Jason F.
Yelp
Make my slice of cake an extra large one, especially when the cakes are as delicately made by the hard working team at Crixa Cakes. Crixa Cakes is an artisanal small-batch Bakery that specializes in European and American baked goods, with gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free and egg-free options, and is located on Adeline Street in the South Berkeley neighborhood of Berkeley, California. The name Crixa comes from the Richard Adams' novel "Watership Down" where it translates into the word "crossroads", which represents where Crixa Cakes on the site of an old horse stable at the crossroads of Adeline Street and Shattuck Avenue. I have been to Crixa Cakes a handful of times since they opened back in 2008, and it's their quality slices of baked cakes that always had me coming back for more, as every cake, pie, and baked goods is scratch-baked on-site. Scratch-baked means that the baked goods at Crixa Cakes are made from basic ingredients and not from any packaged mixes. It also means that they make all of their own doughs in-house, such as the crust for their pies, rather than purchasing them ready-made. Crixa's use of pure ingredients and slower hand-made processes isn't new or trendy, but it's a direct result of why their baked goods taste better than so many of their competitors.
After dining on many slices of their cakes in the past, I knew I had a small intimate birthday party to host on one weekend evening and wanted to get the guest of honor a birthday cake to celebrate the big occasion. After perusing the many local purveyors of cakes on my trusty Yelp app, the one that kept coming up was Crixa Cakes. After clicking on the link to their website, I saw that ordering a small six inch cake was super easy and safe to do online with a simple credit card purchase and since it was a preorder, they do recommend that you order two days in advance. Although their online menu had no fewer than eight different cake options of which to order from, I felt that two options, one being their six inch Tiramisu and the other being their six inch Amaretti Cream Cake were my top two favorites. I love Tiramisu and will always order it no matter how many times I see them on a dessert menu, but since I had never ordered it before, I felt that ordering their Amaretti Cream Cake with its two layers of vanilla sponge cake made with hazelnut liqueur, two layers of mascarpone cream, and two layers of crushed amaretti cookies was something so special that it would be perfect for a birthday celebration. The fact that this cake, like most of the cakes sold at Crixa Cakes, was sold for 36 dollars before tip, and extra $2.50 fee for a Chocolate Happy Birthday Plaque, which I felt was reasonable considering all of the high prices for ingredients nowadays.
Picking up my order was super easy, as they were open from noon till 3 p.m. on the Saturday that I went. Parking can be a challenge, especially for this area of South Berkeley, but luckily there was street parking on nearby Ward Street and a simple walk to their storefront was all there was to it. Upon entry I realized that I had not been inside Crixa Cakes in quite some time as everything was now sleek and modern, with a more commercial kitchen aspect to everything, gone are the tables and chairs that many previously used to sip coffee and enjoy a slice of cake as they were allowed to work on their laptops and now there were two full glass cases of full cakes and other sweets such as buns, pies, and containers filled with chocolate mousse. But I was here to pick up my cake and in due time I was already walking out with it. Now, would I have considered ordering another slice of say their signature Apple Cake or their Raspberry Capri Cake? Sure, but on this day, the service was more businesslike and no-nonsense with a sense of getting me in and getting me out with my order for the day. Upon returning home with my full cake, it is recommended that you immediately put your cake in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it, and that's exactly what we did. And once we did slice into our cake, what an extraordinary experience it was, as upon first slice into the cake, it was like light and fluffy and upon first bite, you could tell they used quality ingredients when creating it, as everything tasted wonderful without being overly decadent. After ordering my first cake from Crixa Cakes in quite a number of years, I was not disappointed in the least, as we got a beautiful cake creation that was composed with thoughtfulness and sold at a decent price point. You better believe that return visits are in order when I am searching for that extraordinary cake made specifically for a special occasion. After almost a decade and half of being in business Crixa Cakes has brought locals an originality and playfulness to their unique cake creations we should all appreciate, and a lasting continuation of European meets American culture-based slow food tradition in the sweetness of the culinary world.