Banana Rum Soufflé

Banana rum soufflé by Jo and Jude.

The top was pouffy and exciting! The flavour was banana and rum! Delicious! 

This looked so epic from her oven pictures that I had to drive over and eat some. I may or may not have had three of them... 

Cheers to Jo and Jude for the yummy dessert that was actually more like dinner!

Homemade Goodness and Cake

Dinner at Jess's. Meat, potatoes, and green beans. What's not to like?

Cake! I believe this was a hazelnut cake by Dufflet. 

Wasn't as moist as I wanted it to be, but it satisfied my cake craving.

Cassava cake made by Ludie at work. It was still hot when she brought it. Hot and delicious!

Red Lobster

"There is no one of-woman-born who does not like Red Lobster cheddar biscuits." -Tina Fey

I think that pretty much says it all.

Renée was kind enough to share her take-out half dozen of biscuits (~$3) with me. They were warm, salty, and delicious. She insisted on eating one in the car before leaving the parking lot to make sure she got to enjoy a fresh one.

CAKE!

I can't count how many times a week I have random cake cravings. 

Amanda was nice enough to share her birthday cake with me.

If I remember correctly, it was some sort of chocolate hazelnut concoction with some phyllo pastry layers. It satisfied my cake cravings for that week.

Another one of my cake cravings got me to buy this cake from Loblaws.

It didn't look as nice as the LaRocca cakes, but it was cheaper by about $2. It says that it's made with cream, which makes me wonder what other cakes are made with... 

The cake pretty much looks like it does on the cover picture.

The inside looks a bit more mauled, possibly because of my rushed cutting.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this cake. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much, but it was chocolatey and not diabetically sweet. The chocolate cream layers were a nice offset to the cakey layers, which could have been slightly more moist. But you know... CAKE! 

Total damage: $13.99 + tax for my whole cake.

Cheers to Amanda for sharing! 

Cheesecake

Me and Amanda's joint birthday cake! (Because we both have sucky birth dates!)

Made by Bianca because she is awesome. It was a marble cheesecake (so fancy!), I believe, with dark chocolate. The bottom was made of graham cracker. It was very impressive and professional looking!

There were two waffle As on top, but I forgot to take a picture before Amanda and I both took them.

Yay for yummy cake and friends to eat it with! Major props to Bianca for crafting it!

Absolute Bakery

Absolute Bakery (589 Parliament Street, Toronto)

416-929-2700

Walking around Cabbagetown on a Sunday, Jess and I stumbled upon this bakery that was still open after 5 p.m. I went in with the intention of buying a sweet pastry snack, and I came out with diabetes dinner.

I was going for sweet, but the staff convinced me to get this savoury thing. Unfortunately, I didn't read what this was. 

It sort of tastes like a curry samosa in phyllo pastry. I thought it'd be a little crispier and flakier than it was. It was kind of messy to eat. I wasn't a superfan of this, but it was okay.

Apple turnover.

Very nice. Nice, large, sweetened apple slices half-naked in a solid flaky pastry. This had just the right amount of sweetness and sturdiness for me.

Chocolate danish. 

There was more chocolateness in it than I had expected. This was good, but not as good as the turnover. 

Would I return? Yeah, probably. Staff was really friendly. I liked the sweet pastries I bought. In the window display, they also had some almond twists that looked absolutely fabulous, but I was a bit disheartened when I was told that they had some berry content. Regardless, I was satisfied with what I bought there, and I wouldn't mind trying some of their other stuff.

Total damage: $7.25

Juliette et chocolat

Juliette et chocolat (Montreal)

So, I didn't manage to go to Montreal and eat my heart out this summer. But, I did get a little bit of Montreal delivered to me in the form of a brownie!

So chocolatey. Soft and delicious. 

I'll definitely have to check this place out next time I hit the Mtl. 

Cheers to Lauren and John for the domestic import! 

Richmond Court Buns

Richmond Court (550 Highway 7 East, Richmond Hill, Ontario)

905-709-1628

To my surprise, Mel, Renée, and Jo came by and dropped off some Chinese buns and some lozenges for my cough.

The buns were from Richmond Court and they had shiny tops!

One of my favourites is the hot dog bun. Simple and satisfying. The dough is slightly sweet and the meat is slightly salty. 

This bun trio was new to me.

In the first one, there was a soft, yellow filling. I think it was "milk yellow" filling. That's my crappy Chingrish translation by the way, and I could be totally wrong with that.

The second one had a red bean filling. That's when I started to understand that these were dessert buns.

The last one had the coconut-textured stuff. I think this type of bun translates to "chicken end bun". I don't know if that's right, but I'm pretty sure there's no chicken in it. :p

Yay for Chinese buns! And for awesome friends who bring over food and pills (not pictured) when I'm sick. Cheers to that and cheers to them!

