Bakery: Iana BakeryAddress: 4665 Central Parkway E., Mississauga ON
Website: http://www.ianabakery.com/
Style: Italian, Portuguese, North American
Price: $-$$
This might be the one time that Google advertising has worked, though I must admit that a few days ago I compiled a list of all the ~20 Mississauga-area bakeries (included are some kind suggestions :)) I still need to review and remembered that there was some sort of Portuguese bakery on the same place as Carpati Romanian deli (future post XD). Still, while researching the address of Truscott Italian Bakery, these guys popped up in the sidebar, claiming they were the home of Mississauga's best cakes and that they also sold baked fresh daily croissants, danishes and baked goods. I'm not sure if the first claim is true, as I didn't have a cake and am not a fan of the wedding cake-style cakes they're famous for, but the second one certainly wasn't in that I went there and found pretty much an empty bakery. A few buns, two loaves of bread and empty shelves where I assume the croissants and danishes should be. Although I didn't leave empty-handed, the selection was quite small and it was really difficult to pick something out from what was left behind/baked that day; moreover, there wasn't anything Portuguese or not a lot Italian goodies besides some cake slices and canoli behind the glass along with cupcakes and sugar cookies. :/
In the baked goods, I really took one of the two things that remained: a bun ($1.80) filled with a heavy, dark mass which made me at once think of... poppy seed!! Of course, my common sense came in then and told me that surely Portuguese/Italian baked goods don't use poppy seed, so I thought it would be some fruity mass... anything than what it was: a hard, dense brownie-like dough wrapped with a more crusty, cookie-like white dough, then dusted with vanilla. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting and so I was pretty disappointed. The concept, in my opinion wasn't a great one, and I really don't know what it was supposed to be. Definitely not worth it and the least favourite of my purchases.
Besides this, I caved and took some cookies
($23.99/kg; this plate cost $2.40). I don't really go to bakeries for cookies, to be quite honest with you. I bake some pretty decent ones myself and don't eat them all that often, so I've never really seen the point to go and get plain sugar cookies. Instead, I picked out ones that looked more unique: "spice" cookies, one chocolate jam cookie, one vanilla jam cookie, and one chocolate cookie. There wasn't that much taste difference between them and even the chocolate ones were almost identical to the vanilla. The best was by far the chocolate one with jam in between the two layers. It was alright, though not enough jam. Again, maybe to eat with some strong coffee or to give to kids, they're alright, but alone, they also didn't wow me.
Lastly, I took the white chocolate rum ball ($0.80) which might just prove that this place's specialty is indeed their cakes. Like I said, I'm not really a fan
of cakes; give me some fresh baked goods and I'll be a happy girl, but this was the best by a long shot and was pretty good. One of my brothers always takes rum balls, but the chocolate variety and they're just these hunks of chocolate, so here, you had this crumbly vanilla cake dough with this nuttiness to it inside. The top was dry-ish, but towards the bottom, the dough was pretty moist and at the end, you had this pleasant.. bite from the rum. Eat that with the delicious white chocolate glaze, this actually proved to be the hit, although I was least eager to try it. Not bad, indeed.
In the end, I guess I could say definitely stick to the cakes/pastries behind the glass (or, ahem, go a few doors down to Carpati!!), since nothing else really lived up to my expectations. So many bakeries sell cookies, whether Italian or otherwise, so I'm convinced there are better places for that. That rum ball, though... I think that really raised the rating here. (and that's not the rum talking either ;))))
Rating: **
In the baked goods, I really took one of the two things that remained: a bun ($1.80) filled with a heavy, dark mass which made me at once think of... poppy seed!! Of course, my common sense came in then and told me that surely Portuguese/Italian baked goods don't use poppy seed, so I thought it would be some fruity mass... anything than what it was: a hard, dense brownie-like dough wrapped with a more crusty, cookie-like white dough, then dusted with vanilla. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting and so I was pretty disappointed. The concept, in my opinion wasn't a great one, and I really don't know what it was supposed to be. Definitely not worth it and the least favourite of my purchases.Besides this, I caved and took some cookies
($23.99/kg; this plate cost $2.40). I don't really go to bakeries for cookies, to be quite honest with you. I bake some pretty decent ones myself and don't eat them all that often, so I've never really seen the point to go and get plain sugar cookies. Instead, I picked out ones that looked more unique: "spice" cookies, one chocolate jam cookie, one vanilla jam cookie, and one chocolate cookie. There wasn't that much taste difference between them and even the chocolate ones were almost identical to the vanilla. The best was by far the chocolate one with jam in between the two layers. It was alright, though not enough jam. Again, maybe to eat with some strong coffee or to give to kids, they're alright, but alone, they also didn't wow me.Lastly, I took the white chocolate rum ball ($0.80) which might just prove that this place's specialty is indeed their cakes. Like I said, I'm not really a fan
of cakes; give me some fresh baked goods and I'll be a happy girl, but this was the best by a long shot and was pretty good. One of my brothers always takes rum balls, but the chocolate variety and they're just these hunks of chocolate, so here, you had this crumbly vanilla cake dough with this nuttiness to it inside. The top was dry-ish, but towards the bottom, the dough was pretty moist and at the end, you had this pleasant.. bite from the rum. Eat that with the delicious white chocolate glaze, this actually proved to be the hit, although I was least eager to try it. Not bad, indeed.In the end, I guess I could say definitely stick to the cakes/pastries behind the glass (or, ahem, go a few doors down to Carpati!!), since nothing else really lived up to my expectations. So many bakeries sell cookies, whether Italian or otherwise, so I'm convinced there are better places for that. That rum ball, though... I think that really raised the rating here. (and that's not the rum talking either ;))))
Rating: **
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