Baro Gun Pang Bakery

Bakery: Baro Gun Pang Bakery
Address: 6118 Yonge St, North York ON
Website: n/a
Style: Korean
Price: $ 

Right across the street from the Persian bakeries on Yonge in North York, there's likewise a Korean bakery tucked into the corner of a plaza. If you don't know what you're looking for (or you're driving), you'll most likely miss it, but popping in is worth it, even if the selection isn't as impressive as the bakery in Galleria (which I forgot to stop at on my way out x___x) a few blocks north. For one, it's cheap, with buns costing between $1.25 and $1.50 and other items such as bags of cookies similarly well-priced; secondly, it's fresh. I was there in the late afternoon and the girls behind the counter were getting ready to put more buns into the oven and several buns on the rack were still hot! Last but not least, it's good. Now, I'm a sucker for Korean baked goods, and especially when for the same price as a bun from a lacklustre Chinese bakery (a majority of them, sorry to say), you can get Korean cream buns! *-* And Baro Gun Pang knows cream buns.

Ahem, well, why not save the best for last? I was actually first intrigued by their apple buns ($1.50), which I'd never seen before. It was a typical sweet Korean bun with cooked apples and this sort of streusel on top. Seeing as Asian bakeries don't usually bake things with fruit, this was a unique and tasty treat, though besides the streusel, there wasn't really that much going on with it, as there weren't that many apples and the bread itself was a little plain.

The second item was their doughnut ($1.25): braided dough deep-fried until crispy and golden brown and coated in cinnamon and sugar. This was a doughnut! Fresh, amazing crunch and soft, chewy inside; with the cinnamon this almost resembled a churro more than anything else. Absolutely delicious.

And speaking of delicious: the french butter cream bun ($1.50). Holy moly! O___O This beauty doesn't look like much; it's basically a round bun cut in half and smeared with what looks like butter. Bite into it and everything changes. This was amazing! The bun was slightly sweet; nice and crusty on the outside and soft on the inside with a super yummy, buttery cream in the middle. This has to be tasted to be believed.

In general, this was definitely a find: great baked goods, especially for those who don't like things too sweet. Despite the bakeries still needing sampling in the area, I'd return to this place in a heartbeat!

Rating: ****

Papa Pastry & Cafe

Bakery: Papa Pastry
Address: 6111 Yonge St, North York ON 
Website: http://www.papapastry.ca/
Style: Persian
Price: $$-$$$

Deciding to take a somewhat spontaneous drive to Koreatown North brought to me a lovely assortment of bakeries; and seeing how fond I am of both Korean and Persian baked goods, it was tough limiting myself. Being on a budget, I also tried not to go overboard at any one location and this was even tougher, especially when any sort of Middle Eastern treats equals going bankrupt. ;D

So, I started out with Papa Pastry, a newer establishment right in the middle of the Iranian plaza (also home to another pastry shop = next time). Perhaps it would have been wiser to save it for the end and go a little more all-out, but I suppose I came away with the assurance that you can go in and not spend that much money.... if you know what to pick. Anyways, amidst Papa's phenomenal pinkness -- more intense than I like it, but pink is pink ^-^ -- there are several display cases, starting with cookies and then including various styles of baklava and honey-soaked treats. Unlike most Middle Eastern bakeries, they also had more traditional cream cakes, strudels, pound cakes (the sample for a chocolate and vanilla pound cake was tasty and homemade in feel; it reminded me a lot of my mom's "zebra" cake :)), individual, torte-like cake slices in interesting flavours such as saffron or pistachio. A little bit for everyone. However, like most Middle Eastern bakeries, there are neither labels nor prices and this is always frustrating, I find, especially since things can get expensive, very fast, and it'd be nice to actually know what you're picking (without asking about every single item).

I came out with two items: the uh, dough spirals and the pancakes.... and paid a whopping $2.50 for everything! Nice. Sure, it looks cheap (I thought it'd be more) but the "honey goods" are usually the safest bet for the budget-conscious *and* they happen to be my favourites. ;) These were quite good, although not the best either. While the spirals had a good taste and texture once in your mouth and weren't absolutely smothered in sugar like other places, they crumbled way too easily and fell apart upon trying to eat them, leaving behind little bits of pieces. That was a little annoying.

The pancakes (seriously, I do need to figure out the words for these things) are my especial favourites of Persian baking. I loove these things! *-* Upon opening the container, they had a pretty strong fragrance, but it seemed to go away, so the scent (orange blossom water) wasn't too overpowering, which is a good thing for me. I didn't really like the sesame mixed into the dough, but that's simply because I don't like sesame all that much. Besides this, these were alright, but again, it's not my favourite place for Persian goodies. I guess I'll have to see how the others in the neighbourhood fare!

