The Magic Rolling Pin

Bakery: The Magic Rolling Pin 
Address: 302 King St, Peterborough ON 
Website: http://www.magicrollingpin.com/
Style: British
Price: $$$$ 

Despite the name being reminiscent of some sort of cupcake shop (I was actually not even going to bother checking the website, but I did and thus sent my brother there to pick something up for me), the Magic Rolling Pin likes to think itself far above the likes of such riffraff. Indeed, asking the brother for his impressions on the place -- as I always do when I'm not the one buying -- he replied with: 'You'd think the Queen stopped here on her royal visit.' With that being said, this is touted as a tea room and patisserie, though it's more of the former, as it seems to be both a place you more eat at than take away from and offering cake slices and pound cakes instead of any sort of dainty pastries.

Their website advertises taking out a whole box of tarts (of the British type)... but after the brother's eye-opening trip, I'm not sure how much such a box would end up costing. $150? O.o Yes, I don't actually use the four-level price point very often -- I may have just used it once or twice before -- but this place is pricey. Please be aware as nothing is priced in-store. At first I didn't really take him seriously, saying that French patisseries are also expensive; he claims it's more expensive than that and at $8 for a single slice of cheesecake, I think I might have to agree. Having researched places in Toronto to have proper afternoon tea last year (I never ended up going, because no one really agreed on a good place and it seemed that everywhere reviewers went the cake portion was horrendous), I roughly knew the price point of tea, from tea rooms to hotels. These guys are the most expensive I've encountered. If the surrounding are in fact regal and you get to use all your fancy china and napkins, then perhaps they should do as the higher-end patisseries do and charge different prices for eating in and taking away, since, to be quite honest with you, paying almost $16 for two items -- one a cheesecake and the other a muffin baked in a fancy tin -- seems downright ridiculous.

And if it were bad, the review would stop here. But, fortunately, what looked like nothing much turned out quite yummy. Certainly not worth the price ($16 can, after all, get you a whole bunch of heaven at, for example, the DPH), but still very tasty. The lemon pound cakelet -- not quite sure what to call it -- I found fairly good, though I was a little disappointed with the fact that, no matter how pretty it looked in terms of presentation, had the taste and texture of a better-than-average muffin. The lemon custard layer on top had more flavour than the rest of the cake; thankfully, it wasn't what lemon-flavoured tastes like, but was actually lemon: very tangy, really intense -- curiously good. ;)

The cheesecake (it came with a small container of clotted cream which had flopped and turned to liquid upon its return home) I have to say I was wary of; I was fearing that much maligned back of the Philadelphia box recipe (as I've encountered in other bakeries), but it very good! Everything about it was good: the cheese mass was creamy, the crumble (combine that with the liquefied cream) was delicious, as was the very rich, flaky crust, very clearly made from scratch. It was, I must say, a surprise hit.

In this sense, The Magic Rolling Pin makes some pretty exceptional British baked goods; 99% of tea rooms seem to receive the very same verdict: good tea, good sandwiches, horrible pastries, so this place is an exception to this rule. The price is nonetheless quite extravagant (alas, the majority of us aren't lords and ladies...), but at least your afternoon tea is accompanied with some good dessert. Who cares about those sandwiches! ;)

Rating: **1/2