Seocho cake shop, strawberry mango cake intact after 2 hours: Chef Cho

Is there a Mullae Chef Cho at Shinsegae Department Store Gangnam?

Chef Cho (쉐프조) opened in Sweet Park on B1 of Shinsegae Department Store Gangnam a few months ago. The writer loved the fresh cream cakes at the Mullae shop and went when she heard the news.

Back when I lived in Seoul, there was a place I often visited to buy fresh cream cake: Chef Cho in Mullae. It's famous for its delicious fresh cream cakes, but since moving to Gyeonggi-do I hadn't been in a while. Then I heard Chef Cho had opened in Sweet Park at Shinsegae Department Store Gangnam a few months ago.

Luckily, Gangnam is much closer than Mullae from where I live now, so I nagged my husband into heading to Shinsegae Department Store Gangnam. We arrived at Sweet Park full of excitement! At the Chef Cho counter, a friendly staff member greeted us warmly.

There isn't as wide a range of products as at the Mullae main shop, but just being able to find Chef Cho cakes close to home again was wonderful.

How are Chef Cho cakes made?

Chef Cho cakes reportedly use 100% dairy fresh cream and fresh fruit delivered every day. All products are said to be made at the Chef Cho boutique in Yeongdeungpo.

The owner was also selected as one of the "Four Kings of Cake" on the TV show Master of Living (생활의 달인). It was impressive, too, that the owner, a certified master confectioner, is a woman.

I love bread and cakes so much that I once took an ambitious baking class at a women's vision center, but even kneading one loaf of milk bread was so hard that I vowed, "From now on, I'll only eat bread!" haha. Maybe that's why people working in baking seem even more amazing to me.

The shop is small, but it felt like it had everything it needed.

What did we buy at Chef Cho Gangnam, and how much was it?

At Chef Cho in Shinsegae Gangnam we bought a Strawberry Mango Fresh Cream Cake No. 1 (₩53,000) and a Vanilla Crepe Roll with fruit (₩13,800). Hobbang-i (my kid's nickname) has recently started eating a little cake, so I picked the No. 1 to share, and added the crepe roll my husband likes.

The Chocolate Whole Strawberry Cake looked really tempting too, and I stood admiring it for a long time.

Can a Chef Cho cake survive 2 hours in a cooler bag?

The Chef Cho Strawberry Mango Fresh Cream Cake No. 1 was only slightly pushed to one side after 2 hours in a cooler bag, and its shape was almost intact. The cooler bag costs extra and is reusable.

I told the staff it would take about an hour to get home and asked for a cooler bag, and they packed it carefully. But I stopped to buy side dishes and picked up Hobbang-i from daycare, so we got home a full 2 hours later. I worried, "Did the cake collapse?" but... wow!

The cake was only slightly pushed, and the shape was almost intact. The band around the bottom was fixed firmly, which seemed to keep it stable during the trip.

How does Chef Cho's vanilla crepe roll with fruit taste?

The Chef Cho vanilla crepe roll was packed with strawberries, kiwi and mango, and the cream was light and not sweet. I tried the crepe roll first.

The soft crepe and the fruit went together really well.

Is Chef Cho's strawberry mango fresh cream cake too sweet?

The fresh cream on Chef Cho's Strawberry Mango Fresh Cream Cake isn't heavy at all; it's rich yet light. Ripe mango and strawberries are piled generously on top, and there's plenty of fruit inside too.

After dinner, we finally opened the cake! Our family will blow out cake candles for any excuse we can come up with, haha, and this day's theme was "my sibling's 2nd anniversary of moving into their apartment." So, two candles 😁

Ripe mango and strawberries were piled on top without holding back. There was so much mango that it was hard to cut, so I set the mango aside first and then sliced the cake.

There was plenty of fruit inside too, but above all, the charm of Chef Cho is the sponge and the fresh cream. The cream isn't heavy at all; it's rich yet light. If you like fresh cream cake that isn't too sweet, you'll be really happy with this.

The kid's reaction and a small downside

Hobbang-i clapped and ate it up, haha. The strawberries weren't in season, so they were a little tart rather than very sweet, but the fruit itself was fresh, so we enjoyed it the next day too.

No wonder people call it one of Seoul's best cake shops. My mom's birthday is the month after next, and I think I'll get her cake from Chef Cho too. I bet she'll be so happy to have Chef Cho fresh cream cake again after so long 😊