Rating: ***

Mabel's Bakery & Specialty Foods

Bakery: Mabel's Bakery & Specialty Foods
Address: 1156 Queen St W, Toronto ON
Website: http://www.mabelsbakery.ca/
Style: North American, Organic
Price: $$

Out Christmas shopping one Saturday and somehow ended up visiting this stretch of Queen St. I'd gone up to Ossington and then from Lansdowne westwards, but never in this stretch. One reason for this omission was that Google told me that there were no bakeries; no, I no longer have faith in its skills, since I encountered two (one will have to be saved for next time). Unbelievable! I've been deceived this entire time...

Anyways, Mabel's is a bakery who's headquartered on Roncesvalles (for quite some time I've been driving to Roncesvalles and, as such, haven't walk up far enough to visit it there) and who opened a second location on Queen W a few years ago. I don't know about the original, but judging by the customers, this seems to be more a light lunch spot than anything else, with sandwiches and rustic breads. There are a couple shelves of homemade grocery items, but this isn't very big and it's clear that the bakery is the main attraction here, although  there weren't that many items to choose from (I had a hard time picking) with just one or two varieties of cookies, squares, cupcakes as well larger items like cakes. It's all quite simple and unpretentious in style: put simply, Canadian homestyle baking. While not strictly organic, they seem to try and bake with as many organic ingredients as possible, such as local organic oats in my square. In addition to clear, helpful labelling, they also highlight whenever something is locally sourced or baked with organic ingredients.

That out of the way, I picked out two items for myself. ^^;;The first was their ginger cookie. ($1.99) I'm not that big a cookie fan, so they always come as a last resort; however, I'm always appreciative of a good spice cookie. Large and buttery with sugar sprinkled on top, this wasn't as gingery as I like it, but at the same time it had the right level of chewiness and was quite good. Actually, it tasted exactly like my mom's "Swedish spice" cookies, so not sure if I'd get them again, simply because I can get my mom to bake a whole batch for me. But I suppose there's a compliment in there as well...  ;D

The second item was their date square ($2.75), baked with organic Ontario oats and stuffed with unsweetened dates. This was excellent. Big, whole pieces of oat almost resembling granola clusters with a great filling; normally, date squares are filled with more of this date paste, but this was just whole dates smushed open, skin and all. This may not sound that appetizing as the processed product, but the idea of fresh dates was so tasty! It wasn't nearly as sweet as date squares tend to be and I loved the texture. One of my favourite date squares -- I definitely have to say that.

So, my little exploratory trip turned out to be quite the success (both in terms of the Christmas present and the Cake Tour ;))!

Rating: ***1/2

Sweet Trolley Bakery

Bakery: Sweet Trolley Bakery
Address: 3056 Dundas St W, Toronto ON
Website: n/a 
Style: North American, European 
Price: $$ 

One weekend, I decided to take a trip down to the Junction, mainly to just walk around but I couldn't leave without some baked goods either. :P I was looking forward to some delectable poppy seed buns from Solero and found the bakery empty (what's going on, guys? This is the second time I've come and there aren't any baked goods to buy!?!, so decided to walk around a little more and chanced upon -- well, not really since I'd known of this bakery since my first trip and it was only just across the street -- Sweet Trolley. I swear they weren't open that day when I poked my head the first time, so I was fortunate to have it up and running this time. :)

Nevertheless, Sweet Trolley is a fairly small bakery with more or less your North American staples: pies, cookies, a few varieties of muffins and danishes with a few Italian (cannoli) and Greek (see below) items up for grabs. Oh, and if you haven't noticed -- it *is* mentioned five times on the signs outside alone -- they seem to be famous for their cinnamon buns. Truth be told, I found it pretty gimmicky (yes, this coming from the cheesiest gal around), especially when these self-proclaimed "the best ___" places usually don't live up to their reputation. However, I felt like I had to try a cinnamon bun (I was likewise led that way by the very friendly lady behind the counter); you just can't go to a place and not try the signature item! Looking back, I have to say that, indeed, not buying a cinnamon bun when visiting these guys is a crime. :P Items are clearly labelled and priced. It's not the cheapest place, but taxes are included; I'll be the first to admit that $3.75 for a cinnamon bun is a little steep... but it was worth it after all. 

