La Rocca Creative Kitchen (Midtown)

 

For such a popular bakery, I was surprised to see they were taking part in the BOGO promotions on Ubereats

Turtle Tarts ($5.95 for 2) and Super Caramel Crunch Mini ($6.50 for 2)

The turtle tart was made with a super decadent dark chocolate ganache and came with roasted pecans, milk chocolate swirl and a chocolate shortbread shell. It was very rich and indulgent, but it didn't really have a nutty flavour though except for the pecans on top to add texture - pretty good overall. 

The super caramel crunch mini was delicious! It came with two layers of pecan merigue (you could taste the nutty flavour) and was a lot denser than the typical fluffy meringue and then it was layered with caramel and whipped cream. It was on the sweet side, but it was so good! It's one of their signature cakes for a good reason. 

Pistachio strawberry pyramid $6.95 

As a pistachio dessert lover, I had to try this out when I saw it behind the counter. 

It had an excellent pistachio mousse with lots of pistachio flavour and strangely enough, it didn't have as strawberry flavour as I would have expected and instead, it was overpowered by pistachio (which is fine because I would much rather the pistachio flavour be the star). Pistachio and strawberry don't really seem like complimentary flavours though, but it was fun!

Website: https://www.laroccatoronto.com/

Daan Go Cake Lab

Jan 28, 2021 

The Masterchef owner won an international award for his milk tea (so I was pretty excited to try it)

Milk Tea ($4.50) and Pandan Coconut Macaron 

The milk tea came in one size and cold. First thoughts were that it tasted like black tea with sweet evaporated milk and not really like Hong Kong style milk tea. When I took it home and heated it, it was MUCH better and actually tasted like HK milk tea, but on the sweeter side with the evaporated milk. It was a lot more flavourful with a smooth mouth feel and a good combination of the black tea leaves that stood out. I'm not sure it's worth the $4.50 price tag though. 

My first bite of the pandan coconut macaron could taste the pandan flavour, but then the later bites were more of the coconut flavour that slightly overpowered it. It was pretty good overall and the pandan coconut combination was great. 

Peach Garden and Cheesecake Fromage

The peach garden cake came with both yellow and white peach flavour and a crunchy almond base and osmanthus jelly layer on top. It was super pretty and had a ton of peach flavour from the peach jelly under the top osmanthus layer as well as peach cream and cake. I thought it was okay, but not necessarily something I'd get again (I'd go for the pandaan or milk tea cake). The bottom crust was rather soggy rather than crunchy. 

Cheesecake Fromage was made with white chocolate and lime passionfruit cheesecake and lime truffle mousse. The white chocolate outside layer was actually a thin layer of hardened white chocolate (didn't quite expect that) and the cheesecake turned out to be super tart lime with a bit of a soggy crumbly crust. (also not really a favourite).  

July 21, 2020

PanDaan cake $6.50 - pandan, coconut and chiffon cake
The chiffon cake was light fluffy and airy with a crunchy middle layer and a nice bottom crust. The cake also had a grainy coconut texture from the coconut shreds, but it didn't have a lot of pandan flavour. I found that even the cream cheese flavour was more than the pandan. 

May 31, 2020

Durian desserts are super popular in Asia, but not as much in North America. Durians are divisive fruits since they're so pungent - you either love it or hate it. Personally, I really like eating it and the flavour of it, but preferably in small doses since it does smell so bad. Daan Go has a popular durian cake that I've been wanting to try out for a while, so I stopped by to pick up a slice of the cake. 

Pretty packaging!

Gold Thorn Cake $7

There's so much durian goodness in this tiny slice of cake with durian mousse, durian puree, cheese cream and fluffy cake. The second I opened the box I could smell the durian and the flavour can really pack a punch. The cake was a little mushy at the top from the durian puree similar to the texture of durian and I loved the base at the bottom which was crispy and crunchy to add different textures.  

