Lazio Italian Bakery

Bakery: Lazio Italian Bakery
Address: 4646 Heritage Hills Blvd, Mississauga ON 
Website: http://lazioitalianbakery.com/
Style: Italian
Price: $$

This was, I am ashamed to say, suggested to me by a visitor of this site a very long time ago and I never seemed to get around going to it. .___. Actually, I'm even more ashamed to admit that this Cake Tour came about purely by chance and did not involve me at all. In fact, one of my brothers was recently given a going away party at work and, knowing of his love of good cakes (and supplying great-tasting cakes for another people's parties), he got this cake and sent me over a leftover slice, just in case, although he was convinced I had to have already reviewed Lazio. Turns out I didn't! :)

Lazio, as with a majority of Italian bakeries, is more a deli than a bakery-proper, with imported products, hot food -- you know the drill. In addition to bread, which seems to be the centrepiece of this bakery and is made by them, they have your typical selection of Italian and Canadian pastries (cannoli, etc.) and cakes. The latter is being reviewed today, although in the end, I am not that sure the product reviewed is a reflection of the bakery itself (clarification is coming).

Nevertheless, let's start with the goods, which consisted of a chocolate chip banana cake: layers of banana bread and chocolate chip dough interspersed with layers of a rich, tasty chocolate cream. This cake got bonus points for creativity and I would say (others agreed) that it's an excellent "grown-up" birthday cake: a fantastic option for when a cake is needed and no one wants to be stuck eating the same boring vanilla or chocolate cake again. Delicious dough, lovely decoration on the outside -- this was a hit.  

Lazio's website, with photos and explanations of "their" cakes and including terms such as "our cake bakers", gives the impression that these are indeed Lazio's cakes. No one doubted it until I went to Michael-Angelo's supermarket and found the same cake listed as being from La Rocca. Just to make sure it wasn't a strange coincidence, I checked their website, I noticed that Lazio seemed to have copy-and-pasted the whole cake portion onto their own site....

Despite the unexpected, tasty treat, I'm disappointed with this discovery that pretty much defeats the purpose of having an independent bakery.... At least I can now review La Rocca at the same time! :/

Rating: **1/2

Fantail Bakery-Cafe

Bakery: Fantail Bakery-Cafe
Address: 333 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto ON 
Website: http://www.fantail.biz/
Style: North American, New Zealand
Price: $$$

There's a (fairly) new bakery in town, at least on the already quite bakery-generous Roncesvalles, which is turning into one of the city's top bakery strips, at least according to yours truly. :P Having found out about this place in the newspaper and reading of its NZ-roots, I was worried that it had taken over the other Kiwi business on the block (Wisey's Pies), but Fantail is considerably further up the street, so now there are two -- can you believe it!?! Though, to be fair, there is nothing inside this vintage-inspired cafe to hint at it (except signature white coffee) and the baked goods are fairly universal, with items ranging from scones, cheesecake, to doughnuts and bread puddings. Items are labelled and priced, but I found them them quite costly, in particular the doughnuts and muffins.

The sign outside advertising sticky gingerbread cake got me really excited -- I am a sucker for gingerbread. Going inside, I was so disappointed to find it was the only item that was sold out that I was at a loss of what to take. *pouts* Equally a sucker for cinnamon buns and doughnuts, I settled on both. ;) The cinnamon brioche ($3.75) was certainly the better of the two: airy yeast dough with bits of orange peel and cinnamon incorporated into the folds of dough, then a dollop of spiced cream cheese icing more or less exploding from the inside and finally dusted with powdered sugar. Not enough cinnamon and I probably would have preferred more equal coverage for the icing instead of it all in the middle,  but the hint of orange was nice.

Being a doughnut fan... ahem, authority, Fantail's take had promise. At the very least, at a somewhat staggering $3, it should have! Small and unadorned besides a sprinkling of cane sugar and cinnamon, I was thinking that well, it better have... some sort of alcohol in it! ;D Big and airy, it lacked any sort of flavour; even the orange peel from the cinnamon brioche would have made a big difference. Not even the fact it was fried infused some flavour into it (granted it just being oil), as is the case for old-school, surprisingly delicious fried doughnuts (the fresh, sugar-sprinkled jelly doughnuts and doughnut holes of my childhood! *-*) Disappointing.

