Journal de la Journée: A Birthday Cake from Union at Pondok Indah

Happy birthday Emyr! Today is my only little brother's 17th birthday. He is now finally legal and are bound to be the subject of public law once he got a proper registration for his ID card (ah, my law student persona is speaking here). Unfortunately he came unprepared during the registration to the kelurahan and had to prepare several documents to then reapply. His celebration were as simple as he is, only a cake and all-you-can-eat lunch at Hanamasa the next day. Yet as he is a simple guy, my parents taught that he deserves something nice and a bit more grandeur, buying him a birthday cake from Union.

He initially requested Oreo Cheesecake from The Harvest but since my parents insisting buying him Union, being great fans of their bakery products, we then decided to buy Union's cheesecake -- expecting a New York cheesecake you'll find in most bakeries here. What we ended up seeing is still a cheesecake, but in form of layered buttercream whole cakes which doesn't seem like something we had in mind. Then we considered to buy their infamous Red Velvet, but having purchasing it oh-so-often we decided to try out something new per the suggestion of the kind staff that greeted us that day. Swear that is the best service I've got from Union Pondok Indah in comparison in three not-so-great visit I had before. Finally, we bought a whole Strawberry Charlotte cake in fifteen minutes after the order; a new menu that my mom conspired to have its name inspired after the birth of the new British royal baby.

Strawberry Charlotte (IDR 660.000)

The cake consist of layers of vanilla sponge cake, whipped cream, strawberry (which I admit were very fresh!), sweet crumble and a cake-slash-pie-crust-bottom. The cake were not to sweet, the sourness of the strawberry goes well with the overall flavor. The problem is the texture, the only crunch I get were only from the crumble and the bottom feels like a subpar pie crust that I'm not even sure whether it is a plain crust or an actual cake outer that had gotten brown during baking. The outer cake, although pretty, were very dry and was the least favorable element of the cake. We were a bit disappointed that with such price, the flavour we get were sub-par. I was expecting so much more from Union and this time they didn't deliver in the flavor despite their marketing effort in introducing this Strawberry Charlotte. It was good and admittedly very pretty, but that's it.

Should've bought that red velvet cake instead or the actual birthday cake flavor that Union offer. Or even, should've bought that oreo cheesecake instead. However what matter is that the birthday boy is happy and that the family can gather to enjoy his moment. We are thankful for the blessings we had.