Pâtisserie de Gascogne [RIP]

Bakery: Pâtisserie de Gascogne
Address: 237 av. Laurier O., Montreal, QC (ALL locations closed)
Website: http://www.degascogne.com/
Style: French
Price: $$$

[De Gascogne rather abruptly closed all their locations]

Nevertheless, seeing as there were four of us, we got four little, individual cakes ($4+/each) all fancily decorated... although considering how much you pay for them, it would be nice for them *not* to put them into one giant box and pack them individually or put some sort of barriers between them. When I opened the box to take pictures, they were all either smooshed against one another or against the wall. I mean, it wasn't such a big deal for me, but if you were entertaining, peeled chocolate, fallen raspberries and dirty wrappers doesn't look so impressive. This was my biggest complaint about these guys.

As for the cakes... Well, I can only really speak for myself, but mine was superb and definitely beat out the treat I bought the day before. I chose it due to the fact that de Gascogne seems to specialize more in chocolate cakes (they also sell their own chocolate at another counter in the store) and they didn't have so much in the fruit category...  Anyways: fresh raspberries on top with a little glaze sitting atop a sponge cake with vanilla cream in the middle. This was amazing, just a tad too small, especially considering the price ($4.30, I believe).

The next, at around the same price, is a chocolate raspberry cake. (pictured at top) This apparently was a chocolate cake with raspberries on the inside coated in dark chocolate and decorated with dark chocolate flakes. Verdict: "It was good. I'd give it ***"
The other was the Marocain. This was a chocolate and nut combination with nuts in the dark chocolate coating and a thick, very rich nutty mousse in the inside along with some sort of dough. Good.

Overall: perhaps the price doesn't make this a place you go to on a regular basis, but this is definitely a place worth visiting.

On a return trip, we settled on splitting a large raspberry tart ($15.00) which was made up of two layers of dense, almost almond -like in taste "shell" which was split with some sort of cream. This was then topped with tons of fresh raspberries, a bit of powdered sugar, some candied orange peels and a small sheet of chocolate. The cake was definitely a unique take on the fruit tart/flan idea. Really liked it!

Rating: ***1/2