AnnTremet Cakes, NYC

AnnTremet is a higher end cake maker based in New York.  The name is a portmanteau of the owner's name (Annabelle) and the French word for fancy cakes with texturally different layers (entremet).  They specialize in mirror glaze cakes, although make some other forms like buttercream cakes, individuals, and pastries as well.

"OUR CAKES ARE HANDCRAFTED WITH LOVE. Low Sugar, natural ingredients and go with the season is our motto."

The cakes are all quite stunning, and the descriptions compelling.  It has been on my list of places to try for ages.  I was excited when we had a chance to order for a team event at work.

My co-worker placed the order for a Tuesday delivery.  She was given a delivery window of 11am-4pm, quite lengthy, and we hoped to have it after lunch, so we just hoped it would come somewhere in the 11-1pm range.  No ability to specify otherwise.  We then realized we had a conflict, and, many days in advance, she called to change the order to a Thursday delivery.  They told her to email instead.  So she did.  

Tuesday arrived, and ... before 11am, the driver called to say he was there with the cake.  The wrong (original) day, and before the delivery window in the first place.  She dealt with the drama, and asked that it be delivered on Thursday.  Again, given the long delivery window.  We weren't sure if they were just going to hold it until Thurs, but hoped we'd get a fresh one.

Thursday rolls around.  Updated delivery window of 12-2pm is given. Great.  10:30am?  Driver arrives with the cake.  Sigh.

So far, customer service and communication wise, this place was striking out big time.  The cake came nicely packaged.

Purple Dream. $85.

"This special healthy cake is loaded with anthocyanins! Inside of the cake is a layer of purple yam purée, purple yam chiffon cake and silky pandan infused coconut mousse. We use fresh white skin purple yam (Japanese variety) for the purée and chiffon cake."

The cake did look beautiful, with a shiny mirror glaze, and delicate (mostly inedible) decoration.  I get lowkey annoyed at inedible garnish, but, yes, it looked great.

We went to slice into it, full of anticipation.  And ... IT WAS FROZEN.

So many questions.  1) Did they just freeze ours on Tues and re-deliver?  2) Are their cakes always frozen? 3) Why did we pay a premium for a frozen and poorly thawed product?

Only the very outer layer was defrosted.  That layer was my favorite part, the mirror glaze was lightly sweet, tasted faintly of white chocolate, and was smooth and creamy.  4/5 mirror glaze.

Purple Dream: Inside.

The rest ... was less impressive.

The base was a very thin layer of chiffon cake, not very moist, too thin to be significant in any way, mild purple yam flavor.  Eh. 2.5/5 cake.

Then there was the mousse, which was frozen, grainy, and tasted very, very faintly of coconut.  I didn't detect any of the promised pandan, although I know that can be subtle.  This did not defrost well.  It was also barely sweetened. 1/5.

The layer of yam puree was fine, again not sweet, again fairly mild flavor like the cake. 3/5.

Would this have been better fresh?  I suspect the mousse at least might be "silky" as promised, rather than grainy.  But all the flavors were so muted.

For a muted flavor, barely sweet, semi-frozen dessert, sure it was "fine", but it really did let us down quite a bit.  2/5 overall really, the only noteworthy element was the glaze.