Boxed Ice Cream

One thing I’ve discovered in grocery stores in Tunisia (where I’m staying right now) is that they truly love desserts that come out of boxes. There are full isles in the grocery stores dedicated to baking and dessert making that comes out of a box. While most of these desserts and baked goods are fairly similar to what you find in many countries, there is one thing that really stood out to me, boxed do it yourself ice cream.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen ice cream in a box before, and there’s no way I was gong to let it pass me by.

Have you ever had a boxed dessert that seemed to easy to be true? This can really happen for two reasons, either there is truly very few steps to follow in order to make your dessert, or it’s such a complicated dessert (often requiring specific machinery) that you can’t believe that it can be made out of a box. This chocolate ice cream is the rare occasion where it’s both of those. This ice cream requires no ice cream machine at all, and the only other ingredient needed is milk.

It’s also not that complicated to make, just mix in the powder with the milk for a few minutes. Honestly it’s so simple that it had me worried about what was going to come out.

After my few minutes of mixing I was ready to let my freezer do the rest of the work. The liquid in my container looked and felt a lot like some of the ice cream starters I’ve seen in the past, so that was positive. The thing that made me nervous was the fact that it wasn’t going to be stirred while, before or after freezing. The instructions did suggest letting your ice cream sit for a few minutes before serving, so maybe that’ll help?

The end product kind of resembled ice cream. It did have ice crystals throughout and also seemed to be darker on the bottom and lighter on the top. Other than that the everything seemed okay... ish. Honestly those two problems do make for unimpressive ice cream. The end result was a little softer than I expected, and tasted pretty good too. The ice crystals were the most annoying thing about this ice cream, but it wasn’t the worst. The two different layers tasted the same as far as I can tell, but the texture of the darker parts was a little gooier than the light stuff.

All in all it wasn’t the best ice cream I’ve ever had, but it was remarkable considering how little work I had to do to make it. I’m not sure I would suggest this as an all the time ice cream substitute, but as a science experiment it was kind of fun.

Prague Treats

I didn’t have any preconceived notions about Czechia when I visited it, food wise. I’ve never really thought about what was Czech food before. You don’t really hear about Czech cooking in the media or on the internet where I come from. The only ties to foods you hear about from Czechia are Soviet era foods, and many of them are kind of sad. The thing I’ve learned however is that Czech food is not sad at all, and even better is that it has influence from other parts of the world, but embraces it’s own style at the same time.

I think the two dishes I found most in my time in Prague was deep fried meats and stews. While both of these dishes are fairly common in this part of Europe, the Czech people do them really well. They also on occasion mixed things up a bit and give these classic European dishes their own twist. There’s a popular dish called svíčková which is beef with dumplings, cream sauce and uniquely cranberry jam.  What I’m saying is that the food is both very European, but also Czech as well.

Dessert wise I feel like they have the same beautiful combination. I would probably say that when it comes to the sweets I found, they had a more traditionally European feel to them. While I did visit near the Christmas holidays, I found several places that offered gingerbread all year long, including one store that sold gingerbread exclusively all year long. When I went into bakeries it felt comfortable and safe. While I rarely saw anything that was totally new to me, I felt safe with just about everything. The quality of the sweet treats and desserts was also really high. It was rare to bite into something disappointing.

Probably the most popular Czech dessert is větrník, and it’s well worth giving a try. It may seem like a simple puff pastry with cream in the middle, but it’s so much more. More often than not the creamy centre just has some kind of rich flavour that I can’t explain. However, the crowning achievement is the caramel coating that you often find on these clouds of delight. While I’m all for eating healthy, I love it when a dessert doesn’t lie about being unhealthy, and větrník does just that. When you bite into this rich dessert you know that it’s only there to please you, and not make you skinny.

