Signature's Eatery

Bakery: Signature's Eatery
Address: 16 A Manitoba St, Bracebridge ON
Website: facebook 
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$ 

Signature's Eatery isn't actually a bakery and I spotted a more legit bakery later on, but I was lured in by the "butter tarts" sign on the outside of the building. That being said, Signature's Eatery is well, an eatery: a lunch spot/cafe serving soup and sandwiches, but they also make their own desserts. While there, this was pretty much limited to butter tarts. But I like butter tarts, so it was definitely worth trying.

Outwardly, the butter tarts looked like the ones I'm actually not that fond of. Oversized and with a very thick shell, I was afraid this would be overwhelmingly doughy and difficult to tackle. It was a bit hard to delve into, but I was surprised that all my preconceived notions were soon to be thrown out the door. This proved to be a delicious butter tart that blended all components into one yummy experience. Good tart shell (perhaps a little too thick nonetheless) with a great filling and this amazing baked butter layer on top, this is was good stuff and hey, it turned into a worthy Cake Tour stop after all. :)

Rating: *** 

Schat Bakery and Cafe [RIP]

Bakery: Schat Bakery and Cafe
Address: 26 Main St, Huntsville ON
Website: http://www.schatbakery.ca/
Style: Dutch
Price: $$ 

Note: As I'm writing this, Schat Bakery is gone. The owners retired and the bakery switched hands a few days ago, thus changing the name but hopefully, as the original owner trained the new ones coming in, a lot of the products will remain the same. Let's hope they do! I mean, I can't stand the idea of writing a review for a bakery that no longer exists, especially when it was this good. Edit: I checked out the website of the new bakery and it's overwhelmingly... cupcake. This one is being listed as a goner. ;__;

Schat Bakery is a Dutch bakery in Huntsville that offers a selection of classic Canadian goodies (butter tarts, pies, cookies) along with some traditional Dutch treats. The one thing that made this an absolute must-visit bakery while in the area was the fact that their website advertised oliebollen. Now, I have yet to encounter a Dutch bakery that sells these little balls of fried dough that just so happen to be the precursor to... the doughnut. Yup, the Dutch got there first. And I absolutely had to try them.

Unfortunately for me, oliebollen are only baked on Fridays and they weren't being baked that Friday either, though that wouldn't have helped my cause. Therefore, no oliebollen for me. :( Woe is me! To make up for the loss, they do sell other kinds of baked goods and similar to the oliebollen were the apple beignets (or, rather: appelbeignet): full-size apple doughnuts, Dutch-style. They make an appearance on the Wikipedia article for oliebollen, so all was not lost. :)

Apple beignets are flakier than the standard doughnut and are filled with a mass of small cubes cooked in a creamy mixture, similar to some types of Dutch apple cake. This is then fried and coated with cinnamon sugar. On the outside, they may not look like anything special, but one bite is enough to wow you. Layers of fried flaky dough that was a bit greasy at times, but there has to be a reason for the word "olie" (oil), after all. :P Delicious apple filling and an amazing, great find of a fried treat. Here's hoping the new guys will keep some of the fantastic products I have yet to find somewhere else!

Rating: ***1/2

Wilkie's Bakery

Bakery: Wilkie's Bakery
Address: 169 Mississauga St E, Orillia ON
Website: facebook
Style: Canadian
Price: $$ 

The second stop in Orillia, Wilkie's Bakery is one of two bakeries on the downtown business strip. I wasn't sure which one to go to since the other one had quite a bit of people going to it and this one was a little less populated that day. Given the fact that they only really have one kind of sweet -- butter tarts -- I assumed that not only this is what you have to try while at Wilkie's, but that it has to be good. I assumed correctly. ;)

While they have a few other sweets, the selection is limited. Their claim to fame, however, is butter tarts. In fact, while there, the sign I spotted online touting that Wilkie's has "Canada's best butter tart" wasn't out on the street. Either way, those are some pretty big words and it takes a lot to stand by them. The question had to be asked: are Wilkie's butter tarts as famous and amazing as they claim? Well... yes. It may be a little rash to say they're the best in the country, but these butter tarts pack quite the punch and can probably be considered, based on other bakeries already reviewed, the best butter tart in Ontario.

The key to what makes this butter tart so great is, first of all, the dough. Ontario-style (versus what I call "Western-style") butter tarts with their hand-shaped tart shells are more often than not too doughy and thick, making it hard to crack open with a fork and ending up a little too overwhelming compared to the filling. As such, I'm usually not the biggest fan. This shell had the ideal texture: it was thinner, softer, and the ratio of shell to filling was perfect. That filling was amazing: not runny, not thick. It was right in the middle, just pure delicious, with that melt-in-your-mouth baked butter topping. This was butter tart perfection!

