Craque de Creme

Feb 12, 2021

Craque de Creme has a mason jar return policy and I had quite a few jars from last time, so I made a trip to return them (since I couldn't figure out how to use them). While I was there, I was super tempted by all their sweet offerings, but I was particularly intrigued by the bostock (which I've never heard of)

Bostock 

It's a French pastry made with French toast and almond and it also came with a lot of syrup soaked into it. It was REALLY good! Light, airy and flaky like a croissant from the bread, but then it was also heavily laden with syrup and icing sugar on top. Super yummy, but very sweet. 

July 11, 2020

Pistachio, Viet coffee and raspberry caneles

Caneles are small pastries with rum and vanilla and they usually have a soft tender custard center and a dark thick caramelized crust. I haven't tried caneles before, so I thought this would be a great chance to try them with some of my favourite flavours like raspberry and pistachio. 

I really liked the pistachio canele especially the pistachio paste on the top with all the nuts. I wasn't able to immediately eat them (which is when they're supposed to be the best), but I got to try a little bit of the custard-y middle and the crust was pretty thick and kinda crunchy - however, they were a bit chewier than I expected. Once I reheated it a bit in the microwave, the middle was a lot more custard-y and the outside crust was hard. I also really liked the flavour of the raspberry and the viet coffee had a really strong bold coffee flavour which was nice. 

On to the main event here: the Crème Brûlées! I pre-ordered all the flavours I wanted in advance so that they would make the ones I wanted to try in advance (I was also super ambitious ordering so many crème brûlées, but it's not often that I'm in the St. Clair West area). There was a bit of a wait to get into the store since they only allowed one person at a time to go in and get their orders and it took a little while since the owner had to caramelize the sugar on top of the custards for each order.

Ube Crème Brûlée

The ube flavour in the custard really stood out and it was pretty strong (and it was so good!). The crème brûlée had good consistency and flavour. I would definitely get this one again. 

Honey Lavender crème brûlée

A really fragrant crème brûlée with the lavender flavour standing out really well and a nice sweetness to it from the honey. 

Pandan coconut

I loved that they added shredded coconut in the burnt sugar on top - it just really tied the whole dessert together with the pandan and coconut flavours. This was another of my favourites. 

Earl Grey, Baileys and Vegan Mango coconut

The Earl Grey custard had a strong concentrated tea flavour with a nice smooth consistency and the Bailey's had a strong boozy Irish cream flavour. Unfortunately, the vegan mango coconut did not hold up as well the next day when I ate it - the sugar didn't hold as well and the custard had a grainy texture (which I wasn't as big a fan of). 

Website: http://craquedecreme.com/

bloomer's

 

From top: London Fog Creme Donut $4 and Rose Pistachio Donut $3.50

The London fog creme was interesting since it didn't quite taste like earl grey, but it did have a strong bergamot flavour (the flowery flavour from earl grey). There was a lot of cream and it was also a little greasy/oily. I wouldn't really recommend this donut since it felt like it was a rather unexpected flavour. I was expecting more earl grey flavour, but it was more cream.

The rose pistachio tasted like rosewater icing with lots of pistachios on top. It's a pretty good combination, and while the donut was a little dense, it still maintained it's fluffiness despite my picking it up near the end of day. 

Website: https://www.bloomersto.com/locations

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/

Nino D'Aversa Bakery

I had Italian cookies at a wedding (and they were delicious!), so I thought I'd try out some pistachio varieties at Nino D'Aversa bakery. 

Clockwise from top left: Almond swirl cookie, pistachio almond, lemon swirl, almond cookie, chocolate and lemon drop

These cookies are sold by weight ($37.99/kg and worked out to about $5.93 for 6 here.

Almond swirl cookie was soft inside and hard outside and had a decent almond flavour but wasn't super strong. It reminded me of a macaroon without coconut and it was similar for the lemon swirl cookie too. It had a nice light lemon flavour and was soft inside (maybe made with limoncello?). 

The other lemon drop cookie had a ton of powdered sugar on top and had the same distinct soft inside and hard outside and was quite tasty with an almost buttery flavour. 

The pistachio almond cookie was more almond than pistachio (except for the colour). 

The chocolate cookie was not very chocolatey, but tasted more almond meringue-like. 

The almond cookie was probably the best of the bunch of flat cookies (with lots of almond flavour)

Website: http://ninodaversa.com/locations/

Cafe Login

 As a huge buttercream lover, I'm surprisingly not a big fan of Korean macarons with the huge buttercream layer in the middle (I like more balanced or even proportions in my sweets - but I could eat a tub of pistachio buttercream and I have done that). I thought I'd give Korean macarons another shot at Cafe Login since I was in the area. 

Pistachio Raspberry Dacquoise, raspberry yogurt macaron, earl grey macaron and roasted bean macaron (total about $13)

The pistachio raspberry dacquoise meringue didn't have a strong pistachio flavour and I wasn't sure where the raspberry part would come in until I tasted the raspberry jam surprise in the middle. It was really sweet, and I probably wouldn't get it again. 

Raspberry yogurt macaron had more of a yogurt flavour than raspberry flavour and was similar to those fruit bottom yogurts and didn't have a lot of raspberry flavour. 

Earl Grey macaron was my favourite out of the three with lots of the earl grey tea flavour. 

The roasted bean macaron was rather different and it was pretty good with a hint of nutty flavour from the almond and a strong mung bean flavour. The macaron wasn't too sweet or too savoury. 

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/