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