Baked Goods
For the Love of Cake
For The Love Of Cake opened in January by Adam Finlay and Genevieve Griffin. This Liberty Village newbie is a veritable shrine to the cupcake. Baking up to a dozen varieties daily, there's everything from classic Red Velvet to the more unexpected Japanese Ginger and Salted Caramel, yet my eye is immediately drawn to the mancakes display. Large cupcakes with the bold mission statement "to make cupcakes less girly by using man-worthy ingredients like beer, whiskey and bacon", they come in such chest beating flavors as Stout Spice, Guinness Chocolate (above) and patriotic Maple Bacon (all cupcakes and mancakes $3.00).
OK, fine. But I've seen fancy cupcakery before. What makes these micro morsels any different? Griffin (who holds the wonderful title Master of Confectionery Arts) tries to assuage my fears. She explains most cupcakes are either a chocolate or vanilla base that's simply colored then topped with flavored frosting. What makes her cupcakes different is that each cake is individually made, so her lemon cupcake is actually a lemon cake topped with lemon frosting. Alright I admit, I'm intrigued.
But Griffin's just warming up. In an effort to set her product apart from the gooey pack she's created, wait for it, the Four Dimensional Cupcake (!) No, cupcakes aren't expanding into alternate dimensions, they just now come with filling. Griffin stuffs her cupcakes with homemade custards, preserves, creams and ganaches. I'm now officially peckish - I want to believe.
It's an icy winter night and the Guinness Chocolate seems like a good place to renew my faith. The mancake is a chocolate base flavored with the famous stout, filled with an Irish whiskey ganache and topped with cream cheese frosting. Phew! As I take my first bite into the fourth dimension I know this is no ordinary cupcake.
The base is moist and rich, almost like pudding. It's a mature, complex mouthful, more bitter than sweet. Then I hit the ganache. A rich goo with unmistakable whiskey tones that almost acts as a sauce, this mancake's getting better with each bite, and I haven't even reached the frosting.
When I do by the third happy mouthful I see the light. Like a triumphant third act tying everything together, the cream cheese is silky smooth with a subtle, refreshing tang that offsets the dense chocolate and rich ganache. For a brief moment all the elements waltz over my tingling taste buds, and I'm gob-smacked by how many flavors and textures have been worked into something so small.
Another moment and it's gone. I'm back from the fourth dimension, a little giddy and with a yearning for more.
For The Love of Cake has made a believer out of me, and with two dozen other flavors to try I've got a lot of time to make up for.
The cupcake is not dead, long live the cupcake.
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PS: Did you know that 48% of Canadians would rather bacon than sex? Yeah...Its true.
i have to say though, is this a review of the cupcake store and their selection of cupcakes or just the one guinness cupcake? come on, blogTO.
www.fortheloveofcake.ca
Tomorrow's my day off - so I will be swinging by this place.
Does anyone know what kind of icing they use? It was a little thick and sugary.
Man-cake? 4th dimensional cupcake? You should master the basics then move onto the gimmicky stuff.
'Veggie bacon'. sheesh.
Bone dry farting dust cupcake... funniest thing I have ever read on this site so far.. I agree its always best to master the basics before you go in the 4th dimension of anything especially cupcakes. Don't even get me started on the mancakes.. what an insult to you cupcake loving men out there. I tried the vanilla cupcake last week that was supposed to be topped with a berry but oddly enough was topped with pomegranate seeds..? weirdest thing to top a vanilla cupcake with. Cupcake was spongy.. filling was wet and icing was super sweet, crusty and made a weird aftertaste in my mouth. Too much gimmick not enough yummy.
Are there not enough silly cupcake gimmicks around.
Also, there are at least a dozen cupcake makers in the city, at least, making a cupcake with a filling and a "garnish", why does this lady think she's doing something new?
This city has enough places that put style over substance, now we have another. I give it around a year, if it lasts two I'll be incredibly surprised.
The only thing I'll give them is that they are GREAT at presentation; obviously for the sole reason of actually enticing people into wasting money on their crapcakes.
This company shouldn't still be open if their product is this terrible. I NEVER hate food and I have NEVER met a dessert I didn't like. I couldn't even get through the maple bacon. That bacon was most definitely the microwavable kind.
The ganache in the cookies and cream was very bitter and non-complimentary to the cake. The "buttercream" reminded me of edible oil product with NO flavour.
Caramel apple was despicable. No flavour, no sweetness to the "buttercream". Where were the apples exactly?
Banana chocolate. *barf* Who taught you guys how to make custard? An aluminum can? Again, lacking flavour in a bad way and far too heavy a cake.
My friend got the gluten-free chocolate for her BF. I hope it was good, but I doubt it. My friend ended up giving her cupcake to her son; she didn't find them all that fantastic either.
Other than obviously trying too hard and not being able to keep it simple ( a few PERFECTED recipes with flavour, texture etc...), this place is out of the way, even for people that live in the area. It's hiding in the Liberty Village Plaza. I find it strange that the store isn't on the plaza map, even though they've been there a few months.
I guess they don't want people to find them? I sure don't plan on going again.
I've never written a negative review of anything before. I've tried a lot of cupcakes. This was such a disappointment.
I asked her for a vanilla cake with a vanilla or buttercream filling. She insisted this could not be done and after giving me a few choices (raspberry, lemon and chocolate) I chose chocolate.
To our surprise, with 100 friends and family looking on and $500 invested in a cake, she had made it with a MOCHA filling. Neither myself or my boyfriend even like coffee or anything with coffee flavor. Our guests didn't like her filling choice either and over 3/4 of the cake wasn't even touched.
When I emailed Genvieve to tell her of the mistake, she insisted we had ordered mocha. Why would we??? We don't LIKE coffee flavour! To make matters worse, she told me that as she was making the cake she thought vanilla or chocolate filling would have been better! She called me 3 days before the party to ask for payment in advance, but didn't confirm or suggest the flavours that I orginally had wanted!!
After exchanging a few emails, she refused to give a partial refund, refused to even admit her mistake and has lost not only myself as a repeat customer but every one of the 100 people at our party.
This baker needs to learn some business ethics.
I have never had a stale or "bone dry" cupcake from this place.
I will say though that their customer service could stand some improvement. I always go in there in a good mood (because hello, cupcakes are awesome) but the staff is always non-smiling and uncommunicative. WHY SO SERIOUS?
P.S the bacon is not that good
BEWARE
I've had better cupcakes from a supermarket and for less than $15 for 6 cupcakes...so not worth it. Never going there again.
We also had issues with staff being snobby and unenthusiastic. If you are paying money for a product, at least make us feel like a valued customer, instead of an inconvenience.
i've been on a cupcake hunt these days. my favorite so far is prarie girl cupcake or something... they are in the financial district... simple execution but somehow there flavours are impeccable...
Thats just bad business to cancel like that...sorry my order wasn't big enough I guess!!!
Always get them on the last Friday of the month for work but this "tradition" will cease with several unpleasant experiences. But this one tops of the list where I was I went there approximately two hours before closing on a Sunday afternoon only to be told that "it is your fault for not coming in earlier".
O_o!!! Really!? And I was not the only one walking out of the shop empty-handed..
While Prairie Girl Bakery does not make the best tasting cupcakes in my opinion, but their level of customer service and ease of access in the downtown area (I mostly worked in TO downtown areas) ousted FTLOC any day of the year!
Also, their cupcakes are dry and their icing is this huge whack of butter. It's awful. Cakes are just as bad. Revolting.