So, I took away two items: the first were half a dozen kourampiedes (a.k.a. "ouzo cookies"; 6/$3.00 -- we got one free ^^). Trying to recall what the name of these were, some research was needed, which was when these are traditionally eaten during the Christmas season. Nice. Actually, I was just going for the "ouzo" part.... ;D These were quite good; a little dry, but that's simply the nature of the cookies, which are supposed to be quite sandy and fall apart in your mouth with the first bite. Melt in your mouth, with that hint of anise; strangely enough, despite the copious amounts of icing sugar that went all over the bag, they weren't overly sweet. I'm not too big a fan of cookies normally, but these were good! Not nearly as good as the cinnamon bun, but well, perhaps that's a given.

Secondly, there were those much lauded cinnamon buns ($3.75). Now, I love cinnamon buns -- and I hate badly done ones -- and I think that no one can dethrone the Swedes and Finns at the art of cinnamon buns, and so I was skeptical. These have the look of standard cinnamon buns, rolled up and coated in a sugar icing. I followed the instructions and heated it before eating it and... holy cow! These were good. I was stunned. XD I loved the cinnamon filling; no paste, no sickly sweet or super cinnamony gloop -- just enough for the yummy taste of cinnamon to appear in every bite. The dough was fantastic; it was soft and moist and buttery. And then just smothered with some delicious icing. My mouth is watering just describing it. *-* Amazing. I'm not sure if they could be the best of all time, but it'd come pretty close. Go for a cinnamon bun and come out happy. :)

Rating: ****

Konsumex [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Konsumex
Address: Ul. Słoneczna 2, Kamienna Góra
Website: n/a 
Style: Polish 
Price: $-$$ 

This is part two of two of a mini Polish Cake Tour, all thanks to my secret source. ;) In fact, this place doesn't exist in any shape or form online (I'm not even sure I got the number right...) and the only way I figured out the name was thanks to an on-site contact, whom I emailed and kindly supplied me the information. My shopper actually went here based purely on word-of-mouth; several acquaintances absolutely swear by this low-key bakery, located across the street from a more full-blown cukiernia (patisserie), and their small assortment of cakes as well as breads. One said to absolutely try the cheesecakes while another mentioned their favourite cake is the "Yogobella", featuring foamy, rainbow layers that scream of artificially coloured and flavoured cotton candy or whatever else comes in a variety of pastels. Having tried the latter at a get-together, they (thankfully) refrained from buying more. XP

So, we ended up with two items for the trying: the cheesecake. If I remember correctly, it was the sernik królewski: "royal" cheesecake, perhaps named after its fluffier than usual texture and rows of intersecting vanilla cream on top. The bottom sponge cake layer was chocolate. This was surprisingly light for a cheesecake and the hint of vanilla from the cream on top gave it a nice touch. Both that and the chocolate dough on bottom weren't too overpowering so that you could still appreciate the quite tasty cheese filling. While it wasn't the best cheesecake ever, it was tasty and -- by far -- the best of three items on this very small leg of a Cake Tour.

The second cake was a sort of honey cake; rather, a jazzed up honey cake with layers of a sort of sweet cheese cream (pretty good) and chocolate and shredded coconut on top. Seeing as the cheesecake's already been touted as the best, let's just say this wasn't so great. The chocolate on top was runny, sticky, and sweet: like a layer of chocolate syrup that trickled down into the rest of the cake. Secondly, there was way too much honey flavouring; seeing as the cake didn't necessarily taste that strongly of honey (it was quite dry too), it was impossible for this to have come from however much honey there was in it. I guess there are some things that you just know can't be natural and this was one of them. As such, the taste was rather unpleasant; too sweet, somewhat fake, and way too many gimmicks covering up the honey cake -- which should be the main attraction.

In the end, my source regretted not having given the two other, better known bakeries a try to see if there was a difference. This one in particular wasn't so bad, but certainly didn't live up to the reputation others gave it.

