Welcome back from the holidays and happy
2014!! We hope you have been staying warm this winter season. Back in December,
J and I were invited to The Sugar Spot just off of Avenue Road in Toronto for a
little tasting by Nicole, sole owner and operator of the cupcakery and candy
shop.
Nicole working away with her little helper |
My articling pal, A, joined us, and despite
the heavy snowfall, we were not deterred from our taste-testing mission! We
were welcomed to the bakeshop on a very blustery day by Nicole and her young daughter.
Nicole is a self-taught baker and candy-maker who does it all pretty much on
her own. The bakeshop has ready-made cupcakes, but also makes custom cakes to
order, with gluten and nut free options. The bakery also offers a variety of
handmade candy and chocolate.
I tried the bubble gum, chocolate with
cream cheese frosting and chocolate with chocolate frosting cupcakes and the
cake batter chocolate bar, while A tried the gingerbread cupcake and cookies
and cream chocolate bar, and J tried the dark chocolate bar. The bubble gum frosting was very bold
and provided a deliciously sharp bubble-gum flavour, which was really
unexpected on a cupcake. The cake was a bit doughy/floury and did not have much
of a vanilla flavour, though. The chocolate cupcakes on the other hand consisted
of moist cakes with a rich flavour, and your run of the mill frostings (of
which there was a generous amount on each cupcake). A thought the gingerbread
cupcake had a good spice to it, and enjoyed the cream cheese frosting. She thought
the cookies and cream chocolate bar was pretty good, but found it too sweet for
her own taste. She also doled out a dozen mini cupcakes to her soccer team, who
loved them.
While the cupcakes were pretty average, the
dark chocolate bars at this bakery are the real gems. Each one is handmade, and
truly decadent. They are what Nicole describes as being of single origin- which
made for a truly flavourful, rich and delicious bar of chocolate. J described
it as being amazing and some of the best dark chocolate she has had- it wasn’t
too bitter with just the right hint of sweet. The cake batter bar was equally
as delicious, and tasted just like the cake batter we all look forward to
licking from the bowl. Definitely worth dropping into The Sugar Spot for!
- G