I also can’t talk about Czechia without mentioning Kofola. Kofola was first described to me as the cola for Czechs from before they had Coke or Pepsi. This is their classic carbonated drink, and it’s as unique as it comes. One might describe it as cola created by people who had only heard a description of cola but never tasted it. I would describe it as almost a cola, but with a more spice/tea flavour. While I’m not sure it’s for everybody, I feel like it’s something everyone should at least try once.

Fast food wise there’s a lot going on in Czechia. The standards are there, and for the most part they’re fairly similar to what you might find in most countries, however there’s always a little twist. A great example is that McDonald’s offers deep fried brie cheese that you can pair with cranberry sauce. It’s way too classy for McDonald’s if you ask me, but it was fun to try. As an additional note, their special pie was a blueberry cream pie, and it was fantastic.

On this trip, I can’t say that I had one bad meal. From fancy dining to fast food it was all great. On the surface it all looked fairly simple, old fashioned European, but dig a little deeper and you could really find some true Czech originality.

Junk Fud and You - Is Sugary Cereal Candy?

 Today I decided to take a deep look at sugary cereal and how it may or may not be candy.

Baklava Ice Cream Inspires

 On a recent trip to the grocery store, I discovered an ice cream flavour that was totally new to me, baklava. Since I’m living in North Africa along the Mediterranean it’s not really a surprising flavour to find, but it is unique for sure. The ice cream itself is interesting, it combines pistachio ice cream with several ingredients found in baklava.

Most of the ingredients worked fairly well, in particular the syrup swirled throughout was great, as was the crunch base. The filo pieces mixed in and sprinkled on the top were okay, but also a little soggy. They also didn’t add much to the flavour. If I was to try and improve this ice cream I would say more filo dough, maybe a few layers of it between the ice cream. I’m also not a huge fan of pistachio ice cream, but in this context it was much improved.

This ice cream was a nice little treat, but it was also a source of inspiration. It inspired me to think about how many desserts one finds in the ice cream isle. I’m not talking about ice cream cakes, or any frozen cakes, I’m thinking specifically of ice cream flavour based on desserts. Off the top of my head I can’t think of too many of them. Honestly, I don’t know if I can think of one specifically, but I just feel like I’ve seen some before.

I’m very certain I’ve seen dessert themed ice cream at ice cream parlours. In particularly the fancy ice cream parlours that make their own ice cream. While I’m sure there have been a few, I’m surprised that dessert themed ice cream flavours are not more common. Probably the closest thing that comes to mind are ice creams that features bits of cookie in them. While it’s kind of dessert flavoured, I wouldn’t really call it themed. I’d like to be proven wrong on this, so if you know a good dessert themed ice cream that you can get at the grocery store, let me know.

Now it wouldn’t be fair for me to just complain about this without offering a few suggestions. So here are a few ideas I think might work really well:

Cheesecake – A creamy ice cream, creamier than most so it feels like cheesecake. I’m not sure if it’s possible, but if you could even get the tart flavour of cream cheese that would be great. Then, swirl in some strawberry syrup. Finally, a layer or two of graham cracker crumbs would give this a little texture and really keep it on theme.

Apple Pie – Now I feel like someone has made an ice cream with apple pie in it, but I’m thinking more about an apple pie ice cream. This would probably feel more like an ice cream cake, but I think the key would be to keep the crusts as layers instead of just pieces. You could have a nice cinnamon/vanilla ice cream with apple pie filling swirled throughout. Then you could have a layer of pie crust on the top and bottom. If the bottom is too complicated at least the top would be good. Frozen cooked pie crust is actually pretty good, so I think it would work really well.

Carrot Cake – This one might be a little divisive, but if done well I think it would work really well. Again, I’m not just talking about filling this ice cream with pieces of carrot cake either. I would say take a super creamy ice cream (maybe the same one you used for the cheesecake) and add some of the ingredients from carrot cake. The carrot cake spices would be key, cinnamon and cloves for sure. Also adding some walnuts, raisins and yes... shaved carrots. I don’t think you’d want to add carrot to the ice cream as that might be too much, but strings of shaved carrots might actually work.