3:15 Cake with Hong Kong milk tea, Vietnamese Coffee and Ovaltine $6.50

The Vietnamese coffee flavour was strongest in this cake and it worked well paired with the milk tea mousse. I also liked Ovaltine pineapple bun crumb crunch. 

Lucky Duck with pistachio and lemon mousse $7

The pistachio cream was really good, but I found the lemon pistachio pairing kind of odd. The white chocolate duck had lemon inside which was a nice surprise! (The bathtub isn't edible, but the whole dessert was really cute). 

May 13, 2018

Super cute macarons - Pistachio, Hong Kong Milk Tea and Mango flavours

The macaron feet (cookies) were super crumbly and the filling inside the macarons wasn't really outstanding. I think my favourite of these was the Hong Kong Milk tea, but I probably wouldn't be back for their macarons. 

Website: https://www.daango.com/

Chatime Bake Code

Jan 4, 2021 @ 4910 Yonge Street

$15 for 6 macarons

Clockwise from top left: Earl Grey, Chocolate Raspberry, Mango, Pistachio, Lavendar and White Sesame (centre)

Earl Grey: sadly no earl grey flavour whatsoever. 

Chocolate raspberry: good raspberry flavour, but the raspberry jam inside wasn't that good. 

Mango: really good macaron with a soft inside and crispy outside and lots of mango flavour. 

Pistachio: super crumbly macaron with decent pistachio flavour

Lavender: excellent floral lavender flavour and it was super fragrant with a cookbook perfect macaron finish

White sesame: good white sesame flavour - distinct Asian flavour (pretty neat)

Overall: These macarons will do in a pinch! But there's definitely better macarons in Toronto. 

Aug 29, 2020 @ 9255 Woodbine Ave

Taro Mini Loaf $6.50

The taro loaf looked pretty nice with all the braids, almond slivers and what looked like coconut shreds outside. 

There was some taro flavour inside with the taro paste, but it was pretty light and it wasn't easy to slice it (so I just ripped some pieces to eat). The loaf was sweet, but it wasn't anything special (and was a little pricey relative to the size of it).

August 8, 2020 @ 9255 Woodbine Ave

Tea of the Month $4.50 for a Large

Oolong Milk Tea!

Strong oolong flavour (which is fantastic for oolong tea lovers) and it was really good without sugar since it has a slight sweetness from the milk

Mille Crepe Cake

Custard-y in between the layers of crepe. I liked this one better than the Earl Grey and it had no powdery stuff on top! 

June 16, 2020 @ 4910 Yonge Street

In the month of June, Chatime was offering a promo code every Tuesday for $3 off order of $15 or more, so I decided to order some croissants and desserts from Bake Code through their online system. 

Unfortunately, my Charcoal Thai Milk Tea croissant got lost somewhere in the order delivery process. It was a bit of a trial getting a refund for it (they say it takes up to two weeks to process the refund, but the store ended up offering me a coupon instead)

Purple Potato Latte $5.30 (a Bake Code specialty)

I was pretty excited about this drink at first since I've really wanted a purple potato/taro/ube dessert for a while. I was rather disappointed with this whole experience since it tasted like purple potato mush mixed with water (or skim milk?) and it was super bland as a drink. I wonder if adding sugar would have helped? I wouldn't order this again.

Vietnamese Coffee Cruffin $4.70 and Ube Croissant $4.50

The croissant baked into a muffin was okay, but definitely mushy in the middle. It had a fantastic strong Vietnamese coffee flavour. 

Ube croissant

The ube filling was more milky flavour than ube and it was really sweet. An interesting French-Asian fusion dessert. 

Charcoal Chatime Roasted Milk Tea Custard Croissant $4.90

The croissant was really flaky and it had a strong roasted milk tea flavour in the custard. It was sweet as well, but I found it slightly better than the ube croissant. I would get this one again. 

Earl Grey Crepe Cake $8.50

I got this mostly for comparison purposes of the Earl Grey crepe cake at Millie Patisserie. I previously got this in January at another Chatime location.

