Mimi's Cake Tour: August 2015

Courense Bakery [RIP]

Bakery: Courense Bakery
Address: 1014 Bloor St W, Toronto ON
Website: http://courensebakery.com/
Style: Portuguese
Price: $

I walked here several years ago and am not sure why I didn't review this place then. Actually, I swore I either covered all bakeries in this area or they were already reviewed chains. Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised to find a (not so) new bakery waiting for me this time around! :)

Courense Bakery, at any rate, seems to be one of the well established businesses in this Mini Portugal along Bloor St W and more or less resemble your standard Portuguese bakery with all the classics: nadas tarts, flaky cream pastries, small cake squares, etc. As per tradition, nothing is labelled or priced, so it takes a bit of guessing if you're not well-versed in Portuguese baking. Of course, a few visits is all you need to get everything memorized... and prices at Courense were, like always, very affordable and seemed to somehow incorporate taxes as well.

The mighty Portuguese Doughnut

Having already bought goodies from another bakery that day, I didn't want to go all out and instead opted for one of my favourite Portuguese treats: the doughnut. Not just any doughnut -- the Portuguese doughnut. ($1.75, taxes included) ^.^ A massive, plate-sized piece of fried dough coated in sugar and delicately flavoured with a hint of lemon. This one from Courense was big and fluffy. And I mean *big*; I couldn't fit it on my usual small plates and had to grab a platter. ;) And it actually grew quite a bit, so it was a bit hard to actually bite down on it. Crispy dough on the nice, very moist and airy on the inside. For some reason, the centre where it was most doughy was really, almost too, eggy, like there was a sudden concentration of soft-boiled egg. Not sure if the dough didn't mix well or there was supposed to be some sort of egg pocket, but I can't say I enjoyed the sensation.

Overall, it was good. Not the best Portuguese doughnut I've had, but not the worst either. Gigantic, fresh, and tasty -- and oh, did I mention it was huge? ;D *sighs* I do love these things...

Rating: ***

White Gold Sweets

Bakery: White Gold Snacks and Sweets
Address: 3176 Ridgeway Dr, Mississauga ON
Website: n/a
Style: Indian
Price: $$

Tucked into the back of one of those cloned industrial plazas on Ridgeway, you really wouldn't expect to find any sort of food, especially not of the sweet kind, but not only is White Gold a rather surprising find (found, in fact, looking for another business altogether), it is good. For such an obscure location, this seems like a place for those in the know; and judging by absolutely stellar reviews online, those in the know are fans. Of course, despite the name, White Gold does seem more the go-to place for snacks (delicious samosas, aloo in several forms, etc.) more so than the dessert, but they nonetheless have the classic selection of Indian sweets (gulab (doughnuts) and various squares soaked in sugar syrup) along with, my favourite Indian treat: Jalebi. ^^

Jalebi: sugary spirals of cardamom heaven ;)

And White Gold's jalebi (sold by weight; for four pieces, I paid around $3) is THE best I've ever tried, regardless of country of origin (Indian, Middle Eastern, etc.) They have two kinds: the usual bright orange variety and a clear version resembling the variety seen in predominately Lebanese bakeries. These are just so much better, not only because they were nice and fresh, with a fantastic crunch on the outside and a soft chewy centre, but theirs comes with chunks of fragrant cardamom mixed in with the dough. *___* Amazing. It gave it the most delicious, though subtle taste; I could not get enough of these and will be returning for more. Not sure if I'll have anything else, especially when it'll be hard to get past that tray of heaping jalebi... ^^

Rating: ***1/2

Great Canadian Cake Tour: 2015 Edition

Well, you may not have known it was coming, but you've been waiting for it -- another year of cross-country bakeries! ... Let me rephrase that: another year of what should have been cross-country bakeries will be appearing on my little blog shortly!

Yes, my two brothers decided to drive to Calgary (and thereabouts) from the Toronto area. A little more than two weeks, it was supposed to have been more or less a different route each way and had plenty of potential for baked goods! At least, I could see them all lined up along the route so that, when plotted, they'd show exactly where they went. I even created a guidebook for them! Not too detailed and not including results from last year's Alberta tour, because I know they couldn't do it, but.... Ah, it seemed perfect! They're still on the trip, but news is far from comforting, complete with entire legs of the journey omitted and the attestation that they can "only do one bakery a day". ;___;

And so, the guidebook has proven useless... or has it? Are you or do know of someone who is planning a road trip anywhere along the way and is in need of a little tasty fun without the hassle of doing research? Not a problem. It's all ready to go! :) From Winnipeg to Calgary (they went through the US), Calgary to Toronto.

Get a free copy of the guidebook and you've got (some) small towns in Northern Ontario and the Prairies covered!!

