Hong Kong should be renamed the city of sweets. There is a cake shop on every block, and even our 7-11s and Circle Ks are packed to the gills with breakfast pastries and afternoon delights.
Zoë started as the little cake shop that could, situated just down the road from the mammoth Lee Gardens in Causeway Bay. Tai tais went there to enjoy afternoon tea, and bathe in the warm sunlight that streams through the windows.
Now, following a sister opening in Happy Valley, they’ve opened a third outlet in Wan Chai’s J-Residence. To look at, it’s a sad little shop that can only really fit one cake refrigerator, a single shop assistant, and no seating. But despite its limited size, people are still making a pilgrimage here for their fix of specialty, sugary cakes.
Armed with a cup of tea, I cracked open my box of goodness from Zoë at home. In it, I had a creamy blood cake made with the juice of blood oranges, sat on a crumbly biscuit base; their signature Zoë cake, which looked and tasted like a fluffy tiramisu; and their other signature, the 1459 cake, aka the Napoleon (all $30 per generous serving).
Though these cakes come from a store that looks like a cute Barbie dream house, they are mass produced and taste very similar to what you can find at your neighbourhood ParknShop. And there’s the rub. Like Barbie, Zoë comes perfectly packaged, but crack open her box and you find that she’s just one of a billion.
Wendy Wu