I never really do restaurant/bakery/cafe reviews on my blog, so this is a first. It’s not like I try not to, I just haven’t been to an exceptionally good restaurant/bakery/cafe in a long time. I need to be really inspired to write, and this place inspired me enough to sit down and write about it. That’s how you know it’s actually really good. I don’t write about places if I don’t LOVE them.
I’m just going to take a second to apologize for the shitty image quality, I took them off my iPhone since I wasn’t home!
Bake Sale is a tiny and very easy-to-miss bakery in Etobicoke. Located at the plaza at Six Points, precisely 5230 Dundas St. West in the west end, I’m sure only people who live in the area know about it. I’ve never seen it on BlogTO (which is a website I frequent for restaurant/bakery/cafe recommendations) and I’ve never really heard about it from anybody. It’s probably the most underrated bakery in Toronto. Trust me, I’m obsessed with food and desserts, so I’ve tried them all – Prairie Girl, D-lish, Dessert Lady, Pusateri’s even store brand cupcakes (like: Longo’s, Sobeys – which are surprisingly delicious) and Bake Sale tops my list of best cupcakes. Easily. It’s important to know that I’ve grown up eating some of the most delicious food on the planet, so my standards of food and its yumminess are pretty high.
I only know of this bakery because I know somebody who lives in the area, and I’ve walked past it several times. I keep forgetting to try it out, but a movie marathon is a great excuse, so I bought 12 mini cupcakes in chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and red velvet flavours. The cupcakes are a perfect size if you want a little treat without crazy calories (unless you eat 3 each, which is what my friends and I did). They’re about $1.75 or so for 1 ($1.30 for 6 or more), so they’re on par with downtown cupcake store prices (definitely above when it comes to taste, though). The mini cupcakes are great if you just want to try out different flavours.
The red velvet was one of the most perfect, satisfying red velvets I’ve eaten in a long time, possibly ever. It was a beautiful colour and the cream cheese icing was perfect – the perfect amount of sweetness, offset by the right amount of tang from the cream cheese. The peanut butter and chocolate had a rich, dark, chocolate cupcake with whipped peanut butter frosting. Peanut butter is heavy, and whipping it into a light, melty buttercream frosting kept the richness without the thickness. This might have even been better than the red velvet.
I tried the strawberry cupcake, which is new for me. I don’t wander too far from my chocolate/red velvets, but my friends’ reactions to it (which were “OH GOD”, “OH BOY”, “HOLY SHIT” – direct quotes) made me try it. It was possibly the yummiest strawberry cupcake I’ve had. What made it amazing was that it wasn’t a default cupcake recipe. You could tell the regular cupcake recipe was altered to make the flavour more shortcake-like and there was no artificial flavour whatsoever. The icing was vanilla and the cupcake itself had pieces of real strawberries in it. It was light, and fresh and delicious. I honestly didn’t think I’d care for a non-chocolate, non-peanut butter, non-red velvet cupcake, let alone LOVE it.
Bake Sale offers other baked goods like tarts, danishes and such, but their cupcakes are to die for. They also have cake pops and sliced cakes, mini cakes that you can take home from starting at $20 a pop. The only issue with this bakery is that both locations are a little out of the way, especially if you live downtown. However, it is most definitely worth the drive/trek there. If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by. I’m genuinely surprised by how good these cupcakes were, and how little people know about this place!
Hangry Girl Eats 