Downloadable .doc version || Mirror 1

Keep checking back for this year's [pathetic] harvest of bakeries. And: you're welcome! :)

Market Fresh

Bakery: Market Fresh
Address: Royal Plaza, 10 Paisley St, Guelph ON
Website: http://www.marketfreshguelph.ca/
Style: North American, European
Price: $$-$$$

On a recent trip that went through Guelph, I was brought back baked goods. Nice. :) Market Fresh is, in fact, not exactly a bakery; instead, they are more of a gourmet food store bordering on independent supermarket with a baked section that looks like they get their goodies from various bakeries/individuals or there's a hodgepodge of people baking within the store, as items range in style from unique cakes to Portuguese custard tarts to home-style cinnamon buns. The impression, however, was that most items were brought in from elsewhere; whether that's wrong or right, well, I don't know about that.

Nevertheless, all items (apparently around $2/each -- of course no one ever makes a note of these things except me -_- -- though other products can get a little pricey) were, as the name states, fresh and tasty. Certainly Market Fresh does set itself apart from your average store bakery and this was a welcome surprise, especially since I was skeptical while doing research that this place would have any baked goods at all.

My favourite had to be the Dutch apple square, large slices of apples folded between a pie shell-like bottom and an amazingly rich and delectable crumble. Upon taking it out of the box, the whole bottom was saturated in apple juices and I was getting concerned it would be a soggy cake; however, I popped it into the oven for a little bit. Not only did that dry up the bottom but brought out the flavour of the apples and made the top a little crunchy. Yummy. *-* I'm not sure if I'd call it a Dutch apple tart, but it had this rustic and rich Mennonite baked good feel to it -- this, of course, is a very good thing!

Perhaps equally tasty was the cinnamon bun with flakier dough, cinnamon paste wound right around, and (according to the (second) cinnamon connoisseur -- I'm the first) an "amazing" thick, cream cheese icing on top.

Not to mention the rum ball which was soaked and heavy with the good stuff and featured large dark chocolate shavings, almost bark, instead of the run-of-the-mill chocolate sprinkles. Rich and decadent like a chocolate cake, this was certainly one for the chocolate lover.

Last but not least, there was the Portuguese custard tart which might have been baked by the same source as the cinnamon bun, as both had a multi-layered flaky dough. Browned custard on top. Very good.

Don't let the idea of it being a supermarket detract you from trying some of the pretty tasty goodies at this place!

Rating: ***

The Pantry Shelf [Mimi's Cake Tour X Butter Tart Tour]

Bakery: The Pantry Shelf
Address: 169 Kent St W, Lindsay ON
Website: n/a
Style: North American
Price: $$

A little recap: So, some absolute genius at Kawarthas/Northumberland Tourism created the Butter Tart Tour: a "tour" (rather, several smaller tours) of 40+ local bakeries, cafes, markets, and other businesses making and baking their own butter tarts. Participating locations are spread out all over the county, from farms, to small towns, to Peterborough itself, and are marked with a Butter Tart Tour logo (left) in their window and, surprisingly, no butter tart is alike. On the most recent "tour", I tried five bakeries in five towns and butter tarts (with some extras along the way) were purchased for the big challenge: five butter tarts, all at once.

I know you've been waiting for this! Alright, perhaps I'm the only one, but nonetheless, after some delay (big translation project...) I return with the current gold medal winner! Of course, there are still a great many butter tart stops on the tour and that will have to happen at another time, but in the meantime, of the five that were a part of the inaugural Mimi's Butter Tart Challenge, the victor was... The Pantry Shelf, in Lindsay! Strangely enough, The Pantry Shelf wasn't just a bakery like other stops, with lunch items (their soups seem to be one item everyone is raving about) and gourmet foods, a sort of hybrid cafe/bakery/food store that knocked our socks off!

What made their butter tart so darn good? The combination of *the* best tart shell: softer than a traditional pie shell, these were rich and flaky. Combine that a thicker buttery filling, available with pecans or with raisins (personally I would have preferred pecan, but that was a purchasing choice so as to make them all alike), that was just melt-in-your-mouth good! Actually, it was incredibly difficult to choose between the buttery mass from Pantry Shelf or the "butter bomb" at Bobcaygeon Bakery. On their own, they were probably at the same impressive level, but these guys blew the competition away with these delectable shells. Mmmm.... what a treat! *-*

And with that, I conclude my first butter tart tour. It was tough competition and all were worthy of honours, but alas, a challenge is a challenge. So it's five down and a couple dozen to go! Kawarthas, I'll be back. ;D

Rating: ****

Bobcaygeon Bakery [Mimi's Cake Tour X Butter Tart Tour]