I’m sure there are other desserts that might be tasty in ice cream form and I’m glad that I got to sample this fun baklava ice cream to get inspired. 

Mammi Tasting

Finnish rye pudding, or Mammi is a tradition Easter dessert in Finland. I’m not really sure how to describe it without sounding insulting. The thing you have to know is that it’s not that bad. The problem is that it looks pretty bad and the ingredient list isn’t something that sounds very appealing. It’s primarily rye flour, syrup, spices and dried Seville orange zest. It doesn’t appear to be baked at all, but is instead a very dark brown blob of goo, almost like eating a bitter cake batter. Again, while this is an accurate description, it’s not really a representation of how it tastes.

From what I can tell, from the internet as well as the selection of Mammi I was given, it’s most common to have Mammi with custard or something sweet and creamy. Of the three that we (Allison, myself and two Finnish friends) tasted, two of them came with some kind of sweet cream, one of them was on its own. while I appreciated tasting it on its own, it’s not something I would do again or recommend. However tasting it on it’s own gives me the opportunity to tell you how Mammi tastes without anything added.

The flavour of Mammi is fairly bitter, almost licorice like. I might have been projecting as most of the time anyone Finnish seems to offer me something it has licorice. However in this case I think the astringent flavour came from the Seville orange zest. For those unaware, Seville oranges are super bitter and most often used to make jam, when mixed with lots of sugar. Mammi on its own however doesn’t seem like there’s much or any sugar added. The texture is actually much better than you might think. It’s a little gritty, but actually kind of smooth. There’s also an aftertaste of the rye, so at least the gritty texture makes sense.

As for the toppings, apparently the tradition is to simply add a vanilla custard. One of the Mammis we had was just that, and it was by far the best one. The vanilla custard sweetens and smooths out the astringent flavour of the Seville orange a bit, but not so much as you still can’t taste it. It’s not like this custard covers everything up, instead it just makes it a bit more palatable.

The other Mammi we had was a little less conventional, in panna cotta form. I would say that this was far less successful than the classic vanilla cream, but I appreciated that the Finnish dessert manufacturers were willing to play with their classic Easter dessert a bit. I’ve been told there are a few other methods/versions of Mammi out there as well.

I would suggest that you try Mammi if you have the means. I’m pretty sure it’s an acquired taste and works much better if you grow up with it, but it was at the very least very unique and interesting.

Supercakes?

 

On a recent trip to my local grocery store I came across something called a Supercake. The premise is seems simple, they're small cupcakes (this can be argued) themed to superheroes from the DC Universe. I'm not sure if there are any more, but I found 3 different types of cake, one for Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman. Being a comic book nerd and a fan of sweet treats, I couldn't resist. The question that rang into my mind immediately however was what flavour do these characters actually represent. My assumption is that the folks at Bolerio (the people who make these cakes) would have done some research as well as some creative thinking to match the small cupcakes to the characters. 

So I've decided that I'm going to look at each one of these cupcakes and not just judge them by the quality and flavour of the cakes, but also how the cake flavour choice might (or might not) work with the character.

I decided to start with Wonder Woman. 

Her cake is a double chocolate cupcake, and honestly I was kind of stumped right off the bat (pun intended, you'll see later). First of all, let's just get the cake quality/expectations out of the way. The cupcake on its own is kind of disappointing. The package shows a dollop of icing/cream on the top that just doesn't exist on the cake. The amount of cream/icing is also really disappointing. The flavour of the chocolate filling is okay, but honestly the cake was much better. It's not to say that the cake is great, it's just better than the filling.

How this cake works with Wonder Woman is also confusing to me. I would think that two dark ingredients would work better with Batman, since he's the Dark Knight. If I was to choose something for Wonder Woman I might go with a nice vanilla cake with bits of cherry or strawberry, but maybe leave the chocolate filling. Basically that she's feminine, with a slightly dark interior. The yellow cake with bits of red would also reflect her outfit a little too. 