The Earl Grey flavour was pretty good, but not as good as Millie's. I found this cake really sweet and I wasn't a fan of the powdered chocolate on top since it leaves a strong powdery chocolate taste and after-taste. The crepes weren't as good as Millie's either and they were slightly more dried out than Millie. However, it was still a pretty decent crepe cake (and it's not as expensive). 

Website: http://bakecode.com/

Phipps Desserts Bakery

Dec 23, 2020

 

Chocolate Strawberry Cake $18 

A super reasonable price for a last minute 5 inch cake right before Christmas! I was lucky they had some extra cakes and they were able to accommodate my request for a chocolate cake with either strawberry or raspberry frosting. I got the strawberry cake and it was quite nice! Once the buttercream melted, it was very soft with a fragrant strawberry floral flavour. The cake was a bit on the dry side, but it was still pretty rich in flavour and tasty. 

Carrot Pan Cake $12

I love the cream cheese icing Phipps makes with their carrot cake! It's probably one of the best cream cheese icings I've tried since it's not too sweet and not too heavy. It also pairs amazingly well with the moist carrot cake (that doesn't have raisins!). The pan cake today didn't have as much icing, but it still tasted delicious with the roasted walnuts on top too. 

Mar 17, 2020

Mardi Gras Cake! $29

Layers of chocolate cake sandwiched with walnut meringue and fudge frosting, iced in a caramel butter cream, caramel and ganache.

The Mardi Gras cake can only be ordered in the medium size (8 inches)

The chocolate cake was delicious and I really liked the caramel buttercream and fudge frosting. The cake was on the sweet side especially since it had lots of chocolate and caramel throughout. I was a little disappointed by the walnut meringue in the cake since it was really crumbly, but it could also be that the cake needed a bit more time to freeze before I started eating it. Overall though, it was a great cake, but it's a lot of cake to finish if you have two people. 

Mar 4, 2020

Peach Divine Cake $12.30

Phipps' divine cake is similar to a coffee cake, but it's more substantial and not as dry. The cake was pretty good with a nice glaze on top and lots of peaches. I liked the outer crust which was harder like a coffee cake, but the inside was soft like a really moist pound cake. 

Jan 13, 2020

Orange Nut Carrot Cake $18 (small)

I absolutely love their carrot cake! It does have raisins (which I don't like), but you barely notice them in the cake because it's so delicious. The cream cheese icing is AMAZING and the crispy nuts and crumble on top add a fun texture to the icing and the cake. The cake itself is moist and soft and has some really good spices to give it a fragrant aroma. Delish!

Oct 15, 2019

Marble Cheesecake Brownie $10

I've had their marble cheesecake brownie before when it was fresher. This tray wasn't as fresh (which you could kinda tell from the edges), but it was still good. 

July 2, 2019

Chocolate pecan tart and butter tart

The pecan tart was really tasty, but I think I would have preferred it with the regular crust as opposed to the chocolate crust. The butter tart was good, but not as good as Carla's. 

Website: http://phippsdesserts.ca/

Chocolada

 Since I was in the Yonge and Steeles area to pick up lunch at Song Cook's, I did a quick search to see if there were any dessert places nearby to satisfy my sweet tooth and found Chocolada (which had quite a selection of European sweets and treats)

Apricot Marizpan Tart ($5), Mango Mousse Cake ($4) and Pistachio Eclair ($4)

Pretty cheap prices! 

The apricot marizpan tart had sweet almond paste with fruits baked into the tart filling (and on the top to make it look prettier). The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the glaze on top of the tart which made it really sweet. 

The mango mousse cake had a good ataulfo mango flavour that was strong and sweet and it was pretty reasonably priced. 

The pistachio eclair had good pistachio flavour in the cream and on top of the eclair, but I found the eclair rather doughy. 

I might be back to try some of their other desserts later, another good bang for the buck dessert place! 

Website: https://chocolada.com/

Cafe Bora

Nov 13, 2020 @ Upper East Food Club (Closed)

I had a 50% off Ubereats Code and I wanted to try out Cafe Bora again for their purple sweet potato desserts. 