Rating: **1/2

St. Peter's Yuletide Bazaar

Bakery?: St Peter's Anglican Church Yuletide Bazaar
Address:1745 Dundas St W, Mississauga ON
Website: http://www.stpeterserindale.org
Style: English 
Price: $$-$$$ 

Every year in the middle of November, St Peter's (the one on the hill at the corner of Dundas and Missisauga Rd) hosts a Yuletide bazaar. This being the usual route I take to go to Toronto on Saturday, I've passed the sign for quite a few years, intrigued by the promise of baked goods, but never actually turned in to park and take a look at what they had to offer. So, this turned out to be the year. :)

To my excitement, these guys had an entire room devoted to baked goods (well, and preserves, but let's just pretend for the moment that they don't exist, he he he), although it turned out to be that many were simply repeated several times throughout the room. As one may expect from bake sales, it was all home baking (thankfully, no one supplied store bought cupcakes or Timbits as I've seen sometimes x_x), ranging from plates of cookies to a couple of squares and pound cakes -- nothing too elaborate, but that's perfectly fine. There were quite a few unique treats I would have liked to try, but one thing that was a little off-putting were the prices, which I found quite expensive, especially for items that I'd never tried or, in fact, that I didn't know what they were. I think the one general rule about bake sales is that you can get great stuff for great prices; this isn't a bakery or formal business, so $6 for a couple of cookies or $8 for one pound cake really prevents you from going all out and buying as much as you'd like. Perhaps, even with the prices, if they had offered individual items (selling one cookie for $1.50 instead of a whole plate), it would have been a lot more reasonable to try everything I wanted to try (especially when I went to two more bakeries that day too .___.;; You just can't have it all!).

Anyways, I ended up with two items: one individual Eccles cake ($2), which was probably one of the most reasonably priced items there and great as a snack (and does beat cookies ^^). It was a little doughy, especially in comparison to the filling of dried fruits and a bit of a challenge biting into this hard, pie crust-like shell, but both in- and outside were pretty tasty. Not my favourite, but not bad.

The second item was a small plate of almond (or was it walnut?) thimble cookies ($3 for a plate of six teeny tiny cookies). You didn't really get that much and dividing it into two separate tea times proved in vain: these were so good that I couldn't stop. Actually, I had one... then two, and then I offered one to my brother, who promptly snatched up another. Sure, they were bite-sized, but that bite was a pleasant one. ;) Downright melt-in-your-mouth, super buttery cookies with chunks of nuts mixed into the dough and a nice dollop of strawberry jam in the middle. Mmmm... I don't know how these disappeared so quickly, but well, I would have more than happily accepted some more. Perhaps I should have never shared them... 

So, in the end, despite the complaints as to value and assortment (mixing up cookies would have also been appreciated), I did come away with two very tasty treats! I'm not sure whether it's worth returning to, but hey, at least the golf cart-ride up to the top was fun. ;)

Rating: **1/2

Dolcini by Joseph

Bakery: Dolcini by Joseph Inc.
Address: 10462 Islington Ave, Kleinburg ON (one other location)
Website: http://www.dolcini.ca/
Style: European, Italian 
Price: $$$

(Yet) another hiking trip, yet another Cake Tour. ;) This time, the brother went to Kleinburg, a northwestern offshoot of Vaughan, and brought back two lovely treats from Dolcini, a fancier patisserie where unique desserts seem to border on works of art. ^^ The name, however, seemed so familiar that the first thing I did when my brother brought back the box was run and check if I hadn't already reviewed their other North York location. Nope. As such, I have no idea where this deja vu came from, unless, that is, I'd put it down on a past to-visit list and had never had the opportunity to try it out.

Nonetheless, I did get my chance this time! :) Dolcini is, like said above, certainly more of a cake/pastry shop than a bakery, but I'm sure that doesn't bother anyone, with several individual and larger desserts, many of which resemble multi-layered mousse cakes. It's not overtly clear what anything is, in terms of flavour, and there are no prices (to help matters, the brother can't remember how much he paid, only that the place on the whole screamed "expensive"... and yet he doesn't remember how much it came to. *rolls eyes*); he picked out one chocolatey one -- which turned out to be a cheesecake -- and one lighter one, this ending up being a citrus mousse.

The first: this was more or less a chocolate cheesecake coated in chocolate and then topped with chunks of walnuts and a layer of dulce de leche. Don't forget the drizzle of what seems to be white chocolate on top. In taste, this was very good, but, the description alone being enough of an indication, this was RICH (Yes, in capitals ;D) and two samplers pointed out that it was also too sweet. In terms of size, it didn't look like that big, but I'm not sure how one person could wolf this down in one go unless they were in the midst of some mental crisis (LOL) and needed a lot of indulgence. Certainly not for the calorie-conscious, that's for sure... but then again, you wouldn't be here if you were~~ ;P

The second cake up for trying proved to be a sort of grapefruit mousse with white cake in the middle and... it was delicious! Mmmm... everyone went crazy for this one and the purchaser said that it was like biting into a piece of fresh fruit, that's how intense the flavour was. Not too sweet with a little bit of citrus tanginess, this was incredibly good. In fact, I'd trade the chocolate cheesecake in for another one of these!

