Transylvanian Traditions

Bakery: Transylvanian Traditions
Address: 1111 Davie St, Vancouver BC
Website: http://transylvaniantraditions.com/index.html
Style: Romanian 
Price: $$ 

Transylvanian Traditions is a Romanian bakery/pastry shop that seem to specialize in torte-like cake slices in a variety of traditional Romanian and Eastern European flavours as well as Hungarian chimney cakes (judging by the giant poster outside) and some other, less sweet baked goods and treats (macarons, sweet buns, etc.) They also seem to devote much effort in decorating their storefront with various slogans and claims: Do they really have the best cakes in Vancouver? Are these the best pastries you've ever imagined? Is this the long sought-after Heaven of Desserts? Let's take a look. ;)

Three cake types were sampled; all were around $3.50-$4.50 per slice. The first was a "Nuga cake": vanilla sponge cake with sweet, chocolatey syrup, ground walnuts and whipped cream. This wasn't as chocolatey or as elaborate as I imagined it, but the cake rolled in walnuts was a nice touch and added flavour complexity.

Up next: the classic Amandina. This, whether it's true or not, is what I think of as the quintessential Romanian cake (and always a good sign at giving away an Eastern European bakery's nationality ;)). This is essentially a chocolate cake soaked in alcohol and then usually topped off with a dark chocolate ganache. This time, there was also chocolate cream between the cake layers for extra richness. I appreciated the alcohol in the cake (some bakeries just use sugar syrup *shakes head*); it was decadent and moist. Very good.

Lastly, the Sunshine Romania. This consisted of vanilla sponge cake, some fresh fruit, and a large layer of cream. Despite the fact that chocolate cake is usually not my favourite type of cake, this one was my least favourite of the three. There wasn't enough flavour and it was simply too much cream; in some ways, it was most resembling a standard vanilla birthday cake. However, most cakes fall into either chocolate cake or vanilla cake, so there isn't that much variety for those who don't want chocolate.

The best cakes in Vancouver? Did I reach Nirvana? :P Maybe not, but Transylvanian Traditions is still a very good Old-World bakery where you can have a delicious, modestly priced slice of cake.

Rating: ***1/2