Chef De Silva pictured on the cover of Hitzel's Spring 2010 issue.
Everyday Mohan De Silva, world-famous pastry chef and owner of Simplicity Desserts, Voorhees, uses the freshest and finest ingredients to create delicious, mouth watering desserts that are sure to leave your taste buds screaming for more.
Baked from scratch, the desserts include a wide selection of cakes, pastries, cookies, and individual delights such as artisan chocolates, bread pudding, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate mousse, cream puffs, éclairs, cupcakes, fruit tarts, macaroons, mango flan, cheesecakes, apple strudel, and tiramisu, to name a few. And, these are not your run-of-the-mill desserts as De Silva uses both classic and exotic flavors to create them and couples that with an incredible attention to detail and truly artistic touches. In other words, the desserts at Simplicity Desserts are nothing less than gastronomical works of art, for both your tummy and your eyes.
Born in Sri Lanka, De Silva, along with his wife Sunethra and son Suran, spend their days coming up with new and creative desserts that are 95 percent trans-fat free and includes offerings of gluten-free, eggless, and sugar free delights. Mohan always dreamed of opening his own bakery and with more than 30 years of experience as a pastry chef (he has been the Executive Pastry Chef of the New York Marriott Marquis, Philadelphia Marriott, and Wardman Park Marriott in Washington D.C.), his dream came true in 2007. And, Mohan is not your ordinary pastry chef as he has won 11 medals in the International Culinary Olympics as well as countless of other awards in different pastry competitions. In addition, he has created desserts for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as well as numerous other dignitaries and celebrities. Mohan has been featured on the Food Network and the Fox Morning News and was recognized as one of the best pastry chefs in America by the James Beard Foundation. In fact, Mohan was hand-picked by hotel magnate J.W. Marriott to create his grandson's wedding cake. To put it briefly, Mohan knows cake!
Mohan says that he originally planned on becoming an architect but since he always loved cooking and baking, he decided to become a pastry chef instead and now use his architectural training to build things out of sugar rather than cement. In fact, creating sugar sculptures is his favorite thing to do. Sugar sculpting is a painstaking, precise art form (completely created by hand) that few pastry chefs have been known to master. According to Mohan, color is added and the sugar is then heated to a point that it can be folded, twisted, and molded into amazing creations. And, I mean amazing! His sugar sculptures make unique (and edible) gifts or can be used as centerpieces at weddings and other events.
The best selling cake during the winter months, according to De Silva's son, is the chocolate ganache, which for chocolate lovers is indeed a eureka moment. The cake is made from layers of moist chocolate sponge cake, sandwiched between rich chocolate ganache, and topped with a thin layer of mocha butter cream. It doesn't get any better than that!
In the summer, the best selling cake is the strawberry shortcake, which is an extremely rich, vanilla sponge cake filled with fresh strawberries and cream and topped with strawberry glaze.
The cakes at Simplicity Desserts come in several sizes: the six inch size, which sells for $16.50 (serves 4 to 6), the nine inch size, which sells for $26.50, serving between 10-15 people, as well as quarter, half, and full-sheet sizes. Prices for the sheet cakes vary. Other cakes include: Belgium chocolate mousse cake, carrot cake, chocolate banana delight cake, opera torte, pistachio orange mousse log, and cheesecake.
Simplicity Desserts is also a full-scale distributor (wholesaler) of top quality, labor saving desserts and pastries and offers all of its customers a free, Dessert of the Month Club membership, a simple way to receive information about the bakery's latest creations and exclusive discounts on the cakes and pastries they enjoy the most. For more information on becoming a member, visit www.simplicitydesserts.com/dessertclub. So forget your diet and take a trip to Simplicity Desserts as it will be well worth your while because as Leonardo Di Vinci said, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
