Something Delicious

Watch out Rochester — a new bakery has appeared out of nowhere and it is baking up a storm of sweets and confections for our drooling palates! Over by Highland Hospital pretty much at the corner of South Ave and Elmwood is a cute little bakery that recently opened its doors that (so far) sells everything from bars and squares to cupcakes to French macarons (!!)
To be totally honest, it’s a little bit rough on the edges and shall we say «rustic» on the inside since it’s still new and everything’s getting organized, but seriously when it comes to the flavors they bring to the table, they are most definitely the real. deal. When they said a macaron would taste of espresso, it darn well did. When they said some of the other cakes and cookies would taste of salted caramel, apple, and pistachio, I can tell you straight up that there were no lies coming from the boards or the owners’ lips. Someone give me a «hallelujah!!» because the tastes they brought to the table were as true as I’d ever want them to be.
Macarons aside for just a second, I need to talk to you guys about the cakes. My God, the cakes. They are for the most part butter-​driven (really, the only way to bake cakes — oil cakes just will never cut it), and you can just taste that they are homemade. There’s a certain fluff, a certain fragrance, and a certain texture to them that screams «I’m not a box mix!» Too often in Rochester you’ll find super dry, super bitter, super oily, or super box mix-​cakes, and these are definitely not any of those. Specifically for me, their brown sugar Greed cake completely stole the show with its soft, melt-​in-​your-​mouth texture and the caramel-​y after notes with every bite. Topped with a perfectly balanced salted toffee Italian buttercream and a filling of near-​caramelized white chocolate ganache sent me to heaven. Even if it was regarded as a «Sinful Sweet,» this cupcake was nothing short of euphoria surrounded by a lake of angel’s tears. Mega props to the creator of this one (I think it was one of the owners’ creations — Ryan), because it’s about as good as you’ll get anywhere in the US by a long shot. Some of the other buttercreams like the Honey-​Vanilla and even the Dark Chocolate were actually a little bit weaker and bizarrely not as balanced or actually slightly weaker flavored to me, but that’s inevitably because of the Italian meringue’s influence. With a few tweaks here and there, they could easily be brought to the level of the Salted Caramel’s divine godliness.
As for the macarons, like I said before, the flavors are absolutely stellar. I tried their Salted Apple Caramel, their Espresso, and their Fireball Cinnamon macarons and man did they taste of the flavors they advertised. The taste of the fillings AND the shells were just majestic. The unfortunate «arrow to the knee,» as it were, is with the technique in making the macaron. Although they tasted amazing, the shell wasn’t smooth as it should’ve been, and even half of them were more than 50% hollow on the inside. You could still see several granules of almond meal still left in them which is likely from the meringue being whipped too stiffly right before the macaronage, or the macaronage not being taken far enough to become a smooth, lava-​like batter. On top of that, since the cookie was crunchy (though thankfully not stabby like other refrigerated/​cold renditions I’ve had in Rochester), you could immediately tell it was unfortunately overbaked as well. That all said, I’m willing to overlook it because the flavor sensation was outrageously great despite the technical flaws.
So what more can I say? You’ve got to try this bakery out and you’ve got to try their cakes! They say food is the way to a man’s heart, but really for me, just give me a well-​baked, moist butter-​based cake and I’ll sing your praises for weeks. And you know what, even if the macarons aren’t technically perfect, they’re probably the tastiest I’ve had in Rochester. So as much as I’d like to knock them there, I just can’t. Because above all else, they deliver on flavor. So hear, hear for a new notable bakery in Rochester where I can finally have some of my baking cravings satiated!