The bakery and coffee shop in Quito Village next to Tuesday Morning has added wireless DSL service for its customers, along with a variety of muffins and pastries baked fresh all morning. The coffee is new, too, with a selection of beans brought in each week from South San Francisco by Mountanos Brothers for fresh grinds every day.

Two bakers arrive at 5 a.m. to roll, stuff and shape the goods that come hot out of big, stainless steel ovens in time for the 7:30 a.m. arrival of customers.

Owner Henry Chan, who indulges in a favorite scone or breakfast roll each morning, divides his time between the Saratoga store, which he opened two years ago, and the Palo Alto store, which he has operated for 22 years.

"Everything here we make on the premises," he says. "There are no artificial colors, flavors or chemical additives. We use fresh everything."

Prolific Oven is a new bakery location in the Cox Avenue shopping center. Two doors away there was at one time the Quito Bakery, which closed before Chan opened his store. The new location has seating both indoors and out. Bright yellow walls are adorned with oil and watercolor paintings by local artists, and wide-tiled floors create a sense of spaciousness. The glass showcase contains shelves of cakes and pastries glistening with chocolate or whipped cream.

Among the cakes are those in the rich American style, like the popular chocolate-on-chocolate; chocolate cake with coffee cream cheese frosting; orange almond cake; and zucchini cake. Cheesecake flavors include lemon, chocolate and amaretto, or can be ordered plain, topped with the fresh fruit of the season.

Among the lighter, French-style cream cakes are white and chocolate sponge cakes topped with whipped cream and a choice of strawberries, raspberries or amaretto. Eight-inch cakes average $19.25 each, with more expensive liqueur cakes—like the orange Curaçao in the French-style strawberry cream cake—priced at $22.25.

"Nothing we use is ever frozen," Chan notes, emphasizing that all of his ingredients are top quality. "When a customer calls with an order, we start making the order. We bake what we can sell, and if anything is left over, it goes to a Mountain View church."

The free Internet access Chan provides came as a result of his need to be linked with his Palo Alto store. "So I just extended it to customers," he says. His consciousness of the needs of his computer-savvy patrons stems in part from his son. Garland Chan, 21, is a student in both electronic and electrical engineering at UCLA. "He designed our website and has programmed our cash register and all of my things," Chan says proudly.

Chan came from Hong Kong in 1980 and quickly entered the bakery business by opening his Palo Alto store. He specializes mainly in cakes and pastries but offers breads like the egg-rich challah—the traditional Jewish yeast bread served on the Sabbath, holidays and ceremonial occasions—and cinnamon raisin bread. Other specialty breads include panettone—the Italian sweet yeast bread baked with raisins, citrons, pinenuts and anise in a tall, cylindrical form. It also comes as a coffeecake with cheese.

Chan also specializes in wedding cakes and dessert catering for corporate parties.

Prolific Oven, located at 18832 Cox Ave. in Saratoga, is open daily 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. For information, call 408.378.9880 or visit www.prolific-oven.com.