Panaché Bakery

Bakery: Panaché Bakery and Café
Address: 162 King St. E, Gananoque ON
Website: http://www.panachebakery.net/
Style: Canadian
Price: $$  

My goal, or rather one of my lesser Cake Tour goals, is to plot the route from Toronto to Montreal (and beyond?) and this bakery is just getting it one step closer. Panaché (perhaps meant to rhyme with Gananoque) is the local bakery and is located on the main street. Hard to miss. Not only that, it's a really busy place, or was when I was there, though without a doubt the vast majority come in for their sandwiches and soups. But of course, I wasn't there for *derisive frown* soup; I was there for baked goodies! In this way, Panaché (I'm almost tempted...) doesn't offer that much, especially not in freshly baked goods; instead, there are cake slices, squares, and cookies, with squares having the most variety. 

Their website claims their signature is the St Laurent cake, except I couldn't exactly distinguish it from your usual types. I was asking about a few squares (a limited number of goods are labelled and priced) and they didn't prove to be anything too thrilling (chocolate chip brownie), but I did go away with two Canadian bakery classics and surefire picks: the carrot cake and the date square. 

The carrot cake ($3.25) was good and in the words of the self-proclaimed carrot cake expert and fellow sampler: "these guys knew what a carrot cake is supposed to be". Namely, full of carrots with a thick layer of cream cheese icing and, in this case, even the little icing carrot on top. Simple, tasty classic. 

The date square ($2.25... or $2.50 or was the cake priced differently?) is yet another classic and one of my favourite squares. This one was good, but far from the best I've had with a good oat topping and a date filling that's not too sweet. There was, however, nothing overly unique about it that made it stand out and what's with the size!?! This was so small and not worth the price. :( 

And, in the end, I simply can't resist: 

On my first visit to Panaché 
A rather modest bakery and café
I found it very busy noonday 

Club sandwiches made your way 
Freshly baked bread on the tray
How are the squares and cookies? Okay 

But one really does have little say -- 
It's the only bakery in Gananoque!  

Rating: ***