Aya Pastry’s Samoa cake is everything a cake is supposed to be. | chicagolooks
Aya Pastry's Samoa cakes are made with chocolate buttermilk cake, frosted with dulce de leche buttercream, tossed in toasted coconut, and drizzled with chocolate for a crunch.“It is important for us to have craveable and approachable treats executed at a high level that will make you a little bit happier than when you walked into the door,” says pastry chef Aya Fukai, 38, understating the sublime experience of savoring her scrumptious Samoa cakes—one of her most popular creations.
With a background in fine dining, Fukai used to work as a pastry chef for high-end restaurants and hotels in Boston and here in Chicago. Although she was happy in those jobs, Fukai wanted to offer her creations to a wider audience: “I wanted to create a business that was more easily accessible and approachable for the general public,” she says.
Aya Pastry opened in 2017 in West Town, first as a wholesaler catering to local restaurants, cafes, and markets. Once the pandemic hit, they decided to add a retail storefront to their bakery, complete with a drive-thru located in their parking lot . Orders can be placed in person or online, and be picked up in-store or at the drive-thru window.
To achieve such stellar results, Fukai employs precise methods and high-quality ingredients such as Plugra butter, Red Rose flour, Cacao Barry Chocolate, and local farm produce during warmer seasons. “We are not trying to reinvent the classics, but we strive to enhance them with whimsy or to make them to the best of our ability using quality ingredients. . . . We also create treats with Asian-inspired flavors due to my Japanese background but using French and American techniques,” she says.
Aya Pastry’s Samoa cakes can be found at their West Town storefront or in places such as Gaslight Coffee Roasters and Pilot Project Brewing in Logan Square, Passion House Coffee Roasters in Goose Island, Sparrow Coffee in Naperville, Eat Me Milk Me and the Hoxton in Fulton Market, Three House in West Town, the Dandy Crown in River West, Life Time Fitness in River North, the cafe at Steppenwolf Theatre, and Intelligentsia locations around the city.
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