Car cake is the cake that is eaten in the car.

Last week, entering Highway 110 from the Hill Street on-ramp, I had my first drive-thru pie. I didn't have any crumbs left in the seams of my leather seats. I didn't spread frosting on the steering wheel. I didn't let the lack of a proper napkin engulf me in anxiety.

I sank my teeth into the rectangular slice of black sesame cake as the traffic began to pick up. The increase in sugar caused an instant rush of dopamine. Nothing could spoil the car cake.

Car cake is a cake that is eaten in the car. One could potentially enjoy any slice of cake in the car, but what I'm specifically referring to are the cake bars from Heather Wong's Flouring LA bakery in Chinatown. They are small rectangles of layered cake placed in white parchment paper sleeves that protect your fingers.

Flouring LA Black Sesame Cake Bar

I am convinced that if more people accepted the car pie, road rage would decrease by at least 58%. Commutes home wouldn't have to suck. I would be more open to dating someone who lives on the other side of the 405 freeway.

According to Wong, the original idea behind eating cake in the car was to decrease stress and anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In spring 2020, Wong launched a pop-up bakery called Flouring LA because he “needed to bake to fill my soul.” He also seemed like a natural next step to me after working in several restaurant kitchens, including Bottega Louie, and creating dessert content for his personal baking blog. At one point, he called himself Scootabaker and delivered his desserts via a 2007 Vespa LX 150 with spring-loaded racks.

“I thought it would be a good idea to put together a dessert box with things that people could eat in their car,” Wong said on a recent call. “I created this cake bar wrapped in a little square of parchment and you could hold the cake and eat it in the car while driving. Car cake.”

During the pandemic, she delivered her desserts to customers waiting in their cars. In January, he opened his first brick-and-mortar store, a 500-square-foot bakery and shop on Hill Street.

The day's pie bars are presented in a display case that takes up much of the space in the small space. You can buy individual bars or opt to fill a lavender box with a variety: carrot cake, chocolate, ube and coconut, passion fruit and whatever else Wong is baking.

“It's a lot of what I loved as a kid and what I feel is missing or I don't find enough in bakeries,” Wong said. “I loved King's Hawaiian Passion Fruit Cake as a kid, but I never felt like there was enough passion fruit, so my passion fruit cake bar was inspired by it.”

There is no shortage of passion fruit in Wong's version. The fruit is bright and spicy, flooding the mouth with the acidic and complex flavor of pure passion fruit. Wong soaks the cake in passion fruit syrup and then adds as much of the same syrup as possible to the Italian buttercream before it breaks down.

“Black sesame is from my love for Chinese tang yuan mochi,” he said. “I had to make a cake out of it.”

Wong's Black Sesame Cake Bar may be my favorite slice of cake in all of Los Angeles right now. It starts with a rich, buttery cake studded with enough toasted black sesame seeds to turn the dough gray. Spread a generous amount of Rooted Fare Black Sesame Crunch Butter over the cake and then add an Italian buttercream frosting with ground toasted sesame seeds. Then comes another layer of cake and another layer of frosting.

Hints of sesame dominate, anchoring the sweetness of the buttercream with an intense nutty flavor that provides depth and a welcome bitterness. The real star is the sesame butter, which slides in a satisfying crunch between the luxurious buttercream and the fluffy cake.

I should note that Wong uses the ideal ratio of about a quarter inch of frosting to an inch of cake. Too much frosting bothers me, probably more than it should. There will be no frosting scraping the cake off your car.

Cali Love Pie Peach Cobbler Cheesecake

The peach cobbler cheesecake from Cali Love Pie in Los Angeles.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

I first came across Cali Love Pie on Tiffany Hinton Jefferson's @blackownedfoodla Instagram account. The store, located on the corner of Western Avenue and Venice Boulevard, celebrated its first anniversary on April 20.

Owner Amili Williams specializes in sweets that combine the flavors of classic cakes and desserts with her grandmother's signature cheesecake recipe. He makes a pecan pie cheesecake, a banana pudding cheesecake, and a cheesecake with a top layer of sweet potato pie filling.

The peach cheesecake filling is studded with soft, pliable peaches that you can mash with your fork. Around the fruit and throughout the cake is a caramel-colored ribbon that tastes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. The graham cracker crust is thin and packed with enough butter to indicate true decadence. The top is covered with a layer of crumbled sweet cookies.

The effect is similar to cobbler a la mode, with the velvety cheesecake reflecting the ice cream melting over warm fruit. While cheesecakes are served cold, I like to wait until my slice is close to room temperature for maximum deliciousness and softest peaches.

I have yet to try the banana pudding cheesecake, but I'm not sure anything can derail my cobbler obsession. Maybe the cheesecake shake mixed with a whole slice of cheesecake. Yes, those exist too.