Carpati

Bakery: Carpati Euro Delicatessen
Address: 4665 Central Parkway, Mississauga ON
Website: http://www.carpati.ca/
Style: Romanian
Price: $$

A few doors down in the same plaza as Iana Bakery is Carpati, the city's (and perhaps even the area's) only Romanian deli. Besides the usual European deli goods (cold cuts, cheese, ready foods like cabbage rolls and stuffed bell peppers), this small-ish store also has a glass case filled with tort-like cakes and profiteroles sold by piece and cookies and slab cakes sold by weight. At least when I was there, the selection wasn't huge (their menu brochure and website boast a lot more) and there weren't any baked goods besides a few soft buns stuffed with feta or salty sheep's cheese ($2.75; pictured).

So, with no baked goods to buy, I went ahead with the cakes and I think everyone came out happy. After all, in the words of one very amazed brother: "Whoa, Carpati is good!" ;P And it is good if you're a fan of delicious cream cakes and layered tortes saturated in liquor!! Here are two examples:

The amandine cake ($3.00/each) seems to be the most regular cake here, since it's been here on both occasions. This thing is a definite purchase for chocolate lovers (ha ha I must admit I just gave this away to my brothers; it's too intense for me XD): dark chocolate dough coated with dark chocolate icing and then just soaked in liquor. One brother said this was the definite highlight.

The other, it seemed, agreed with me on the second purchase, a layered cake made up of dough, two layers of caramel sauce, some sort of cheese cake, coffee cream and topped off with dark chocolate shavings ($3.00/each). This was good. Maan, for whatever reason, this reminded me of the church hall bake sales when I was younger -- you really can't get this anymore/here (I wasn't living here before), at least not in the Polish delis. :(

So, what's the verdict? Three out of three agree: Carpati is the place to go for cakes in Mississauga! :)

Rating: ***1/2