Bora Latte $5.95, Bora Bora Mille Crepe Cake $15.50 and Bora Tiramisu $9.95

The tiramisu was weird: the cheese part was kind of salty and sour as opposed to sweet and interestingly enough as pretty as it looked with layers of purple and white, there wasn't a lot of sweet potato flavour. It did come with a powdery sweet potato topping, but I definitely don't think it was worth the regular price (I also wonder if this one went bad or something - I wouldn't get this ever again)

The crepe cake was expensive, but it was REALLY GOOD with lots of sweet potato flavour and nice flaky delicious crepe layers. It was nicely executed with many layers, not too much cream and lots of sweet potato flavour. 

Sweet Potato latte

The drink was awful: mostly milk with tiny grains of sweet potato powder for colour, but barely any sweet potato flavour. I would also skip this here. 

Oct 4, 2018

I've been dying to try Cafe Bora since the BlogTo article came out. I love purple sweet potato because it's my favourite colour and also because it tastes really good. 

 

 

Bora Ice cream $5.95 

It's gorgeous, sweet and Instagram worthy, but I don't think it's worth the hefty price tag.

Website: http://www.cafebora.ca/

Patisserie la Cigogne

Nov 5, 2020

Croissant $2.65

This was half the price of the pistachio croissant nearby at Bomou, and I really liked this one since it was super soft, fluffy and a little flaky with a delicious buttery taste! Also would come back for this croissant - Yum!

Bacarra Cake - Pistachio cake and hazelnut mousse $7.50

The overall impression of the cake when I was eating it was that it was sticky. There was a lot of glaze and the mousse inside was on the harder side and the thin layer of apricot jam in the middle was sticky too - I wonder if it's because it's been sitting out all day (or for longer) and everything just hardened. 

Nov 23, 2018

Bacarra cake

Somehow this just didn't have the same impact it had before. The cake was a little dry and stale and the chocolate layers were kind of sticky. The apricot layer was also strange. It seemed like there was more hazelnut cream than any pistachio flavour, I don't think it's the same anymore.

November 2, 2014

I can't help it - I had to go back for the Bacarra

Bacarra, Pear Sabayon Tart and Tiramisu

The Bacarra was just as delicious and heavenly as I remember it. YUMMY!

The pear tart and tiramisu were really good too...but the highlight of the day was the Bacarra for sure. 

October 31, 2014

Wow, I can't believe it's been two years since I've last had one of Patisserie la Cigogne's cakes (I guess this is one of the reasons why I still keep blogging haha). 

It's so weird because every time someone asks me for a cake recommendation - the first place that comes to mind is "Patisserie la Cigogne - it's a little far from the downtown core, but it's worth the trip!". It also helps that there's the Danforth location now - which is where I sent my friend recently for their amazing pistachio cakes. 

Croq-Pistache (x2), Opera, Mikado, Prince Noir and Symphony

The Croq-Pistache was just as good as I remembered it with the crunchy & crispy layers in the cake. However, I was a little sad I couldn't get the Bacarra (which is my new favourite cake). Instead, we got these other cakes to make up for it. 

Opera was a mocha butter cream and chocolate cream layered with Joconde biscuit with a chocolate glaze. I liked the mocha and chocolate cream with the crispy biscuit, but after all the pistachio desserts - this seemed a little too simple for me. It's classic and delicious - but I appreciate innovative desserts and cakes more. 

Mikado was another choice made with lemon madeleine sponge and lemon mousse with strawberry filling. The tart lemon made the white chocolate stand out more and made the cake overwhelmingly sweet. I would have liked if they used something else to balance the sweetness like a dark chocolate instead of white chocolate.

Next, the Prince Noir (I think?) with crispy praline crust, roasted hazelnut coffee butter creme and chocolate mousse finished with a dark glaze. The hazelnut mousse really stood out to me - it was so rich in nutty flavour and the cake had all these great textures. I would definitely order this again.