I would love to try that sticky gingerbread cake, but as it stands, Fantail was alright. It was that darn doughnut that really decided things. Sorry, little guy.

Rating: **1/2

Absolute Bakery

Bakery: Absolute Bakery
Address: 547 Danforth Ave, Toronto ON
Website: n/a 
Style: European 
Price: $$

[Note: The short-lived Danforth location listed above is no longer existence, after about a year (quite sad, because this was more accessible for me than Cabbagetown), but their original location on Parliament is still there: 589 Parliament St]

I have actually had this bakery's original location in Cabbagetown on my to-visit list for quite some time now, but never got around to touring this neighbourhood. Having read online that its owners were of Sri Lankan descent and already a huge fan of Sri Lankan food, I was intrigued to check out what others described as a mix between French pastries and some South Asian baking. So it came to me as a very pleasant surprise when I was in Greektown the other day and found they had opened another location on the Danforth. Perfect! ^-^ And while there is nothing actually South Asian here (not sure about the original location?), there were plenty of delectable, flaky French-inspired pastries such as danishes, croissants, along with slices of cheesecake, challah bread; not to mention savoury quiches and crepes. Prices are reasonable for what you get and are listed on a board above the cash.

Besides this, I have to say I never expected what greeted me through the window and made me bolt inside as quickly as humanly possible: a heaping pile of poppy seed buns (around $2.25 each... I assumed they were $2.50 with the rest of the danishes but turned out cheaper)! O_O These were the poppy seed buns of my dreams: oozing with black poppy seed mass and folded over with egg-washed dough.

There are times when an amazing baked good is behind a not so tempting exterior; other times it's quite the opposite and something that looks delicious disappoints. Then there are those times when one look is enough to tell you this will be a good Cake Tour; this was one of those times. In fact, I bought two right away and froze one for another day. Great decision. These were scrumptious! Tons -- and I mean tons -- of delicious poppy seed mass; great dough that was slightly fluffier than the usual dense poppy seed dough. Mmmm... what a find!

The verdict: an absolute delight! ;)

Rating: ***1/2

Paris Bakery

Bakery: Paris Bakery 
Address: 81 Grand River St N, Paris ON
Website: http://www.parisbakery.ca/
Style: Canadian, Scottish
Price: $$

One weekend, a regular Cake Tour supplier was in nearby Brantford and I thought I might as well point out this bakery in downtown Paris... hence the name; it is not, as I supposed from a distance, a French bakery, though they do have some daintier pastries, breads, and pastries. Nevertheless, Paris Bakery has more of a classic Canadian selection, with some Scottish/British baked goods thrown in there as well (Eccles cakes, meat pies, scones, etc.)

On this trip, I received some samples from the former: the classic butter tart and carrot cake as well as... some sort of shortbread creation. No one could quite figure what this was, besides a cross between a strawberry shortcake and a Scottish shortbread. Basically, it was both with a cookie bottom and crumblier towering top, coated in jam and coconut, then topped with a swirl of cream (and a cherry on top ^^); I'm not quite sure what was the intended effect, but I think I was expecting a little more from it than an elaborate cookie. My least favourite from the three.

Secondly, there was the butter tart. The clearly homemade crust was a welcome touch, but didn't quite live up to my anticipations and proved to be the downfall of the tasty, rightfully rich butter filling. For one, the crust was too wide on top, leaving you with tons of tart shell and no filling; secondly, it didn't have enough distinct flavour of its own, resembling more a shell for savoury goods such as meat pies than sweets. Not bad, but disappointed with that crust.

The third item was a classic carrot cake with a thick layer of cream cheese icing on top and in between the layers. Unlike the typical square variety, this one actually looked like a cake, which was nice. Good, moist dough with plenty of carrot and a tasty icing. Not exceptional, but a delicious carrot cake. Without a doubt, the highlight at this good, but not great bakery.

Rating: **1/2