The mention of Paris makes Jackie Kai Ellis’s eyes light up. The 34-year-old owner of Vancouver’s Beaucoup Bakery & Café (2150 Fir Street) is recounting her year as a pastry student in the French capital. It’s early in the day, but Ellis looks polished—and every bit the stylish Parisian woman—wearing a tailored dress, black high heels, and red lipstick.

“I loved baking and I loved Paris, so I decided to shut down my design firm for a year and go to pastry school there,” she tells the Georgia Straight. “I thought ‘If nothing comes out of it, then I’ll just be the person who brings the best desserts to every dinner party.’ ”

At the time unable to speak the language (she claims she got a C in high-school French), Ellis uprooted her life, determined to learn the art of making religieuses, éclairs, opera cakes, and croissants. It took months, but her pastries and language skills improved over time, and she stayed in Paris to intern at a bakery before travelling around France, Italy, parts of Africa, and the U.S. When she arrived back in Vancouver in 2011, Ellis gave herself six months to decide what she wanted to do next, leading to the opening of Beaucoup Bakery in December 2012.

“I just thought I’d have a small neighbourhood bakery, and the only people that knew us would be in a small, five-block radius,” Ellis says with a laugh, acknowledging that even she is surprised by the swift success of Beaucoup. “I didn’t even know if my pastries were good enough because the only people telling me [they were good] were my family, and they have to tell me my stuff tastes good.”

Ellis’s family members have long been her taste testers. Growing up in North Vancouver, she was the sole baker in her family, and as in many Chinese households, her mom rarely bought sweets.

“The only way I could discover what North American children were eating in their homes was to start going to the library and researching baking,” Ellis recalls. “I would just look at children’s baking books for young chefs and I would bake through the entire book. I’d use my allowance money and I’d ride my little red bike down to Edgemont Village, come home with all of the ingredients, and I would make stuff.”

Even after launching a graphic-design business as an adult, Ellis continued to bake.

“It was one of those things that was more of a creative stress relief at the end of the day or on the weekends. It was some way to work with my hands where, at the end of it, you have a cake or something tangible to give someone,” she says.

Eventually, Ellis started a small baking business and sold s’more bars and peanut butter cookies at Metro Vancouver farmers markets. She also started hosting elaborate holiday feasts at her home—something she had never experienced as a child.

“I started doing Christmas and Thanksgiving because I realized that if I wanted these traditions for myself, I would be the one to create them,” she says. “I would do crazy turkey dinners and for every holiday, I’d do two desserts… I’d do, like, 10 side dishes, the turkey, wine pairings. It was insane, and I loved it.”

However, when a main course that Ellis made for a dinner party went horribly wrong on one occasion, she was relieved that a cake managed to save the meal.

“I made this sticky date pudding cake for dessert, and it was the only thing that was good in the entire meal, and I just remember thinking, ‘This is the save-your-ass type of dessert,’ ” Ellis says. “When I think of fall time, all you want is spice, caramel—something that’s easy that you can make ahead of time and you don’t need to worry about it. Everyone likes it. This became my clincher dessert after that.”

Ellis says for easy holiday meal planning, the cake can be made a day ahead and reheated in the oven. She tops it with a pinch of Maldon sea salt and a sprinkle of candied pumpkin seeds, and uses cinnamon sticks for the garnish.

Ellis recommends pairing the dessert with a fortified wine such as port.

Jackie Kai Ellis's sticky date pudding cake with toffee sauce

Ingredients

1¾ cups (435 mL) pitted Medjool dates, roughly chopped
2 cups (500 mL) water
1 vanilla bean pod, split, with seeds scraped out for use in sauce recipe, below
1½ tsp (7 mL) baking soda
2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour
½ tsp (2 mL) baking powder
1½ tsp (7 mL) ground ginger
1¼ tsp (6 mL) ground cinnamon
½ tsp (2 mL) ground cardamom
¼ tsp (1 mL) ground nutmeg
¼ tsp (1 mL) ground allspice
Pinch ground cloves
Pinch ground white pepper
½ tsp (2 mL) salt
⅔ cup (180 mL) unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
Toffee sauce (recipe below)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 ° F (190 ° C).
    
2. Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line with parchment paper.
    
3. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine dates, water, and vanilla bean and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes uncovered. Remove from heat, stir in baking soda, and let stand for 20 minutes.
    
4. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, spices, and salt.
    
5. Using an electric mixer and another large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and continue beating until well incorporated. Add flour mixture in three batches, beating after each addition until just combined and scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions.
    
6. Remove and discard vanilla husk from date mixture and add date mixture to flour mixture, stirring well to combine. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and place pan in a larger pan. Fill outer pan with boiling water until water level reaches halfway up sides of smaller pan. (Be careful not to splash the batter.) Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick in the centre comes out clean.
    
7. When pudding is cooked, cool until just warm before serving. Cut into slices, top with toffee sauce, and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Toffee sauce

¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp (215 mL) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups (375 mL) brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup (250 mL) heavy cream
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean
¼ tsp (1 mL) salt

Method

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt all the butter.
    
2. Add sugar, cream, vanilla seeds, and salt and bring to a boil.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Recipe has not been tested by the Georgia Straight.