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: **