Rating: ****

Sweet Paradise

Bakery: Sweet Paradise 
Address: 630 Stone Church Rd, Hamilton ON 
Website: http://sweetparadise.ca/
Style: Italian 
Price: $$ 

It was the 19th of March, the feast day of San Giuseppe, and you know what that was supposed to mean: zeppole! Yes, it was the day I've been waiting for (though, to be fair, many bakeries make zeppole during the month of March or thereabouts) and I thought I would cover a couple of Italian bakeries in Hamilton that I had been putting off. This, in some sense, was a disaster; only one bakery had zeppole that day -- unthinkable! -- and that zeppola came from Sweet Paradise.

Despite the "bakery" vibes coming from their name and website, Sweet Paradise is a classic Italian bakery and deli, but they did have the largest selection of  Italian pastries and cakes from the places I visited that day, such as two types of cannoli and something known as a Sicilian doughnut (!).

But I was there for the zeppole (as was everyone else in the bakery line). At first, I didn't notice them, but then I realized they were the cream puff-looking pastries coated with powdered sugar, available in either ricotta or amarena cherry. ($3) Perhaps the term "zeppolina" would be more fitting; these were smallest zeppole I've seen. I'm also not too sure why there was so much powdered sugar on it. After scraping off a few spoonfuls, I gave it a try. Zeppole are often considered the Italian equivalent of a doughnut and with the stiff choux pastry often used, this is a bit of a far stretch; this was the first time I could see the resemblance. A soft dough stuffed with custard and cherries, this zeppola was generously filled and yummy. Maybe it didn't beat this year's winner from Sanremo, but it is definitely worthy of second-place. :)

Rating: ***

The Bakery

Bakery: The Bakery
Address: 141 Brock St, Gravenhurst ON 
Website: n/a 
Style: Canadian
Price: $$

The Bakery may not have a proper name, but it's certainly worth mentioning as a notable bakery stop in Muskoka. Generous portions (which doesn't happen too often) seeming to be their main asset, these guys have been in business for a while now -- or so the sign says -- and they have a nice selection of classic Canadian baked goods: a few types of butter tarts, pies and other tarts, along with cream-filled doughnuts and Chelsea buns, all of which looked pretty tasty. They seem to also have a bit of gluten-free baked goods, including tarts, which seem to be popular amongst some people.

The one beauty that stood out from the rest was their apple fritter. Quite literally the size of your face, you could have half and not feel ripped off. Yes, this is one amazing slab of dough: generously glazed with chunks of apples sitting on top, I knew at first glance that this was going to be a winner. While the smell of the glaze was a little puzzling -- a blind test would make you think of thick cake frosting such as you might find on a cupcake, not glaze -- biting into this was a wonderful experience. Perfectly fried with a nice golden crust, delicious glaze coverage, and moist dough... mmm, amazing texture, delicious taste. When was the last time I had an apple fritter this good? My only minus was that it needed a little more apples, especially given the colossal size of the fritter, but other than that.... What a yummy treat! *-*

Rating: ***1/2

Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Bake

Bakery: Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Bake
Address: 596 Bay St, Toronto ON
Website: http://uncletetsu-ca.com/
Style: Japanese
Price: $$$ 

Not that I intentionally chronicle the latest Uncle Tetsu venture; it just happens that way. A few weeks ago, craving some green tea cheesecake (my favourite Tetsu product by a long shot), I went to the Matcha Cafe and found it closed. Shut down. My heart broke. Tetsu is expanding left, right and centre and they closed the best thing in their franchise!?! Furious, I went on their website and found that the Matcha Cafe was simply undergoing renovations. Not sure why, but now I see the reason: Uncle Tetsu did indeed shut down the Matcha Cafe and turned into a... cheese tart place. That means no matcha cheesecake, no matcha madeleines, no matcha soft serve -- you get the picture. WHY!? It makes no sense to get rid of the best products for a business dedicated exclusively to cheese tarts, which could be easily contained in a preexisting business or as a booth. Granted, Uncle Tetsu soon comforted distraught and angered customers by announcing yet another Tetsu business coming soon to the Greyhound station underpass, and it will feature all those green tea baked goods that were (so stupidly) discontinued in the first place. Hopefully.

So, what is the Japanese Bake? Essentially, it should have simply been called "Cheese Tarts" so as not to give people the idea that there is more to it than that. Cheese tarts seem to be the trendy dessert in Asia at the moment. You can think of them as a cross between Chinese egg tarts and dense New York-style cheesecake.

Uncle Tetsu's cheese tarts ($3.50 each) are made with homemade tart shells and a golden yellow filling that has a strangely glossy top, resembling melted mozzarella cheese. Coming with a pamphlet on how to eat them, you have the choice between fresh (room temperature upon purchase), heated up a bit, cooled in the fridge, or even frozen (?); the texture may change a bit, but the taste remains the same. The first bite transported me to my elementary school days, specifically those snack-packs with mini bread-sticks and cheddar "cheese" dip. Identical. These tarts are awkwardly sandwiched between sweet and savoury; the shells themselves are doughy and flavourless and would be more fitting for a quiche or meat pie. The cheese filling is bland and sticky; it clings to both mouth and fork like taffy while the squeaky top is too salty. Suffice to say, I was not a fan. Uncle Tetsu, what on earth were you thinking?!?

Rating: *1/2