The Cake Smith

Bakery: The Cake Smith 
Address: 2352 Bloor St W, Toronto ON 
Website: http://www.thecakesmithinc.com
Style: Cakes, Eastern European, Ukrainian
Price: $$-$$$ 

Slightly more upscale and cake-centric than its nearby Bloor West bakery competition, I first poked my head inside The Cake Smith about a year ago and thought that, with its selection of classic Ukrainian/Eastern European-style cakes, it would make a great option for when I needed a good cake. After all, with the exception of a few pastries and cookies, The Cake Smith well, sold cake and nothing but. An admirable undertaking, indeed.

Fast forward a bit. Whether it was just my impression or the selection was more varied and exciting in the beginning, I made my eventual return, intent on buying a whole cake. To my disappointment, I found that the choices were very limited and one-dimensional, with many of the cakes being of the standard buttercream variety. At the very least, that was what I was told by the worker, since none of the cakes were labelled and when inquiring if a certain cake corresponded to the same as the cake slice (judging by the outside decorations), I was told that they were all the same on the inside and it was just the outside that was different, except that some were chocolate and others vanilla cake dough. Oh, there was a Red Velvet as well. I asked if there was a large honey cake. Nope. My plans were thwarted. Why were there different types of cake slices, but not cakes?  And why were the cakes decorated differently if they were "all the same on the inside"? I was confused and disappointed!

Really set on that honey cake, I just went ahead and grabbed a slice ($4.50). After all, I love honey cake and I wouldn't let the opportunity to try a new one pass me by. This one had a series of lovely layers of almost crepe-thin spiced cake dough with almost equal parts cream. You could smell and taste the honey with each bite and the crumble with crushed walnuts was a nice and flavourful touch. Yup, despite all the frustration with getting a whole cake, this was a honey cake worth trying.

Rating: ***