“It is important for us to have craveable and approachable treats executed at a high level that will make you a little bit happier than when you walked into the door,” says pastry chef Aya Fukai, 38, understating the sublime experience of savoring her scrumptious Samoa cakes—one of her most popular creations. Made with a moist chocolate buttermilk cake, frosted with dulce de leche buttercream, tossed in toasted coconut, and drizzled with chocolate for a crunch, Aya Pastry’s Samoa cake is everything a cake is supposed to be: a perfect mix of texture and flavor in every single bite, with the added portability of a doughnut. “The Samoa cake was created because my personal favorite Girl Scout cookie is the Samoa,” says Fukai. “I love cakes in general, and I wanted to create a cake version of my favorite cookie. I have always liked the personal/individual cake aspect of a cupcake but never was a fan, due to the ratio of frosting to cake. I wanted to make a handheld dessert with the frosting-to-cake ratio that I liked and with different textures,” she says. Texture is definitely the highlight of Aya Pastry’s Samoa cake—a gentle crunch from the chocolate covering is followed by the moist softness of the cake and frosting. The flavors are beautiful too, a classic combo of coconut and chocolate that’s tastefully sweet, unspoiled by any weird gimmicks. Comfort food at its best.
With a background in fine dining, Fukai used to work as a pastry chef for high-end restaurants and hotels in Boston (where she grew up) and here in Chicago. Although she was happy in those jobs, Fukai wanted to offer her creations to a wider audience: “I wanted to create a business that was more easily accessible and approachable for the general public,” she says. “In the Michelin-starred restaurants that I used to make desserts for, it was quite difficult to invite my closest friends and family, since it meant making them sit through a long, costly multiple-course meal just to try a bite-sized dessert. I wanted to create a company that could provide and support the pastry/bread programs of different Chicago venues at a higher quality,” she explains.
Aya Pastry opened in 2017 in West Town, first as a wholesaler catering to local restaurants, cafes, and markets. Once the pandemic hit, they decided to add a retail storefront to their bakery, complete with a drive-thru located in their parking lot (still open daily from 7 AM to 12 PM). Orders can be placed in person or online, and be picked up in-store or at the drive-thru window. The strategy worked: even though Aya Pastry lost 90 percent of their wholesale accounts during the city’s lockdown, they were able to keep all their workers employed. “I think one of the accomplishments that I am extremely proud of is how our team pivoted and adjusted to the pandemic. . . . With the willingness of the bakery team to quickly adapt to doing retail, and . . . with a handful of our wholesale customers’ huge success with their to-go programs, we were able to continue baking,” says Fukai. Another reason to celebrate is the many awards Aya Pastry has received since its opening, including: Best Pastry Chef by the Chicago Tribune in 2018, one of the top 100 bakeries in America by Food & Wine magazine in 2020, and being named the Best Bakery Empire for Chicago’s 2021 Eater Awards.
To achieve such stellar results, Fukai employs precise methods and high-quality ingredients such as Plugra butter, Red Rose flour, Cacao Barry Chocolate, and local farm produce during warmer seasons. “We are not trying to reinvent the classics, but we strive to enhance them with whimsy or to make them to the best of our ability using quality ingredients. . . . We also create treats with Asian-inspired flavors due to my Japanese background but using French and American techniques,” she says. Besides the Samoa cake, other popular items include the classic country sourdough bread, a Japanese white bread called shokupan, almond croissants, kouign-amanns (a muffin-shaped buttery laminated French pastry), and all kinds of slices of cake that are offered on rotation in flavors such as chocolate peanut butter banana cake and cinnamon tres leches, or the Asian-inspired yuzu vanilla cake and black sesame cake.
Aya Pastry’s Samoa cakes can be found at their West Town storefront or in places such as Gaslight Coffee Roasters and Pilot Project Brewing in Logan Square, Passion House Coffee Roasters in Goose Island, Sparrow Coffee in Naperville, Eat Me Milk Me and the Hoxton in Fulton Market, Three House in West Town, the Dandy Crown in River West, Life Time Fitness in River North, the cafe at Steppenwolf Theatre, and Intelligentsia locations around the city. Their breads and pastries can be purchased at their shop and at Maple & Ash, Etta, Olivia’s Market, Plum Market, Foxtrot, and Tempesta Market.
Aya Pastry
1332 W. Grand
312-846-6186
Storefront hours: Daily 9 AM-4 PM
Drive-thru hours: Daily 7 AM-12 PM
www.ayapastry.com
@ayapastry