Last, the Symphony with a combination of dark, white and milk chocolate mousse filled with fresh raspberries with a pink sparkly glaze on top. The flavours seemed like it would work, but I feel like la Cigogne is known for their rich vibrant flavours that stand out (at least that's the case with bacarra and Prince Noir) and I felt the raspberry and chocolate flavours were a little lost in this cake since there was too much going on with all three chocolates.

Up close and personal pictures...

Working those camera shots and angles (LOL)

September 9, 2012

Tarte Flambée $11.49

Alsatian style thin crust pie with bacon, chopped onion and cream cheese baked in stone oven. 

The tarte flambée is also named flammekueche  in the Alsace region of France (Flammekuchen in German). 

Delicious! It was like a thin-crust creamy alternative to pizza. The cheese, chopped onion and bacon combination on the thin bread was scrumptious! Patisserie la Cigogne only serves tarte flambées on Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 3pm and it's definitely worth the trip!

And then there are the cakes:

From top (clockwise): Ba-Ba au Rhum Cake, Bacarra, Apricot Almond Pie, Pinacolada, Croq Pistache and Raspberry Cheesecake in the middle.

My top 3 cakes are: Bacarra, the Apricot Almond Tart and the Croq Pistache. (I may be biased towards pistachio cakes)

Apricot almond pie: sweet crust filled with almond cream topped with sliced apricots and finished with apricot glaze and it was absolutely heavenly! This tart could totally give Clafouti tarts a run for their money. I also really liked that they added fresh raspberries to the tart to give it a tangy taste.

Pinacolada: coconut mousse & light pineapple mousse with dark chocolate cake soaked in rum. It was really different and the pastry chef stayed true to the pinacolada taste. Light, tasty and summery. 

Ba-Ba au Rhum Cake - It looked very pretty and light, but it had a heavy rum flavour and it was a little overwhelming.

Raspberry Cheesecake: sweet crust filled with white chocolate, cream cheese and fresh raspberries

Despite being a cheesecake, I found it rather fluffy and light. It was a simple and nice cheesecake, the downside was that the cookie didn't hold up too well.

Croq-Pistache: sweet crust filled with almond cream and crunchy hazelnut, finished with pistachio mousse

Wow - what a combination of flavours and textures with the crunchy hazelnut filling, soft airy pistachio mousse and the slightly chunkier almond cream filling. The flavours of the hazelnut and almond stood out more than the pistachio. It was a really unique cake.

Bacarra: crunchy pistachio, dark chocolate ganache and light caramel cream filled with peaches

This is my favourite dessert here! It just works wonderfully together with the pistachio, dark chocolate, peaches and dried apricot on top. Before this, I had no idea that these ingredients would even work together - but the chef has made a masterpiece with pistachio. Every bite is a delight!

Overall: One of my favourite cake places in Toronto! The service might be a little slow sometimes, but they consistently put out great desserts (especially pistachio ones) and food. On a weekend, the tables fill up with customers enjoying their coffee and patisseries similar to a cafe in France.

October 12, 2011

 For my brother's birthday, instead of buying one cake - we bought a selection of cakes (well it was also because our favourite cake at Patisserie la Cigogne [the Croq Pistache] wasn't available and the selection that night that was available wasn't super appealing to us). So instead, we grabbed the Bacarra, Exotic Flower, the Harmony, St. Eve, Louis XIV and Treasure Island (clockwise from the triangle at the top). We've had the Bacarra before and loved it - the patisserie chef at Patisserie de la Cigogne is amazing with pistachio desserts! We've had the best pistachio desserts here. The rest were really interesting, the Exotic flower was good and we thought the St. Eve was very nutty at first, but it grew on us and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The rest of the desserts were good - but I think once was good enough for us.

Since I love macarons, we also decided to pick up a box. The pink ones were rosewater (which is not a favourite flavour of mine), but we really enjoyed the yellow and orange ones. The brown and green ones weren't as good. It's quite hard finding really good macarons in Toronto. So alas, the search continues...

Website: http://patisserielacigogne.com/