Sugar Daze Bake Shop, two gals' Val's day date

My best ami here in Paris is the moat talented 'slashie' I know. As a professional photographer, make up artist, dance teacher and Zumba instructor she's always going a million miles a minute. So for Valentine's Day last month I knew I had to treat her to some special, sweet, slow-time with cupcakes and tea at the best place in the city for a girl-date, Sugar Daze in the 9th.

Hailing from from New York City, Cat Beurnier started Sugar Daze originally as a mail order and delivery cupcake service from her rented kitchen. Very quickly les Parisiennes fell head over heels for her yummy "American-style" treats and Cat realised a bricks and mortar bake shop would have be set up to supply the demand. Four years later Sugar Daze, the bake shop, opened in the hip 'So-Pi' village to the north of Paris.
Impressively, Cat's cupcakes are baked and frosted fresh every morning. You are guaranteed to never buy a previously-refrigerated, or worse, frozen and thawed, cupcake here. And they're made with only the best ingredients and topped with hand-crafted decorations; while we were there Cat had a sheet of sugar fondu out and was designing cute decorations ready to be put on fresh cupcakes the next morning. But what I also dearly love about Sugar Daze is the bake shop itself.

The 'Lovefool': vanilla with fresh raspberries (sometimes strawberry) and champagne buttercream.

It had me at champagne! 

 The 'Sweet Thai O' Mine': coconut and lime.

The 'B-A-N-A-N-A-S': Banana with Nutella (sometimes with Lemon, Salted Caramel, and Strawberry).

 A cadeau for one of les petits enfants.

 

Heavily influenced by the music Cat listens to while she bakes, Sugar Daze is adorned with rock and roll record covers on the wall and each cupcake flavour takes its name from a song title or lyric. The salle is not cluttered with tiny tables for two that you have to suck your stomach in to get around while batting fellow cupcakers in the head with your handbag as you sit down, as what happens in a lot on tea rooms and bake shops. Instead Cat has the most beautiful, huge common hardwood table right in the centre, which she decorates with fresh flowers. Settling down there makes you feel like you're relaxing around your home's dining table and symbolises both the local and expat-communities Cat has nurtured through her bake shop. Twice a month Cat runs cupcake classes out of the bake shop and each year Cat organises the fabulous 'Cupcake Camp Paris', a cupcake bake sale charity event that bands cupcake bakers, pros and novices, together to raise money for a preselected charity.

I asked Cat how she develops her unique cupcake flavours;
"I love to experiment in the kitchen and have a wicked sweet tooth.  My inspirations comes from anywhere and everywhere!  I do try to offer the standard American cupcake flavors I grew up on, and then some more unique combinations that I happen on by chance - one of these examples is our Cookie Monster cupcake which has a speculos-swirl cake, vanilla buttercream and crumbled Oreos on top.  It's a combination I just threw together one day and it has actually become one of our best-selling flavors!  For me, it's all about having fun and making the best-tasting cupcakes our clients have come to love!"

By now I've been lucky enough to taste a few of Cat's creations however her creative flavours and deliciously fresh cupcakes will have me going back for more and her sweet rockin' bake shop will have me staying put once I'm there!

Sugar Daze
20 rue Henry Monnier, 9e
Wed: 12h - 19h30
Thurs: 12h - 18h30
Fri: 12h - 19h30
Sat: 12h - 19h30
Sun: 12h - 18h
Website | Facebook | Blog

xx