And thus, despite the somewhat cheesy name (dolcini = little sweets), this place proved that they take those little sweets seriously -- fantastic find!    

Rating: ***1/2

Cukiernia Sierosławy Dziakowskiej [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Cukiernia Sierosławy Dziakowskiej
Address: Ul. Karola Miarki 23, Kamienna Góra
Website: n/a
Style: Polish 
Price: $$ 

Well, this has been sitting in my pictures folder for a while, so I thought I'd finally purge myself of these older, pending Cake Tour posts. Nevertheless, in October a person who wishes to remain anonymous went on a visit to Poland, more specifically to the rather small city of Kamienna Góra, in the southwestern part of the country and about an hour from Wrocław (if that still doesn't help then, well, just go along with it ^^). On their last day there, they picked up a few slices of cake and, just like that, I had myself another World Tour for this year! Suffice to say, I was a very happy girl. :)

There are actually two pastry shops on this street leading to the main square, but this one, according to family and acquaintances, was the better one, supposedly. So, knowing my affinity for poppy seed, this special person got the poppy seed cake, filled to the brim with a softer mass and topped off with a shortbread dough at both end, and of course, one must never forget the sugar glaze poured over everything, perhaps a little too generously in some places. I think that in doing these World Tours, the assumption is that you'll find better baked goods in the country of origin as opposed to the ethnic bakeries we have here in various parts of Canada. This assumption, however, very often turns out to be wrong and this was the case with this first step in the Polish Cake Tour (there should have been more since my brother and mom went two years ago and stopped for a few days in Warsaw, but they went *nowhere* so it looks like I can't rely on either her nor on my official international correspondent -___-): the poppy seed cake was disappointing on many levels. The poppy seed mass was very good for this kind of cake; good texture and just the right amount of dough, but way too much sugar icing  which wasn't even that tasty and too many raisins (again). The dough was alright, but the biggest problem: flavouring. The Polish love their little bottles of aromat, available in around a dozen different flavours from orange to almond to cream. And this tasted like a whole bottle was used up in the making of this cake. Bitter and with an overpowering, distinctly artificial perfume in every single bite. In the end, I'm not sure that all that effort was worth it. :/

Rating: **

Muscoreil's

Bakery: Muscoreil's Fine Desserts and Gourmet Cakes
Address: 3960 Niagara Falls Blvd, Tonawanda NY
Website: http://www.muscoreils.com/
Style: Italian, North American
Price: $$-$$$ 

Another trip to Buffalo, another bakery. (And looking for this place made a Danish bakery in the Buffalo-area pop up. O.O You so know where the brother is going next time to bring me back something!)

Anyways, this was the chosen destination purely by chance (and the unwillingness to go off the usual route and find something new ;)) and, while it resembles more a banquet centre (or maybe a greenhouse) than a bakery at first glance, it seems to be more well-known for their cakes than anything else. Both their website, a visit to their bakery, and online reviews seem to indicate that this is indeed the case. None seem to make a note of the various Italian-inspired "individual" pastries and desserts offered, although they have quite a large selection of the usual staples; perhaps, though, there's a reason behind the omission. At the very least, you won't go away from Muscoreil's feeling hungry. Although the prices are, in theory, quite steep -- at around $5 per item, one would think you're at a French patisserie -- you get a lot in return. Yup, these things were huge. I've never seen an individual tart so gigantic; it was bordering on a six-person flan! And that tiramisu! D: In the latter case, especially, Muscoreil's does manage to prove that bigger isn't always better.

More specifically, the brother brought back two items, which were, believe me, big enough for five. XD The first treat was the pear frangipane ($4), which, although the shell was probably too big for the contents and made it a tad too doughy with not enough fruit, was alright. Well-cooked pears. Nice, albeit subtle flavours. Pretty good.

In this way, the big no-no was the tiramisu ($5). And "big" is literal here. This towering dessert was massive and so tall that it was difficult to eat -- or to remove the plastic support around it. This was layers of cream and ladyfingers topped with a chocolate coating -- and lots of it. In creamy desserts, the key to making them work is that the cream, well, needs to taste good and this cream didn't taste good. Whether it was because there wasn't any actual cream in it (we suspect whipped topping) or there was some sort of flavour added to it, but both taste and texture were off-putting. It was too stiff, and just didn't have that great taste you come to expect. These are one of these things that after the second bite, you really can't eat anymore. Compared to the frangipane above, which was the bakery's redeeming factor and has bumped up the rating, this was a "big" flop.

Rating: **