Guest blog post from CTTC friend and Dallas/Fort Worth-area cupcake correspondent Allison. Thanks, Allison!
Dallas' Tart Bakery
In a world of cupcake bakeries, Tart Bakery is so much more. Owner
Kristen Massad went to the French Culinary Institute in New York City.
When she returned home to Texas she knew she wanted to open a full
product bakery like those in New York. In 2004, she opened Tart
Bakery making not only cupcakes, but also French pastries like tarts
and macarons. Kristen is young – only 28 (she was 21 when the bakery
opened!) – and she brings a youth and whimsy that is fun and charming.
Kristen has fourteen employees, including Michelle Meals. When Kristen did
the cakes for Michelle’s wedding, Michelle fell in love and left her
job in the corporate world to run the marketing and social media side
of the bakery. Linda, Kristen’s mom, has a business background and
helps wherever she is needed.
(Michelle, left, and Kristen, right)
For our visit to Tart Bakery, I brought along my best friend, Meghan,
and my mother-in-law, Vickie. We arrived at a bakery, which was decorated with a
whimsical flair. On the table was a tempting spread of cupcakes and
other French pastries. Kristen came in straight from a run (raising
money for breast cancer) and jumped right into the tasting.
(Vickie, Allison, Kristen, Michelle, and Meghan)
We started by talking about what it is that makes Tart Bakery
different from other bakeries in the area. Aside from the bakery
offering a full range of baked goods including French pastry in their
storefront with a full commercial kitchen, Tart also does retail and
wholesale business. Wholesale customers include Neiman Marcus and
several local high-end restaurants, city clubs, and hotels. The
bakery has a very loyal base that will travel from all parts of the
Dallas-Fort Worth area for their baked goods. All of the baked goods
at Tart Bakery are fresh, never frozen.
Next we dove into the cupcakes.
First up was the carrot cake. This one came with a great Thanksgiving
turkey made from chocolate frosting on top. The cake was made with
oil and had a nice soft texture, accented by the coconut and pecans.
We all agreed that the spices in this cake, which included cinnamon
and nutmeg, were well balanced and not overwhelming. The cupcake was
topped with sweet cream frosting, which is unusual on carrot cake.
Though we would have preferred cream cheese, the sweet cream was
light and airy from heavy whipping. It was sweet, but not too sweet,
and smooth. A pleasant surprise for Meghan and me was that all of
Tart’s cupcakes have a sprinkling of sugar on top, which gives it a
nice little crunch.
The red velvet cupcake continued the Thanksgiving theme with a
precious shortbread cookie decorated with a turkey. This cupcake was
served to us with sweet cream – again, we would have preferred cream
cheese. A great thing about Tart Baker is that all cupcakes can be
requested with a different frosting if the frosting is available in
the kitchen. Sadly, the cake itself was pretty dry. The batter, made
with buttermilk and oil, had a nice mild but distinct chocolate
flavor.
A favorite fall flavor of mine is pumpkin spice and Tart did not
disappoint. For decorative purposes, the firmer sweet cream frosting
was used, but we were able to sample the cake with some cream cheese
frosting. The cake was moist and light, and, like the carrot cake,
the spices were blended perfectly.
Kristen’s vanilla cupcake tasted like a wedding cake, and we loved
that! This is a great way to get your wedding cake without having to go to a
wedding. The cake was light, fluffy and moist. For this cupcake, the
sweet cream frosting was perfect.
For our chocolate fix, the devil's food cupcake hit the spot. Kristen
boils the cocoa powder, which gives the cake a great texture. This was
our first taste of the chocolate fudge frosting – tastes just like
fudge. It was delicious, but there was a little too much on this
cupcake.
Our final cupcake was strawberry, which was made with natural
strawberry preserves. The strawberry frosting was light and fresh,
with real strawberries in it.
Tart offers three main frosting choices: Sweet cream (Tart’s version of a sweet
European buttercream), chocolate fudge, and cream cheese. A
meringue-based French buttercream can also be requested. Kristen
originally used this as her main buttercream, but most customers did
not like that it wasn’t sweet.
The cream cheese has a nice flavor but was a bit greasy. It is
sweeter than the sweet cream – being trained in the European style,
Kristen prefers frostings that are not as sweet. She often adds her
sweet cream frosting to the cream cheese to temper the sweetness and
make it whiter.
We tasted a shot of Kristen’s peanut butter frosting, and, I have to
say, it tastes just like my mom’s peanut butter fudge. It was GREAT
with the devil’s food cake.
Kristen also graciously shared with us some of her other tasty treats.
If you like a cake ball, Tart does it well. The pumpkin spice cake
ball was dipped in European white chocolate, and the center had the
texture of pumpkin pie.
One of Kristen’s favorite desserts to make are macarons. The salted
caramel French macaron was a first for all of us! It was wafery and
airy, with an exterior crunch and a chewy interior. The macarons are
offered in lemon, raspberry, pistachio, passion fruit, pumpkin, and
green apple.
An unexpected joy for all of us were Tart’s mini tarts (hee hee). The
pumpkin tartlet was a nice bite of pumpkin pie with a toasted meringue
topping. For all three of us, the key lime tartlet, topped with white
chocolate pastry cream, was one of the highlights of the day.
Tart Bakery does offer gluten-free and vegan options on request. They
offer coffee, espresso, French lemonade and water. On occasion, the
bakery hosts champagne and pastry tastings.
5219 W. Lovers Lane #B, Dallas, Texas 75209
Phone: 469-335-8919
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All images courtesy Allison in Texas, used with permission.
;)
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