Next I went for the Batman cake.

Batman's cake is a deep chocolate cake with a vanilla cream/icing. Again, like the Wonder Woman cake, the execution of this cake is not great. The picture on the package would suggest that there would be a dollop of icing on the top, but there is not. The amount of icing is also pretty slim. However, both the cake and the icing in this case tasted pretty good. The chocolate cake was the highlight, but the icing wasn't bad either.

As for the theme of the flavours compared to Batman, I'd say it's not bad. It's very possible that Bolerio didn't put any thought towards the flavours and I'm just projecting my own story here, but I feel like it's an easier story to write. What I see here is a dark exterior with a light hearted filling. Batman is a dark brooding characters, but deep down he does have morals and even a bit of heart. I might be grasping at straws for this, but at least it feels like an easier story to write.

Finally the Superman cake.

As a cake goes, this is kind of the opposite of the Batman cake. It's a vanilla cake with a dollop of chocolate icing/cream in the middle. Like the two cakes before, it also disappointed with both the presentation and lack of cream in the cake. Flavour wise the vanilla was kind of boring, but the chocolate was a lot more bold than I expected.

As far as how it compared to Superman as a character, I'm once again going to give the folks at Bolerio the benefit of the doubt and claim that they actually might have thought about how the flavours might go with the characters. In this case Superman, who I consider one of the more boring characters is well suited to a vanilla cake. The interesting thing is that occasionally there's actually a really good Superman story, and I would say that's well represented by the surprisingly bold chocolate filling.

I have to admit, I feel like the folks at Bolerio probably just stuck random cakes to random characters. I would be happy to be proven wrong about this, but I feel like it's unlikely. The idea of creating cake treats that work with famous superheroes would be a really fun exercise, maybe one I could do with my Geek Shop partner. For now I'm just happy to see cool characters on a package and to eat some adequate cupcakes.

Tiramisu?

I think tiramisu might be my favourite coffee flavoured dessert. The first thing you should know about me is that I don't drink coffee, and for the most part I don't like the flavour of coffee. I don't mind, and might even enjoy the smell of coffee, but the flavour just doesn't do it for me. For some reason however, the coffee flavour from tiramisu is okay. I imagine it's the large amount of sugar and cream added to the coffee that makes it work.

Check out my latest review which also happens to be tiramisu flavoured.

A Dessert Hack I'll Never Tell You About

 I have a pretty amazing dessert hack, but because of the actions of one company I will never tell you about it. On this blog and on candycritic.org I'm pretty open about any recipes or food hacks that I discover (both ones that work and ones that don't). I'm also okay when large food corporations take my ideas and turn them in to regular things or even create foods. I've had ideas for hundreds of treats and desserts, and I welcome any food company to take them and make them for free. The thing I love most of all is to make cool new treat ideas a reality that everyone can enjoy.

This hack however will remain my own, because one company decided that people should be charged a great deal to do it. I wrote about this hack in my social media in a particular country a few years back. Then, a few months later Allison and I noticed that this company started encouraging this very hack. We thought it was great, and frankly and obvious choice. The problem is that once they made the change, they also upped their price a great deal. We had managed to make this hack work for practically nothing, but the company decided that it was worth jacking up the price.

This company is a global company, but they only made the change in one country. We then traveled somewhere else and noticed that they hadn't incorporated our food hack or the huge price increase. Allison and I managed to pull out our hack with no problems and with wonderful results. I suggested posting about it, but Allison reminded me what happened last time. The good news is there only seems to be one country in the world that has monetized my food hack, the bad news is you'll have to go through my social media feed to try and figure out exactly what I'm talking about.

The Best Tea is a High Tea

 

I’ve had a few fancy meals in my life, but one meal in particular always seems fancier than the rest. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever had a great fancy breakfast, but I’ve had a few fancy lunches and dinners. However, the meal that’s always fancy no matter what is high tea. I’ve had high tea in small cafes and I’ve had high tea in super fancy hotels, and each and every time it’s felt elegant and fancy. It’s really the only meal where I feel like I’ve stepped into an episode of Downton Abbey.

