When Margaret returned from France, she had such a hard time finding decent croissants in the area that she decided to open her own French bakery. French Pastries has been in business since 1983. A few years ago Margaret and her husband, Joe, moved the actual baking of their goods to a large kitchen in Campbell. It is here where she meets her customers and where the complimentary tasting takes place. "At the end of this meeting, everyone is walking away with a proposal," Margaret told me.

Margaret, who once owned a flower shop, loves to enhance her custom-designed cakes with fresh flower decoration, the fashionable gum paste flowers, chocolate ribbons, or sugared fruit. If you cannot find the right cake in the large portfolio, Margaret will create a new design. She always makes sure her cakes are carefully handled and arrive on time. Margaret was recommended by another well-known baker who considers the bakery to be among the finest in the Bay Area. A French teacher at the Alliance Française takes her classes to the bakery because she considers it authentically French.

I tasted samples of a variety of fine cakes: chocolate, almond, vanilla genoise, carrot, hazelnut, devil’s food, and spice, as well as cheese and pound cakes. The fillings are white and dark chocolate, berries, lemon and espresso mousses, Grand Marnier whipped cream with fresh strawberries, and almond frasier with apricot preserves or fresh strawberries. Icings include butter cream, whipped cream, white and dark chocolate ganache, rolled fondant, chocolate curls, and marzipan. Their latest creation, tiramisu, is very popular. The cakes were wonderful, and I could taste that only the best ingredients were used, such as pure butter and fresh eggs. Many of the ingredients are imported from Europe. One of their specialties is petits fours, a small cake dessert, which is a wonderful treat for an elegant party.