What is car cake? And why we could all use a slice or two

Last week, while entering the 110 freeway from the Hill Street on-ramp, I ate my first car cake. I did not get crumbs in the stitching of my leather seats. I did not smear frosting on the steering wheel. I did not let the lack of a proper napkin envelop me in anxiety.

I sank my teeth into the rectangular slice of black sesame cake as traffic started to build. The sugar spike sparked an instant dopamine rush. Nothing could spoil the car cake.

Car cake is cake you eat in the car. One could potentially enjoy any slice of cake in the car, but what I’m referring to specifically are the cake bars from Heather Wong’s Flouring L.A. bake shop in Chinatown. They’re petite rectangles of layered cake nestled into sleeves of white parchment paper that protect your fingers.

Black sesame cake bar from Flouring L.A.

Black sesame cake from Flouring L.A. in Chinatown.

(Heather Wong)

I’m convinced that if more people embraced car cake, road rage would decrease by at least 58%. Commutes home wouldn’t have to suck. I’d be more open to dating someone who lives on the other side of the 405 Freeway.

The original idea behind eating cake in your car was to lessen the stress and anxiety brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Wong. In the spring of 2020, Wong launched a pop-up bakery called Flouring L.A. because she “needed to bake to fill my soul.” It also felt like the natural next step after working in various restaurant kitchens including Bottega Louie and creating dessert content for her personal baking blog. At one point, she went by the name Scootabaker and delivered her desserts via a 2007 Vespa LX 150 with spring-loaded racks.

“I thought putting together a dessert box of things people could eat in their car would be a good idea,” Wong said on a recent call. “I created this cake bar wrapped in a little parchment square and you could hold the cake and eat it in the car while you drive. Car cake.”

During the pandemic, she would hand over her desserts to customers waiting in their cars. In January, she opened her first bricks-and-mortar location, a 500-square-foot bakery and shop on Hill Street.

The day’s cake bars are presented in a glass case that takes up much of the real estate in the tiny space. You can buy individual bars or opt to fill a lavender box with a variety: carrot cake, chocolate, ube and coconut, passion fruit and whatever else Wong is baking.

“It’s a lot of what I loved growing up and what I feel is missing or can’t find enough of in bakeries,” Wong said. “I loved the King’s Hawaiian passion fruit cake when I was growing up but never felt like there was enough passion fruit, so my passion fruit cake bar was inspired by it.”

There’s no missing the passion fruit in Wong’s version. The fruit is brilliant and sharp, flooding your mouth with the tart, complex taste of pure passion fruit. Wong soaks the cake in a passion fruit syrup, then adds as much of the same syrup to the Italian buttercream as possible before it breaks.

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“The black sesame is from my love of the Chinese mochi tang yuan,” she said. “I had to make a cake out of that.”

Wong’s black sesame cake bar may be my single favorite slice of cake in all of Los Angeles at the moment. It starts with a rich butter cake flecked with enough roasted black sesame seeds to turn the batter gray. She spreads a generous amount of Rooted Fare black sesame crunch butter over the cake, then adds an Italian buttercream frosting infused with ground roasted sesame seeds. Next is another layer of cake, and another of the frosting.

The pops of sesame dominate, anchoring the sweetness of the buttercream with an intense nuttiness that provides depth and a welcome bitterness. The real star is the sesame butter, slipping in a satisfying crunch between the luxurious buttercream and spongy cake.

I should note that Wong utilizes the ideal ratio of about a quarter inch of frosting to an inch of cake. Too much frosting bothers me, probably more than it should. There will be no frosting scraping with your car cake.

Peach cobbler cheesecake from Cali Love Pie

The peach cobbler cheesecake from Cali Love Pie in Los Angeles.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

I first came across Cali Love Pie on Tiffany Hinton Jefferson‘s @blackownedfoodla Instagram account. The shop, located at the corner of Western Avenue and Venice Boulevard, celebrated its one-year anniversary on April 20.

Owner Amili Williams specializes in sweets that blend the flavors of classic pies and desserts with his grandmother’s signature cheesecake recipe. He makes a pecan pie cheesecake, banana pudding cheesecake and a cheesecake with a top layer of sweet potato pie filling.

The peach cobbler cheesecake filling is studded with soft, supple peaches you can mash with your fork. Swirled around the fruit and throughout the cake is a caramel-colored ribbon of what tastes like cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar. The graham cracker crust is fine and packed tightly with enough butter to signal true decadence. The top is blanketed in a coat of sweet cookie crumbles.

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The effect is similar to cobbler à la mode, with the velvety cheesecake mirroring ice cream melting over warm fruit. While the cheesecakes are served cold, I like to wait until my slice approaches room temperature for maximum lusciousness and softer peaches.

I’ve yet to try the banana pudding cheesecake, but I’m not sure anything will sway my obsession away from the cobbler. Maybe the cheesecake milkshake blended with an entire slice of cheesecake. Yes, those exist too.