East City Bakery [RIP]

Bakery: East City Bakery 
Address: 159 Douro St, Peterborough ON 
Website: http://www.east-city-baker.com/ 
Style: English, German, North American
Price: $-$$ 

So, for whatever reason, the brother had this sudden urge to visit some other cities in Southern Ontario following his trips to Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph. He decided on Peterborough and came back with three Cake Tours! :) That even qualifies for a special Peterborough tag; not only that, it seems like he's covered all the bakeries (according to Google, that is) in the city.

The first on the tour is East-City Bakery, a fairly small bakery on the east side of the river and located in a neighbourhood; actually, the bakery itself is likewise in a red brick house. It's very nice to read and feel assured that they pride themselves on being an all-natural bakery (and, in fact, seem to do a few community programs as well)... more than that, their website also mentioned something about Poppy Seed Twisters. Oh, they knew how to lure me in (though I was, frankly, already interested at the 'Guten Appetit' ;D)! Sadly, to my considerable grief, there was nothing poppy seed when the brother went, but they did make up for it with some pretty tasty baked goods nevertheless. The selection is more English/Canadian, with items including date squares, nanaimo squares, eccles cakes, turnovers, etc.

The first thing he picked up was a turnover/danish (prices were, as always, not noted; pictured is the cherry turnover).. well, actually it was two since he got one cherry and another unsweetened apple one. Both were very good; given that danishes are usually made from the same, one-dough-fits-all and come out tasting a little too commercial (this is obviously excluding the exceptional danishes featured on this site ^-^;), which is why I'm often pretty hesitant to pick them up myself, this didn't look a cookie cutter danish and, thankfully, didn't taste like one either. Delicious, soft, flavourful dough with equally tasty fruit filling that isn't just that usual gloop. A very promising start.

The other item up for sampling was, not sure if it had a name, but a cherry tart (this is what the brother called it), although it resembled more an individual cake. At first glance, this looked like some sort of pound cake, but it was curiously more complex than that, with a sponge cake dough mixed in with chunks of cherry and plenty of coconut to create this super chewy, almost macaroon-like treat... not to mention that crumble on top~ For what it was (unless there's some secret I don't know about!), I was a little surprised to find it quite rich, but mmm... it was really good! *-* And this is coming from someone who normally doesn't like coconut too!

Anyways, of the three bakeries sampled in Peterborough, East City was definitely the favourite. While they don't have anything overly elaborate, everything was still great-tasting. I can envision a stunning poppy seed bun coming from a place like this! ;)

Rating: ***1/2