You wouldn’t be wrong to go for dazzle. Instagram begs for glowing ice sculptures filled with exotic sorbets and Boomerang videos of Cointreau tickling Baked Alaska with cerulean flames. Delicious as they are, these theatrical desserts at Favorite Bistro must bow to a humble classic. Executive Pastry Chef Claude Escamilla and his team deconstructed and reimagined what Americans best recognize as a dense brick of sweetness lost in cream-cheese frosting. “Everything together, you feel it is a carrot cake but with a little twist,” Escamilla says.
The cream cheese is on the bottom here, transformed into a velvety sauce with milk, coconut, pineapple, and a hint of sugar. Resting in it is a round of transcendently light sponge, the earthy carrot and warm spices infused with a syrup of lemon, orange, and vanilla. Matching the cake in shape and thickness is a crown of gossamer meringue, just barely toasted to deepen the flavors of honey and orange blossom
Picture biting into a perfect cloud caught in the desert’s watercolor sunset and you’ll have some idea of how this cake hits. Little twist, indeed. Linq Promenade, 702-844-4700, caesars.com