Cupcake Tour

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What if you could take on a city for the day and tour all around, seeking out its hottest cupcake bakeries? Well, I’m sure that they have that in some far off fantasy land, but what if you could do it right here, right now?! Well I did! I’ll admit, I wasn’t able to visit every cupcake bakery in the city, but I did squeeze in a few stops this past weekend. The three bakeries that I visited are Dufflet Pastries, Icing On The Cake, and Sweet Bliss. As a whole, I had mixed feelings towards the three bakeries – some good things to note and some not quite so good.

The first bakery I tracked down was Dufflet Pastries on Queen Street West. Dufflet Pastries is actually a chain of bakeries throughout Toronto, famous for “fine pastries, desserts, and confections”. It’s surprising how I have never stumbled upon the bakery, for I used to frequent the area of Queen Street that Dufflet Pastries is located. Maybe now I’m just noticing cupcake bakeries more because I’m looking to start my own, who knows? I stepped into the quaint bakery and saw that they had a wide variety of pastries and full-sized cakes, but very few cupcakes. In fact, the only flavour choices they had were chocolate and vanilla. I decided to go with the mini cupcakes since I really only needed a taste and the regular-sized cupcakes were also only available in chocolate and vanilla. I ordered one mini chocolate cupcake and one mini vanilla cupcake, each costing me an expensive $1.50. Okay, wait, these cupcakes must be good if they’re $1.50 each, right? Not so much.

 

Vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from Dufflet Pastries on Queen Street West.

 

I found the vanilla cake to be a little dry, the chocolate cake not so much, but could have had a stronger taste. The pastel-coloured vanilla buttercream atop each cupcake was subtle in sweetness – which can be a good thing since too sweet can ruin a cake – but far too buttery for my liking. It tasted like butter mixed with honey that was meant to spread on toast.

The second bakery I visited was Icing On The Cake on Queen Street East. Again, very quaint like Dufflet Pastries, but when walking in Icing On The Cake, you could tell that it was a privately own establishment and not a chain of bakeries. Unfortunately, Icing On The Cake only had two flavours of cupcakes: chocolate with chocolate and vanilla with vanilla, but they did have a wide assortment of tarts and other cakes. I got one of each of the cupcakes, costing me a total of $4. The verdict? The chocolate cupcake had a very strong chocolate flavour, almost like a brownie, but the texture of the cake was light and moist. The chocolate buttercream may have been a bit too rich for my liking, but if you’re a big chocolate fan, then it may have been just right. The vanilla cake was light and fluffy like the chocolate cake; it reminded me of angel food cake consistency. The frosting was light as well, and not too sweet. It almost had a marshmallow taste, though I don’t know if it was intentional. Overall, the cupcakes from Icing On The Cake were a much better value than Dufflet Pastries, although they did have some things I might look into improving. But then again, you can’t please everyone, right?

Vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from Icing On The Cake on Queen Street East.

 

I asked the woman working if Icing On The Cake does catering or private orders. They do, which was great to hear - although competition for me – but there are not any definite prices. One has to contact Lynda Paul to determine costs for the exact cake you want. Check out the website though, the cakes use fondant and look fantastic!

Finally, my third stop for the day was Sweet Bliss, located in Leslieville, just a little further along Queen Street East. Like Icing On The Cake, Sweet Bliss had a privately run charm to it. It was quaint but packed full of different cakes, breads, jams, and other pastries, including cupcakes. They only had four flavours of cupcakes though, so I was again left a little disappointed in the flavour category. I decided to order 1/2 dozen cupcakes, since it worked out to the best price (a whopping $15!). I got one carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, one vanilla cake with pink vanilla buttercream, two chocolate cakes with strawberry buttercream – I gave my friend TJ one to try! – and two red velvet cakes with cream cheese frosting. Overall, the cupcakes tasted very good! The cake was moist for all of the cakes, although the red velvet cake wasn’t very red velvet. It tasted like vanilla cake that had been dyed red; it didn’t taste like it had cocoa at all. In terms of frosting, this was definitely the best frosting out of the three bakeries that I visited. It was the perfect sweetness and consistency. For the chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream, however, I found that perhaps the chocolate cake was too overpowering for the strawberry buttercream – TJ thought the same. I felt that either the strawberry buttercream needed more flavour or the cake had to be turned down a notch. Otherwise, the cakes were delicious. Though I don’t know if they would be worth the hefty $2.50 each. I asked the store clerk if Sweet Bliss did any catering or orders, and the woman replied no. Good news for me since I won’t have to compete with them for catering business!

 

Cute packaging at Sweet Bliss: ahem, taking notes.

Assorted cupcakes from Sweet Bliss.

 

It was a great Sunday afternoon spent exploring some of Toronto’s finest cupcake bakeries. There will be more cupcake research in the near future, so stay tuned! And while we’re here, do you have a favourite Toronto bakery? Any sweet abodes you’d like to share?

 

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