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Larson's Bakery Rum Torte

 
Subject: Larsen's Bakery
From: Debbie
Date: 9/3/2019, 7:58 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

On 9/3/2019 4:32 PM, Debbie wrote:

Hi there! 
When I was a kid growing up in Albany, California, we would go to Larsen's Bakery 
or maybe it was spelled Larson, not sure. They were there from as early as I can 
remember from the early 60's til the mid 70's. They made a rum torte. The cake was 
chocolate with a biscuit bottom and had a rum buttercream frosting with raspberry 
jam between the chocolate cake and buttercream with chocolate shavings on the 
sides. They also made the best petit fours. Thanks for any help you can give.

Debbie

Hi Debbie,

I searched everywhere and every way that I can think of, but I cannot find any mention of a "Larsen's Bakery" or a "Larson's Bakery" in Albany, California. However, Albany closely adjoins Berkeley and some streets run through both cities, so I thought Larson's Bakery might have had a Berkeley address. I found verification of this immediately here:

East Bay Times

There is a request on that page from 2008 that is almost identical to yours, but gives the address of Larsen's Bakery as Solano Avenue in Berkeley. See:

Judy Abel of Albany is looking for the recipe for the Chocolate Rum Torte that used to be sold at Larson’s Bakery on Solano Avenue in Berkeley. She says it was approximately 1960 to 1970. 'It had walnuts in it and shaved chocolate on top,' she says. 'I also think there was a crumb crust of some sort. It was delicious!'

Sadly, Judy was not rewarded with a recipe, or even a response, as far as I can tell. I searched for a torte recipe or any recipes from Larson's Bakery in Berkeley, but with no success.

I will post this for reader input.

Phaed

You are correct. I dug out my map and it was in Berkeley. Thank you for trying. 
I don’t remember nuts being in the cake but it was amazing! Gonna have to try 
experimenting here. Love the quick reply, a nice surprise!!

Debbie