Link: Cupcake Taste-Off On Kitchen Scribble

Cupcakes go head-to-head on the Kitchen Scribble blog where kat and friends tasted the established Oh What A Cake! against the new Linda's Bakery.  Bottom line: They liked them both Columbia bakeries, but they had definite opinions about cake, frosting and decorations.

Macarons Getting Even Better At Linda's Bakery

Strawberry macarons from Linda's Bakery

Macarons are a trick to pull off, and Linda's Bakery in Columbia just keeps getting better at pulling rabbits out of the hat.

I have written about these French pastries before -- basically sandwich cookies made with meringues and a cream filling.  Linda's are a crisp treat -- a light crunch and an intense flavor, which is what we want in a household that doesn't do much cake.

I'd said that Linda's meringues had air pockets that kept them from reaching the heights of the Macaron Cafe, where I run every time that I take a train home from Penn Station.  But I keep stopping because you can't beat a dessert treat for a couple of dollars, and Linda's keeps on making them better.

My last purchase was strawberry macarons a few weeks ago. Four perfect. (Three of which made it home to split with the wife.) One had air pockets, but we're arguing about details here.  Macaron are the bailiwick of professional bakers.  Most of you aren't knocking off meringues in the kitchen today.  So stop if you're doing errands anywhere near Snowden River.  Get a box if you work nearby.  I promise that you'll make friends if you bring those home.  If you know what I mean . . .

Napoleon and Cream Puffs At Linda's

Napoleons and some V-Day macarons

Let's talk about cream.  When a new bakery opens, it's easy to start talking about the cake and the cookies.

At Linda's Bakery in Columbia, I started with the meringues and then went back several times for macarons.  But you need go beyond the crunch if you're checking out Linda's.  You need to check out the cream.

Start with the cream puffs.  They're simple enough.  A wrapper of pastry, wrapped around a few tablespoons of thick, sweet cream.  They're simple enough, except that that's a professional pastry cream.  So sweet and thick, but bright and light.  The first puff didn't make it out of the parking lot.

The napoleons got home.  They're the same cream layered with thicker, crunchy pastry.  Mrs. HowChow knew that they're called mille-feuille for the thousand layers (or so).  Linda's tops them with sugar-glazed fruit.  They shattered under the fork into a crackle of crisp and gooey, and they're a great take-home dessert.

Think cream.

Macarons Have Come To Howard County -- Spotted At The New Linda's Bakery In Columbia

Macarons from Linda's Bakery

We're getting on trend now in Howard County with French-style macarons offered up in Columbia even as these bakeries pop in places like DC and Bethesda.

The new Linda's Bakery that opened on Snowden River Parkway this month offers several flavors of macarons.  These are basically sandwich cookies made with meringues connected with a cream or other filing.

They're light, often fruity sweets.  Perfect as a tiny treat.  Beautiful on dessert plate.  They're also a current post-cupcake trend among pastry shops and cookbooks.  The Sugar Baby cookbook caught Mrs. HowChow's eye because she had searched out macarons when we visited Manhattan.

Mrs. HowChow hasn't worked up to the complex recipe yet, but Linda's pops out macarons with raspberry, almond, coffee, and chocolate chip.  They're not the perfectly uniform pastries from New York's Macaron Cafe.  A few were so brittle that they shattered or had air spaces inside.  But they're light with the burst of intense flavor that makes macarons so special.

This is the kind of experimentation that makes me glad to see all the new bakeries.  Linda's could create a niche for this kind of pastry, which I haven't seen closer than Bethesda until now.

Linda's Bakery Has Opened In Columbia

Linda's Bakery opened yesterday on Snowden River Parkway, and you should make an excuse to go try another spot for sweets in Howard County.

Our first taste:  A chocolate chip meringue as perfect as I have ever tasted.  Crisp on the outside.  Light and airy, but a touch of chewiness inside.  And delicious chocolate chunks throughout.

Meringues are basically egg whites and sugar, so they are easy to make tooth-achingly sweet.  Linda's come in sweet, but they're skillfully kept on the tasty side -- especially with the exceptional chocolate inside.  Go get one, and tell them that you saw Linda's in HowChow!

Linda's covers the spectrum for sweets -- from cookies and brownies through eclairs and croissants to custom cakes in dozens of varieties of cake, icing and fillings.  Owner Linda Cheng has been selling custom cakes for a while, so the retail spot expands the opportunities.

We also bought a cupcake, although only a single variety because we already had a dozen cupcakes in the house.  (Long story.)  When we sliced that up among some friends, people rated the Linda's cupcake in the same sphere as the locals like Oh What A Cake and Touche Touchet in Columbia.

Sweets bakeries keep popping up around Howard County.  (Update:  Cooks n' Cakes opened yesterday as well in Ellicott City.)   In addition to the Columbia bakeries, you can find interesting stuff at Bonaparte Bread in Savage and cupcakes at Kupcakes & Co. in Elkridge.  Only Bonaparte does bread and sweets.  For bread, I always recommend the organic markets and Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery.

Linda's Bakery
9350-G Snowden River Parkway 
Columbia, MD 21045
410-381-4390 

NEAR: Linda's is in the same shopping center as House of India and New York Deli. It is accessible from southbound Snowden River Parkway south of the Home Depot.

Linda's Bakery Opening In Columbia

A new bakery appears to be opening on Snowden River Parkway in Columbia next to House of India offering cakes and other sweets.

The sign says Linda's Bakery "coming soon."  There is a Web site that I found searching the Internet.  It looks like Linda has been baking for a while

The Web site promises cakes, sweets and espresso.  If Linda is the same chef from Just Desserts by Linda, then you'll be able to get some crazy looking cakes.

Linda's Bakery (opening Fall 2011)
9350-G Snowden River Parkway
Columbia, MD 21045


NEAR:  Linda's is in the same shopping center as House of India and New York Deli.  It is accessible from southbound Snowden River Parkway south of the Home Depot.