For those unfamiliar with this meal, it generally takes place in the late morning or early afternoon. As you might have guessed, the drink that goes with this meal is tea, however I’ve seen a few afternoon teas that offer fruity alcoholic drinks as well. The food is almost always delivered on a tall tower of plates and almost always consists of foods you eat with your hands (I’ll get more into that in a minute). Dessert is also almost always included with your tower of plates, so everything comes at once.

In general the idea of this meal is to sip tea, nibble on small hand held foods and talk with your friends. I think originally it was more of a social gathering than a meal, however today people also really go for the food as well. I also imagine that in the past this was a “simple” meal by the standards of those having it. In other words it was a simple meal for fancy people, but most people would still consider the food fancy.

While there are many different interpretations of this meal, most of the time there are certain things you always find available on your tower of plates. Just an FYI, most places do not let you order what you want, at most they might have a vegetarian and meat option but mostly you just eat what they give you. Fortunately it’s not just one food, there’s often a variety. The portions are also almost always small, so if you don’t like something you don’t have much of it to eat.

Probably the most common, and in my opinion important staple of this meal is scones with jam and cream (most often clotted cream). I’ve never had an afternoon tea that didn’t include this, this is also often the item where you might get more than one type of scone. More often than not you get the cream and jam separately and you’re expecting to put it on your scone yourself. Let me warn you, depending on where you are the order of how you spread your cream and jam can be very important. Ask your server if you have any questions.

The next most common part of this meal is the sandwiches. It’s not uncommon to get a few different sandwiches in your tower. It’s also not uncommon for the crusts to be cut off your sandwiches. While you can get any kind of sandwich, cucumber sandwiches are the most common. It’s another item that I can’t ever remember not getting in my high tea meal.

Sometimes you’ll also get small meat tarts or quiches as well. Other than the cucumber sandwiches, this is really the time for the chef to shine. I’ve been lucky enough to try some great local foods in this portion of my high tea meal, and best of all it’s just a bite so I can always sample more than one dish.

The top of the tower is where you find your desserts. The only thing I’ve found consistent about this part of the high tea meal is that the desserts will be super fancy and small. This again appeals to my love of tasting new foods, since they’re often only one or two bites. 

I love a good high tea. It can be very expensive considering how much food you get, but it’s always an adventure. It’s also not always necessary to go to the most expensive high tea place. Some of the best high teas I’ve had are at small cafes that really care about what they’re presenting on the plate. I’ll be honest, even the worst high tea I’ve had was still pretty good.

10 Second Kitchen - Cinnabon Bangkok, Thailand

 Watching them finish up some tasty mini cinnamon buns at the Siam Paragon in Bangkok, Thailand.

The national dessert of Canada?

 Canada is having a bit of an identity crisis. When you try to pin down something that is Canadian, it’s never an easy task. There are lots of reasons that this might be true, including our multiculturalism or our modesty. We have a few things we consider to be national icons, like beavers, maple syrup and saying sorry too often. Honestly these are all great things, I would happily put any of these on a flag and wave it high (with the maple syrup we kind of do that already). The part that always frustrates me as a Canadian food writer is trying to nail down our national foods.

It’s funny because while I’m frustrated, I’m also really happy about this problem. This is where the multiculturalism really kicks in, as I have a hard time finding a food that’s really Canadian, and instead when I’m home I constantly find amazing foods from all over the world.

On a recent trip to Canada I decided to really look for the ultimate Canadian dessert. I wanted to find a dessert that I would feel comfortable calling it our national dessert. A few things I was looking for was history, originality and exclusivity. In other words I wanted it to be a dessert that was invented in Canada, has been around for a while and to some might be a hidden Canadian gem. I also wanted something that was known and maybe popular all over the country. Canada is a big place and we have some local delicacies that fit these requirements, but they might be very local and not really something that represents the whole country.

