Stofan Cafe [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Stofan Café
Address: Vesturgata 3, Reykjavik
Website: facebook
Style: Icelandic 
Price: $$$ 

Given the fact that I've done every proper bakery in Reykjavik, with only one or two in the suburbs left to do, I've taken to reviewing the many cafes in the city that serve homemade cakes. Here is the next place in that series.

Stofan is a cafe and bar right in the heart of the city and a place that a friend of mine has been recommending since my last time in Iceland. Making it a condition that I had to review something in order for me to tag along, all four of us came to Stofan first. With its exposed wooden interior and chill atmosphere, it's a pretty nice place to go for a glass of beer or a coffee; I liked that aspect. However, I was quite disappointed (and my partners in cake greatly amused) to find after reading on their facebook that they have homemade cakes to see... that caramel apple crumble cake in their display case. Imported frozen, precision-sliced cake. The Snickers cake, one accomplice informed me, had also been seen elsewhere. My heart was broken, but they thought it would be fun to test the cafe itself. Upon asking the guy working at the bar about the apple cake, he laughed and replied that it was made in a factory and most of the others were too, but he knew for a fact that the carrot cake was homemade because he himself had made it. Well, their facebook needs some updating to say the least, but bonus points for honesty; still a bit skeptical, I took his word for it and opted for that one.

 Now, to be quite frank, I'm not the biggest fan of carrot cake in general. Whenever I review it on my site, I usually let others sample it and a consensus is made, so I was hoping something else would have been made in-store.... Nonetheless, the carrot cake (a rather expensive 1150kr) was a dome-shaped, rather clumsily put together cake with two layers of nicely spiced dough with a layer of thick icing in the middle as well as on top. The first few bites were quite good, but towards the end of the slice, it was just too much icing -- it had to be 5cm thick! Too sweet, not enough dough. 2.5 stars for this cake alone.

One person took that aforementioned Snickers cake (also 1150kr) and gave me a piece a try, despite avowing it was another of these cakes you'll see everywhere. This was still interesting with several different layers, starting with a sponge cake bottom, a cream layer, a caramel layer, crunchy meringue, and a thick and chewy chocolate coating on top. Again, a bit too sweet for my liking and I'm not really a chocolate bar person, so maybe I was biased going into it.

Great place to hang out and drink, but I'd skip the cake next time....

Rating: **