cakes from kreation bakery on cambie street
bebe's favourite: a mini vanilla cupcake with pink raspberry buttercreamThe Cambie Street corridor that underwent Canada Line construction is open again and we've revisited a few establishments. A couple of new Asian restaurants have popped back to life.
vanilla sponge, ricotta mousse infused with citrus flavour, blueberry cream filling; topped with orange and orange zest.We parked in the street in front of Kreation Bakery and walked across the street to eat at Cafe Gloucester today. Later, after lunch we stopped by Kreation bakery to pick up a few items. Bebe wanted her usual: a mini cupcake. I purchased the Earl Grey Chocolate Mousse and an Orange Ricotta Mousse with Blueberry filling. The cakes were pretty and looked yummy.
the sponge wrapped around the mousse was light and airy.
the blueberry filling looked rich, but it wasn't. in fact, the whole cake was quite light tasting
earl grey chocolate mousse ($5.00) from kreation bakeryCAFE GLOUCESTER
3338 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC
The other restaurant we have long been waiting to reopen was Cafe Gloucester. It closed down a couple of years ago and didn't reopen until just recently. It is now run by new owners. It has a completely new staff. On our first visit a couple of weeks ago, we weren't extremely impressed with the flavours of the dishes. However, we gave them another try today at lunch and we were pretty happy with the way they've tweaked the dishes to taste better. They were more generous with the "fillings": the Shanghai Noodles had more meat and veggies, the sauce was much improved and the noodles were more tender. I had the Laksa free-range Hainan chicken (jow day gai) noodle soup, and Stomach had a Chiu Chow Seafood Rice Soup. Stomach was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the broth. I was happy with my Laksa flavours. The girls were happy with their noodles and scarfed it all down. A good sign. I hope they maintain consistency. 
KREATION ARTISAN CAKE
3357 Cambie Street (on the west side of Cambie, between 17th and 18th Avenues).
Kreation's cakes were all light tasting. The meringue disk on the chocolate mousse was crunchy, light and delicious. The bottom of the disk was painted with some dark chocolate so as to ensure that it maintained its crispness atop the mousse. There were 2 distinct mousses. The outer mousse was darker and the inner a lighter colour, which enveloped the tea almond spongecake. My favourite part was actually the meringue disk! The whole cake was delicious and had a unique tea flavour. I'm not sure where the tea brulee part comes in. Unless it was what I thought was the painted on dark chocolate. Maybe. But it sure looked and tasted like dark chocolate. Anyhow, it was all good.
Most items range from about $3.75 to $5.00 each. The bakery seems to do a hopping business with wedding cakes and favours. As well, they sell those highly decorated sugar cookies that look too pretty to eat. The little flowerpot with the decorated flower sugar cookies on a stick caught my eye. Here's their site.
GINSENG SEAFOOD NOODLE RESTAURANT (update: CLOSED!)
3466 Cambie Street, Vancouver, B.C.
Further down Cambie Street, near Starbucks and the Park Theatre, is a newly opened restaurant called Ginseng Seafood Noodle Restaurant (it replaces the belly-up Om Vegetarian) where we have gone to on a few occasions for dinner and were pleasantly surprised by the dishes. The name of the restaurant we were told, indicates the Chef's specialties and expertise. We ordered an Oyster HotPot, a Chicken with special sweet soy-based ginger, scallion sauce and Gai Laan with Beef. The Chicken dish (a version of Jaa Jee Gai) was my favourite and my mother liked the Oyster HotPot. As with most new restaurants, they were still working out some kinks (primarily consistency) when we visited, but they seem now to be adequately busy.
This consistency thing is a problem in many restaurants I know (especially in new restaurants!) because the chef has to have his days off and his sub has to be able to pull off creating the same quality and flavours. I hate it when I recommend a restaurant to friends and they are disappointed because they happened to go on the chef's day off. They come back to me and complain. I feel bad about it, but you know how most Vancouverites are: we'll give you a try and if you don't make the grade, we won't come back. It's not often that we'll give restaurants a second try because we have so many other excellent restaurants from which to choose. That explains the high turnover rate of restaurants in Vancouver and Richmond.
Well, I hope the businesses on Cambie can rebound soon and bring Cambie Street back to life!
4 comments:
Tea mousse! Is that for spreading?
Cakewardrobe,
The mousse is set and doesn't spread, unless you count the fact that it does make your hips spread if you eat it.
Those cakes look good. Reviewing pastries sounds like a tasty endevour!
Thanks for the post.
I just discovered Cafe Gloucester and was suitably impressed by their specials and the quality of food.
I also noticed the Kreation Bakery across the street but did not get a chance to try it.
Now that I've read your blog, I definetely want to stop by and try their earl grea and tea creations.
Post a Comment