Kate's Town Talk Bakery

Bakery: Kate's Town Talk Bakery
Address: 206C Queen St S, Mississauga ON
Website: http://www.katestowntalk.ca/
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$

A regular bakery supplier was so sure I'd covered the bakeries in Streetsville that he had to go and check, only to realize that -- yes, sad but true -- nothing had actually been reviewed. One such omission was Kate's Town Talk, the bakery in Streetsville which claims (or so I recall, though I'm at a loss as to where I read this) they have the best butter tarts in the city. Such claims are usually either hit or a total miss; in this case, we can begin that Kate's makes a point. ;)

Without a doubt, the item worth trying are their butter tarts: thick-shelled with a thick, yet still slightly runny filling. The finishing touch that sets it apart from other tarts is the hardened caramel crust along the edge. Fork off a piece of caramel-encrusted edge, tart shell, and a deliciously buttery filling and there is no doubt left in your mind as to whether this is Mississauga's best butter tart! 

Then there was the butter tart cheesecake bar (right), with a cheese mass on the bottom topped off with chunks of leftover butter tarts on top. This was very good: classic cheesecake with a fantastic crunch on top (especially when you factor in that aforementioned hardened caramel. 

Their other products, however, didn't seem to impress as much. This was true of their ginger spice cookies, which looked pretty good with their deep brown dough and coarse sugar on top. They lacked any sort of ginger and spice taste, though, not to mention the texture just didn't achieve the perfect chewiness you look for in a cookie. I personally likened the taste more to that of a chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate chips than a spice cookie.

Overall: stick to the butter tarts and you'll be wowed.

Rating: ***1/2

Old Firehall Confectionery

Bakery: Old Firehall Confectionery 
Address: 170 Main St, Unionville ON
Website: http://www.oldfirehallconfectionery.com/index.php
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$$ 

In an attempt to develop my selection of bakeries in the eastern part (here northeastern) of the GTA -- especially as it's the biggest pocket on my lovely Google map ^^ -- I decided to stop by historic Unionville for the first time since starting up my Cake Tour. At least, I'm told that I had to have seen it many years ago, but I don't remember....

Anyways, I was hoping for a few more stops in this pedestrian-heavy strip of stores; the Old Firehall is as close as one gets to a bakery, though they are, as the name suggests, a confectionery more than a bakery and/or pastry shop. Without a doubt, their dozens of chocolates seem to be their specialty -- at least they look the tastiest. Crowds flock for the ice cream (not made by them) on waffle cones made in-store, but they do have several cases of sweets, though the vast majority of these are square-shaped cupcakes ($2.99). Other items include similarly loaf-shaped cakes and brownies ($3.99) along with fancier products such as macarons, tarts and tortes ($6+).

As mentioned above, it seemed as though their several specialties (and what everyone else was buying) didn't include baked treats, so I thought the simpler carrot cake ($3.99) the safest bet. And I had the self-proclaimed 'carrot cake expert' on hand that day, so why not take advantage of the opportunity? ;) Outwardly, it was different than most carrot cakes: besides its loaf shape, the classic cream cheese icing was topped with a layer of crumble and chunks of walnut. Prodding it with a fork, it seemed hard and the expert was initially skeptical. However, digging into it, the texture was nice and moist. Good icing and the crumble and walnut blend on top was a nice, very tasty touch. The only real thing lacking was a richer carrot taste versus a more standard spice cake dough.

A good, though pricier place for treats in an otherwise barren Unionville and surrounding area, I would nonetheless probably try the chocolates next time.

Rating: ***

Uncle Tetsu's Angel Cafe [RIP]

Bakery: Uncle Tetsu's Angel Cafe
Address: 191 Dundas St W, Toronto ON
Website: http://uncletetsu-ca.com/ 
Style: Japanese
Price: $$ 

In an attempt at what looks like taking over the whole city -- or at least the Bay and Dundas intersection -- Uncle Tetsu has returned with a third baked good destination and quite possibly the most gimmicky one yet. In some ways, even I, an ardent fan of Tetsu's delectably fluffy cheesecakes and buttery madeleines, find it getting a little out of hand and all rather tacky. Of course, I say these things prior to eating and independent of what my taste buds are trying to tell me. ;)

Unlike the first two, the Angel Cafe is putting the cafe first and foremost, with fluffy, domed cheesecakes -- the signature product -- coming as a mere accessory to the city's first maid cafe, most notably featuring girls dolled up in maid outfits. Today's baked good supplier found the concept "a little creepy" and likened being ushered inside by a pair of eager, short-skirted, white-aproned workers to entering an adults-only club. Now, I'm not so harsh a critic and think it all for the sake of fun, creativity (and money); gaudy, unbearably so, but nothing outlandish. :P

Uncle Tetsu's Angel Cafe, like its predecessors, features a limited menu of sweets that can be enjoyed there, in the form of single servings of various types of cheesecake, or taken home. Do note that the famous cheesecake cannot be purchased here except as a single slice! Instead, there is the fresh cheesecake (at $18, I believe, it's by far the most expensive product available in the Uncle Tetsu franchise) in a variety of flavours and well as the semi-namesake: Angel Hats.

