly enough to tailor to her customers. An Australian, for example, was homesick for Lamington cake (a sponge cake, dipped in chocolate, coated in coconut) so she made some and now, a drove of Australians wend their way there.
Another wanted angel food cake. Ever the tweaker and creator, Kanno made it a green tea chestnut angel food cake. Those who buy her blueberry ricotta mousse cake will be shocked at the dark purple inside the pristine the white ricotta mousse.
Her offerings cover both French and American styles; the latter includes down-home cupcakes, cheesecake and for those with wheat allergies, brownies made with rice flour. Everything’s made in individual portions and cost $3.75 to $5. She does wedding and other cakes, too.
Holiday hours are 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., seven days a week. After Christmas, she’ll go back to the 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and close on Mondays.
– – – KREATION
3357 Cambie St., 604-871-9119, www.kreationartisancake.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2007