Pickle Barrel MUFFIN

The Pickel Barrel (Vaughan Mills, 1 Bass Pro Mills Drive, Vaughan, Ontario)

905-669-2544

Hours: 

Sun - Thurs 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Fri - Sat 9 a.m. - 11 p.m.

I don't know what prompted my search for a decent chocolate chip muffin. I think I wanted one at some point, and realized I couldn't find one. That's when my continuous cravings started. It's always that I want what I can't get. Anyway, walking around in Vaughan Mills, we noticed some awesome-looking muffins at The Pickle Barrel, of all places. 

Chocolate chip muffin.

The top looked super crunchy, and not shiny and soft. It had the proper mushroom shape, with a giant top. Best of all, they had chocolate chip flavoured ones. 

It was everything I could hope for in a muffin: chocolate chip with a giant crunchy top. Underneath the cap, it wasn't as moist and buttery as the one from Cafe Palma, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Pickle Barrel's version was also larger. 

Would I return? For muffins? Yes. My craving is finally satisfied.

Total damage: $1.31.

Banana Bread

By the same recipe as last time, I utilized my rotting bananas and turned them into banana bread.

I don't know if it was because the bananas were extra rotting, but the bread turned out super moist.

It also had a nice crusty top.

Though I was reusing the recipe, it didn't turn out as good as before. I think I added too much salt. :s

Muffins!!!!

(5150 Yonge Street, North York, Ontario)

Unsatisfied with my recent muffin experiences, I sought out baked goods from other locations. 

Inside the North York City Centre, not much was open on a Saturday afternoon. I managed to find a Second Cup that was open and La Prep.

Not much was on display for La Prep, but there were three sad looking chocolate chip muffins. One looked like someone had picked a chunk out of its top. Luckily, I got the other one.

It looked so promising. It had the proper mushroom shape, and the top did not look soft at all. Turns out that the edges were crunchy, but the muffin had a bit of a staleness to it. Nevertheless, after so much searching, I was just happy to be eating a real muffin.

It took waking up at early morning hours to finally find a satisfying muffin. On a weekday morning, around 7:45 a.m., I tried North York City Centre again, hoping for some warm, fresh, awesome muffins. Since I had already tried La Prep, I decided to go for Café Palma P.A.M.'s Coffe and Tea Co. 

[Update: The actual place is called Café Palma. They just use P.A.M.'s Coffee & Tea Co. bags.]

As I grabbed the paper bag, I was instantly excited because I immediately noticed the the heat emitting from my breakfast. Yes! Warm! Would I finally get my fresh, crunchy top chocolate chip muffin? YES!!!! I was too anxious to eat it up, so most of the top was eaten before I took this picture:

I can assure you that it looked like the definition of muffin before I hacked at it.

It was everything I could ask for in a muffin: crunchy top, warm, fresh, chocolate chip flavoured, and affordable ($1.25). Though the inside tasted as though it had already been buttered for me, it was awesome. Discovering this shop that sold real chocolate chip muffins was like finding a unicorn. 

Would I return? Heck yeah! Café Palma is my new favourite place ever. 

[Update: Went back again today. Did a little better on the picture.]

The inside has that somewhat translucent look as if it had been dunked in melted butter. There's a coconutty taste to it. The top was still marvellously crunchy, and it was still served warm. It's a little hard to find an intact chocolate chip.

Would I return? I just did. It's even more likely now that I know when the muffins are consistently fresh. 

McDevil Muffin

This tray was pretty random, what with the filet-o-fish combo and the chocolate muffin.

 Still on the prowl for crunchy top muffins, I decided to try the one at McDonald's.

This was an Oreo double chocolate muffin (or something along those lines). This was the closest thing to crunchy top muffin that I've had in a while. The edges were slightly harder, but I wasn't sure if that was by design or from being left out all day. If anything, the Oreo cookie bits made it crunchy. 

The search for proper muffins continues... 

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter cookies are awesome because the easy ones only involve three ingredients: peanut butter (1 cup), an egg, and sugar (1/2 cup). Bake at 325 F for about 15 minutes and that's all it takes for some soft, warm cookies.

I tried a little harder to make them nicer than I usually do. But I still refused to touch the raw "dough" with my hands.

According to the recipe, it should've yielded 24 cookies. Instead, I made 10 oversized ones. Yay! Monster cookies! Nom nom nom.

Muffins!

After hearing me complain about not finding real hard-topped muffins, Jo answered my cries! She brought me some super chocolatey muffins from her work. I was so happy. :D

 They had giant mushroom top, and you could tap to feel the crunchiness of the top. 

Unfortunately, I didn't eat them quickly enough, and they lost their nice muffin top crunch when I had left them in the car. :s 

But it still makes me happy to know that muffins exist! They were very moist and very full of baked chocolate goodness.

Total damage: free for me thanks to Josie!