Sigrid's Cafe & Fine Bakery

Bakery: Sigrid's Bakery
Address: 10 Ross St, Barrie ON
Website: http://www.sigridsbakery.com/
Style: German
Price: $-$$

Sigrid's is a good old-fashioned German deli and bakery with all the classics along with some 'Canadian' favourites as well... and of course by classics I mean poppy seed buns! Naturally, there are other treats as well and the bakery seems to have an especially nice selection of fruit-filled items in the form of pies and cakes.

On a Saturday afternoon, their specialty Bienenstich (a cake comprising of yeast dough and a generous layer of almonds and rich creamy custard -- certainly not the faint of heart) was sold out, but I was offered the rhubarb pie as a substitute, which included all the components of the bienenstich with the addition of chunks of rhubarb. This definitely came as a surprise -- man! it's so hard to find baked goods with just rhubarb; it's such a distinctly European taste. This was very good; although the rhubarb and surrounding dough got a little soggy, the combination of dough and custard and fruit was a lovely one.

But why delve deeply into that when they are poppy seed baked goods to be discussed? ;D At first, I only noticed the poppy seed spirals, but was later directed to the poppy seed cake as well. I was a very happy girl, that's for sure. The poppy seed bun was by far the heaviest German bun I've tried. It was really heavy (though I would later discover it was due to the fact that there were apple chunks baked into the middle) and had plenty of poppy seeds in it, more than usual. The mass was mixed with almonds and the overall effect was a little doughy as it was more like two different well, dough layers. I'm not sure I liked the apple centre all that much, to be quite honest with you, but the bun on the whole was tasty.

As for the poppy seed cake, this was a real treat! I'm not exactly sure what it was, but the bottom was a similar, if not identical, poppy seed mass as in the bun with chunks of slivered almonds and then on top, there was a very airy, almost souffle-like cheese mass. Eating on the second day had created a bit of a crust on the top part, but it was delicious. I'd say it was better than the bun!

In addition to this, I got an apple pie as well as a peach streusel pie, which were pretty good, but nothing exceptional. The peach was a little bland, but that's just the nature of the fruit. Ha ha I'd say to stick to the poppy seed or custard cream goodness and you'll be good. ;)

Rating: ***