 These ball-shaped cheesecakes ($10) likewise come in a variety of flavours: original, green tea, chocolate, and strawberry. Hopefully, I'm not missing any. Unlike the classic, Angel Hats use two cheeses, Grana Padano (reminiscent of Parmesan cheese) along with the traditional cream cheese. The result is actually not cheesier, but slightly... riper? The texture is light and fluffy -- the fluffiest of the family -- and, in fact, it resembles more a mousse cake than a cheesecake; in some ways, it gives off the impression of being a dessert and not a cake at all and so, unlike with a Japanese cheesecake, you almost want/expect it to have a crust at the bottom; perhaps taking the strawberry one further reinforced this yogourt-dessert idea? Weird to cut into and serve, this has to be my least favourite Tetsu product.

That being said, it's still Uncle Tetsu's and that means simple ingredients that turn into something absolutely delicious. The Uncle's still got it. (Just maybe give someone else a shot at opening a sweets shop in the area?) ^.^

Rating: ***

Butter Avenue

Bakery: Butter Avenue
Address: 477 Queen St W, Toronto ON (1 more location)
Website: https://www.butteravenue.com/
Style: French
Price: $$$

Truth be told, I recently walked into Butter Avenue's Yonge and Lawrence location and rather reluctantly walked out. I wasn't in the mood for macarons and was a little overwhelmed by the prices and lack of variety; fond of buttery baked goods and particularly that of the French kind, I learned the 'butter' in the name was not as far-reaching as I had hoped. When, however, a Cake Tour contact went downtown and returned with baked treats from, among other places, Butter Avenue, I wasn't complaining, especially as I hadn't paid for it~ ;)

Butter Avenue is what could be considered a new style of patisserie: a modern, minimalist pastry shop with, essentially, a few higher end items and very limited selection. In addition to countless flavours of macarons, with intriguing flavours such as earl grey, matcha or Tieguanyin tea (yes, plenty of excitement for tea fans!), they sell a couple varieties of elaborate individual or larger tortes: moussey creations decorated with mini macarons or coated in chocolate.

Exhibit A: (Tremblement de) terre et neige

I had the chance to try the matcha cake ($7.95), which is definitely the one I would have opted for: a layered creation of cream, matcha cream, and chocolate dough dusted in a hearty coating of green tea powder and topped with a miniature macaron and sign which should have been resting on the side of the pool of matcha "sauce" and not in it. :/ The taste was really good: an intense pow of flavour from the various forms of green tea powder, the fantastic texture of the cream and a nice compliment to the chocolate dough, though the highlight was probably the macaron coated in sauce. That was so good. ^^

Exhibit B: Reconstruction

 Seeing a) how much thought was put into designing the package, and b) the prices, I questioned why they didn't have boxes for single items. For how much you pay, I was disappointed and downright devastated to open the lovely packaging and find the cake toppled over with the sauce smeared across the bottom (see exhibit A); the box was never dropped and held securely the entire time (the handle is pretty impractical, though). With some restorative work, I got it looking... decent, and I suppose it all tastes the same when in your mouth, but at the same time, I feel like more should have been done besides taping the cardboard to the box (which probably made things worse since the cardboard alone remained intact :/), regardless of the price.

Overall, in the words of today's bakery supplier: I don't really get these patisseries with nothing in them. It's not really my style either and I would have liked more selection of varying price points like at other fancy patisseries in the city (and an intact treat!!), but besides this, Butter Avenue is good... just not as good as the green tea cream puff from Tsujiri I sampled on the same day at a fraction of the price. ;)

Rating: ***

Tsujiri

Bakery: Tsujiri 
Address: 147 Dundas St W, Toronto ON
Website: http://tsujiri-global.com/
Style: Japanese
Price: $$-$$$

The recent explosion of Japanese businesses in downtown Toronto has seen the opening up of an array of exciting restaurants and dessert shops that I never thought I'd get the chance to try; one of these brand-new shops is Tsujiri, a Kyoto-based tea shop selling all things matcha who, of all places, decided to open their first location outside of Asia in... Toronto?

Tsujiri offers hot and cold drinks, ice cream sundaes and a few pastries; all is located -- with prices -- on a sign outside the store. The selection of pastries, however, is small, smaller than what their website features. At the time of purchase, there were two on the menu: matcha macarons ($2.50) and cream puffs ($2.75) with a stuck-on picture advertising matcha crepe cake ($8!?). The amazing-looking matcha opera cake has a "coming soon" sign taped on top of it...

 More fond of cream puffs than macarons, I decided to give this one a go: a choux puff that may not look too unique on the outside besides a generous dusting of green tea powder. Crunchy on the outside and airy on the inside, this swoon-worthy baby is a flavour bomb that sends you straight to matcha heaven. Knowing that Japanese baked goods always fare well on my site, I knew from the get-go that this would be good. I didn't realize it would blow my mind. The first bite you get a bit of dough and an outer layer of plain whipped cream. Then you hit the jackpot: an intensely green matcha whipped cream centre and lots of it, so much that it bursts onto your place and you want to lap it up with your tongue. Matcha and whipped cream. It doesn't get much better than that, except maybe that it's also amazing matcha: flavourful and rich. Oh yeah.... *-*  (Too bad there just isn't more to try!) 

UPDATE: With Tsujiri's small Canada-wide expansion - with stores now in three (possibly four) provinces - their sweet selection has decidedly, finally increased. I somehow feel that the Toronto locations, Alberta locations (who offer stamp cards) and those in Vancouver are independently run and operated and thus the selection of cake seems to be similar, but not identical. This matcha cream roll is from their Edmonton location, while I had a double fromage cheesecake from their North York location and yuzu rare cheesecake from Richmond - all delicious, but I still think the cream puffs are the best... and I think those happen to not be around anymore?

Rating: ***1/2