Bakery: Bobcaygeon Bakery
Address: 9 King St E, Bobcaygeon ON
Website: http://www.bobcaygeonbakery.com/
Style: Canadian
Price: $$

A little recap: So, some absolute genius at Kawarthas/Northumberland Tourism created the Butter Tart Tour: a "tour" (rather, several smaller tours) of 40+ local bakeries, cafes, markets, and other businesses making and baking their own butter tarts. Participating locations are spread out all over the county, from farms, to small towns, to Peterborough itself, and are marked with a Butter Tart Tour logo (left) in their window and, surprisingly, no butter tart is alike. On the most recent "tour", I tried five bakeries in five towns and butter tarts (with some extras along the way) were purchased for the big challenge: five butter tarts, all at once.

Second place: Bobcaygeon Bakery. Actually, to be fair, it should be said that one person thought that these guys made the best butter tart. At any rate, it was a very close one.

Bobcaygeon Bakery was a sort of accidental find as it's not listed on the Butter Tart Tour website as a destination (hence the unknown number), but as they had an official sticker on their window, a visit was required. And this turned into a very good thing.

By appearance alone, the top two bakeries seem to set themselves apart and everyone seemed to know, just by examining the tart shells and filling that the two would be neck and neck. Bobcaygeon prides itself on taller folded shells which means you get a generous heap of filling. For the butter tart, this butter tart filling was so good! You have every single component of a perfect butter tart filling: the nuts, the butter, the hint of maple syrup and that froth on top.... A more substantial shell compliments this larger amount of filling so well and then there was the butter bomb. Ha ha I don't even know what it was... it's like you're eating it and in the middle you have this softer centre and all of a sudden you get this jolt of butter. Amazing. *-* It really was tough, but I'd say first place did have the better shell as this wasn't as flaky as I would have liked it. Of course, it beat three of the competition, so it was still up there.

In addition to this, the bakery seems focused on tarts, all with the same tall, folded shells. Others included the pumpkin tart with its delicious spiced filling and a dollop of cream on top; it was miniature pumpkin pie done right (which seldom happens, so I was pleased)

Also, there was the Fern tart, a Scottish-Canadian semi-classic. I love Fern Tarts. ^^; They resemble Danish/Swedish mazariner with their almond filling and small layer of berry jam at the bottom of the shell. This version was very tasty: I do like their shells and the almond/icing/jam combination was really good. My only minus: the coconut centre. I just don't think it matched at all. I'm not that big a fan of coconut; it's great in Portuguese baked goods, but here it was over the top, especially as the tart was busy enough with the icing, almond, and jam.

The verdict: it was difficult to make a decision between the top two places but it had to be done. Still, Bobcaygeon is a fantastic bakery way up there in the rankings.

Rating: ***1/2

Buttertarts N' More [Mimi's Cake Tour X Butter Tart Tour]

Bakery: Buttertarts N' More
Address: 1037 Little Britain Rd, Little Britain ON
Website: n/a
Style: Canadian
Price: $$

Third place: Buttertarts N' More -- where butter tarts are so quintessential they become one word. :P This was a very hotly contested third place, as two of three participants in the butter tart challenge (i.e. everyone except myself) found this one a tad disappointing and gave it fourth. Yes, I admit it was a little disappointing to find that the runny butter tart had well, run away. All into the paper bag. :/ A box would have probably been better, since it came out of that paper bag almost entirely drained of its filling. Thus, it appeared like it would turn out to be a dry, dull butter tart. I'm not sure if their shells were of bronze-medal calibre, probably not, but that filling -- or what little was left of it -- was... heavenly. This was the first time I'd tried a runny butter tart and I am loving the idea. I'm just a little disappointed that it was pretty much empty by the time it was brought home.... at least it gives new meaning to runny. :P

Also up for trying were these unique Chelsea buns. Maybe you've seen them before: plain buns resembling cinnamon buns just with raisins instead of the cinnamon and usually coated with glaze and some icing. Take that image and leave it at the door upon entering Buttertarts n' More. This was like a classic English fruitcake exploded on top of a cinnamon bun. Just look at these beauties! It's hard to even see the buns underneath (which made photographing them extremely difficult) all those nuts and candied fruit and sugar mass. One sampler took one bite and said they were so sweet they were gross. The rest of us agreed: these were extremely sweet. Actually, upon taking them out of the box, I found them sitting in a veritable pool of sugar and it wasn't the most appetizing of sights. I find Chelsea buns usually boring and bland, but these were definitely worth trying and are -- and probably will remain -- the best Chelsea buns I've seen.

Butter tart verdict: Pretty good shell, nothing too notable, with a rich, amazing filling. A "runny" hit. ;)

Rating: ***