After giving it much thought, and many tastes, I think I may have come across my choice. Feel free to argue with me if you want, because I love eating and exploring Canadian desserts. Right now however I’m pointing to the butter tart as my choice as Canada’s national dessert.

As far as I know, butter tarts have been around for a very long time. My grandfather loved them and felt nostalgia for them, so did my father and so do I. I assume they’ve been around for a very long time, maybe as long as Canada has been a country. As far as I know, butter tarts where invented in Canada as well, again I haven’t done a great deal of research on the subject.

Most importantly I believe that butter tarts are very exclusive to Canada as well. I’m willing to guess that there are even several of you who have never heard of this amazing dessert and are booking your flights to the great white north right now so you can taste one. 

I’m pretty sure that butter tarts are not the most popular dessert in Canada. I’m even betting that they’re not the most well known Canadian dessert (I think that title goes to BeaverTails). However I think a butter tart is really the most Canadian dessert we have to offer. The fact that they’re not popular makes them even a more Canadian treat, because we are a fairly humble country.

Ube Love

 There are certain dessert and sweet ingredients that one associates with certain countries around the world. Turkish delight, Swiss chocolate, Thai Mango Sticky Rice just to name a few. The Philippines however has an ingredient that is not only popular there, but even grows there. In fact this ingredient was first discovered growing there and is considered the place of origin. This is actually fairly rare for treats to be native and still considered their native dish. I’m talking about ube, and it’s a pretty amazing sweet treat.

Ube translates to tuber, and as you might of guessed is a potato. It’s a sweet potato that has one amazing feature, it’s really purple. I don’t know if there is any other natural food in the world that is this purple. It’s such an amazing hue of purple that I’m surprised it’s not one of the most Instragramed foods in the world. It’s beautiful, and it keeps its colour no matter what application you use it.

This ingredient is everywhere in Filipino cooking, particularly in desserts. You won’t find a menu at any restaurant or bakery that doesn’t have something that’s bright purple in the Philippines. Whether you bake with it, or use it as a sauce, it has such a unique stamp that you know for sure what’s going on. The other advantage is that it actually tastes pretty good as well. On its own it has a fairly sweet flavour with a slight nuttiness. This makes it a great flavour for so many desserts and gives a bit of sweet that isn’t too overpowering.

Probably the most common way to enjoy ube is in a jam form. This jam is often used inside baked goods from croissant to mochi. You can also get the jam on its own, which I imagine you could even spread on toast if you like. Honestly I’m not sure what the traditional uses for ube jam are, because today it’s just used so many ways that it’s hard to pinpoint down an exact history.

While the jam is the most popular, there are many other uses for this purple potato. There are several different ice cream brands that offer an ube flavoured ice cream. There’s even one that makes a chocolate covered ice cream bar, but they also add ube to the chocolate to give it a nutty flavour and very purple colour. I also recently tried a rice porridge (like a rice pudding) that was ube flavoured. It was really great because the nutty flavour of the potato cut through the sweet flavour of the rice porridge really well. I feel like there are endless ways you could use this ingredient, and I think it’s about time Kit Kat came up with an ube bar.

When you first see this purple potato, it kind of shocks your system. It’s so bold and bright that you expect one of two things. You either expect it to blow your socks off with the flavour, or you expect it to be all show with no flavour. The good thing is it’s neither. Ube is a wonderful, slightly sweet flavour with a wonderful nutty kick. If you ever find yourself in the Philippines (or in the presence of a good Filipino cook) and they offer you something bright purple, go for it, you won’t regret it at all.

