Ladurée

While my husband and I were in Santa Barbara we had the privilege of being taken to the most adorable pastry shop. Unfortunately I got a phone call in the middle of our visit and didn't think to take a photo of the outside (or even record the name of the shop!), however these photos were to 'yummy' not to share.

These photos make me wish that I was at Laduree. Now for those of us in the midwest who aren't familiar with that I thought I'd share from Wikipedia (obviously the best resource...):

Ladurée is a luxury cakes and pastries brand based in Paris, France. It is known as the inventor of the double-decker macaron, fifteen thousand of which are sold every day. Louis-Ernest Ladurée, a miller, founded the bakery on the Rue Royale, Paris in 1862. During the Paris Commune uprising of 1871 the bakery was burnt down. A pastry shop was built at the same location and Jules Chéret was entrusted with the interior decoration. The chubby cherubs dressed as pastry cooks, painted by him on the ceiling, form the company's emblem. The interior of the premises were painted in the same celadon colour as the façade. Ladurée's rise to fame came in 1930 when his grandson, Pierre Desfontaines, had the original idea of the double-decker, sticking two macaron shells together with a creamy ganache as filling. Queen Catherine de' Medici had brought the macaron to France from Italy in the 16th century, and the recipe for the biscuit had hardly varied over the years, but the amounts of the ingredients used and the appearance of the end product were up to the individual bakers. Desfontaines was also the man behind the idea of opening a tearoom at the pastry shop. In those days ladies were not admitted to cafés, which were the exclusive domain of men. This was a big success with ladies, who enjoyed meeting in the freedom of the tearoom rather than their homes. {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladurée}

Now that you know what it is, let's have a look, eh?

I think that my sister would want to move in!