Blacksmith Bakery

 Bakery: Blacksmith Bakery
Address: 9190 Church St, Fort Langley, BC
Website: http://www.blacksmithbakery.ca
Style: Canadian, French 
Price: $$$-$$$$

Despite the appellation, Blacksmith Bakery is more a bakery in name only. Stepping into the space, it immediately comes across as a cafe and the push to get a drink and sit down further cemented that impression. I mean, cafes have baked goods too and Blacksmith's selection is small and more or less cafe fare: a handful of pastries - two, to be exact - and some cakes and tarts. All relatively simple in style, nothing too elaborate... and too expensive for what they were, in my opinion, but that pretty much came with the territory.

Not in the mood for their selection of two pastries - plain croissants and pains au chocolat (maybe they have more earlier in the day?) - I decided on a slice of their cherry clafoutis ($4.75) as the most unique and lightest/least cream-laden option. And I happen to really like clafoutis! Given it was almost the same price as their multi-tiered cakes, I feel like a little more effort could have been taken when it came to the visuals, especially since I've made clafoutis and it's neither that time- nor cost-intensive. It was just a lopsided square cut from the cake pan. Even the powdered sugar was irregular and parts of the top had peeled off.

However, most important is always taste. I liked the whole cherries that were both sweet and a little sour sandwiched right in between. The dough wasn't overwhelmingly eggy, which was also good, but the texture was a little stiff/congealed. That paired with the wonky icing sugar and peeled top gave me the impression that maybe it wasn't super fresh? Good, but not great - and too pricey for that kind of final verdict.

Rating: **1/2