Green tea cake, Hong Kong-style mango pudding and Indian jalebis are just some of the many goodies available at Calgary’s international bakeries and sweet shops. Do yourself a flavourful favour and drop into any of these shops and experience a world of lovely loaves and delectable desserts.
Yamato Dessert Café on Centre Street carries a selection of light, flavourful layer cakes, cheesecakes and pastries prepared with French and Asian influences. These include Japanese cheesecake, which is fluffier than its Italian cousin. Also find green-tea and red-bean cake as well as traditional Chinese desserts such as rice cake and sesame balls. Bestselling sweets include black forest cake, raspberry lychee cheesecake and butterfly cookies made of layered pastry dough. The café’s chiffon cake features layered sponge cake with custard filling.
It’s almost impossible to find room for dessert after a filling meal at this Indian restaurant and bakery, but it’s mandatory. Sweets include several varieties of traditional Indian barfi, a light, milk-based Indian fudge and gulab jamun, fried dumplings dipped in a sweet syrup. The restaurant also sells slices of chocolate, pineapple and black forest cake and almond-flavoured milk, both commonly found at bakeries in India, and delicious.
Located in the city’s downtown core, this Asian-inspired bakery is the perfect lunch-hour indulgence. Located at Ninth Street and Sixth Avenue Southwest, the bakery sells 10 varieties of mousse cake including green tea and chocolate. Fluffy Swiss rolls, pork buns, egg tarts and cookies are also on the petite bakery-café’s menu. Relax with your treats in its cozy red-and-black seating area.
Bikaner Sweet House sells Indian sweets and desserts. Located on Westwinds Drive in the city’s northeast, the restaurant’s sweets are priced in the traditional way, by weight. Try the laddus – these round balls of sweet goodness are made with flour and sugar and are commonly served during celebrations and festivals. Also recommended, try the jalebis, spiralled deep-fried batter dipped in sugar syrup.
This Chinese bakery gets the texture of its sweet and savoury buns just right. At Logos Bakery & Cakehouse on 16th Avenue and Centre Street northwest, you’ll find a heavenly selection that includes pineapple, custard and green onion buns. It’s the ideal spot to try unique Asian pastries, including taro cake, brown-sugar cake, taro-red-bean custard and bean cake.
Located in the University of Calgary’s MacEwan Hall food court, The Bake Chef is a tiny shop that packs a lot of flavour into its pastries. Within the soft exterior of its tempting cheese buns, there hides warm, melted cheese. Also on the menu at this Vietnamese bakery counter are moist vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, coconut buns, croissants and cookies. The kiosk also serves Vietnamese subs.
Located in the beltline area on 10th Avenue and 13th Street Southwest, the literally named Korean Bakery serves up over 50 varieties of bread, pastries, buns, cakes and more. These Korean baked goods include red-bean pastry and bean cake as well as the harder-to-find sweet-potato cake.
The Dessert House is a Hong Kong-style dessert place located in Chinatown. Fresh fruits are at the heart of all the desserts and sweet offerings here. It serves some of the best mango pudding in town. The fresh fruit shaved ice, prepared in regular or Taiwanese-style with milk, is available in many flavours including green tea, red bean and cherry. Tapioca bowls, bubble tea and fresh-fruit crepes are also on the menu.
This Filipino bakery and café located on Memorial Drive Southeast produces many delicious treats. At Angel’s (formerly Melly’s), you’ll find egg pies and yema cake rolls, which are a type of custard-candy pastry, are hot sellers. You’ll also find Filipino bread rolls called pandesal as well as brazo de Mercedes. Composed of meringue and custard, they resemble jelly rolls.