Most Underrated Dessert at Cheesecake Factory

I’m going to suggest something that might seem a little strange, but I believe it to be true. The most underrated cake at the Cheesecake Factory is not a cheesecake at all. The most underrated cake at Cheesecake factory is in fact their carrot cake. This is extremely high praise in my opinion because I’m a huge fan of their cheesecakes. I like their simple classic cheesecakes and I like their extreme cheesecakes. I think I’ve gone on record as saying that their most underrated cheesecake is the banana cream pie cheesecake (as suggested by a waitress in upstate New York, and I can’t thank her enough). 

However, if we talk underrated, I don’t think anyone goes to the “Cheesecake” Factory to get something other than cheesecake for dessert. I don’t blame you for not going outside the box on this, but one day I decided to do just that. I did it because seeing the completely uncut carrot cake at Cheesecake Factory during one of my visits started making me think a little about carrot cakes. More to the point, it made me think about how I’ve never had a bad carrot cake in my life. I’ve already written that blog, so I want to expand on the idea that the carrot cake at Cheesecake Factory is well worth trying.

To start off, how do I know that the carrot cake is unpopular? I’ve been to a few Cheesecake Factories in different parts of the world, and each and every one of them has had carrot cake. On all of those visits I’ve actually noticed that I’ve never seen a slice taken out of the display carrot cake at any Cheesecake Factory ever. While there may be a secret carrot cake in the back that they’re actually taking slices out, I’m betting that it’s more likely that they just don’t sell many slices.

That’s total common sense, as I said before, who goes to a place called Cheesecake Factory and not order the cheesecake?

So we’ve established that it’s likely not very popular, and due to an odd curiosity I once got a slice. Here’s the next level of this story, I’ve bought the carrot cake again since. I’ve probably had at least 3 or 4 slices of Cheesecake Factory carrot cake in the last few years. I don’t get it out of curiosity any more either, I really like it. While I’ve said that I’ve never had a bad carrot cake in my life, I’ve also said that it doesn’t always mean that carrot cake is the best choice at many restaurants and bakeries.

The thing is, after tasting that carrot cake at the Cheesecake Factory the first time, I’m kind of hooked. I have ordered cheesecakes since as well, but I’ve probably had more carrot cake than any one flavour of cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory over the last few years. In my opinion, the great thing about Cheesecake Factory is the variety of cheesecakes. No matter what your mood when dessert comes around (except when you’re so full you’re going to throw up), they have a cheesecake for you.

I love a good variety, and I often love the various flavours of cheesecake available. However, sometimes I can’t pick and it’s not because I’m stuck between two different cheesecakes, it’s because I’m not sure I even want cheesecake.

Now let’s look at what makes this a very good carrot cake. Cake wise it’s very moist and fairly fluffy. I’ve had fluffier carrot cakes in my life, but they tend to be very dry. This one seems to balance fluffiness and moisture out perfectly. The fruits and vegetables in this carrot cake (carrots and raisins) are fine too. There doesn’t seem to be any other fruits hidden in this cake (which I generally don’t like). Both of these elements are well distributed and work well in the cake. 

Now here’s the part where this cake shines, the icing. If you think about it for a minute, it totally makes sense that Cheesecake Factory might have one of the best carrot cake icings in the world. The reason is that traditionally carrot cake uses a cream cheese frosting. Cheesecakes are also traditionally made with cream cheese. So put that together and you get probably the best cream cheese icing I’ve ever eaten. Better still, they don’t skimp on this icing, it’s almost another layer of the cake. One might argue that there’s too much cream cheese icing on this carrot cake, but I don’t agree. I have no real argument about this other than to say that I really love a good cream cheese icing.

I’m never going to tell you not to get the cheesecake at Cheesecake factory, because it’s literally in the name. However, if you ever find yourself undecided, and you can’t figure out what you want, give the carrot cake a thought. Sure if you don’t like carrot cake, you’re not going to like this one, but if you love carrot cake and in particular the cream cheese icing, I feel like you might discover the most underrated cake at Cheesecake Factory. I’ll keep an eye open for you, after all I’ll know if you’ve been around if there’s one slice missing from the carrot cake in the display case.