Butter Baker
Butter Baker comes to us from the same people behind renowned Butter Avenue, Calvin and Tina Su.
Everything is made from scratch at their suburban headquarters from all natural ingredients like real butter and free run Ontario eggs. Here, some baking takes place and many intricate finishing touches are put on.
A soft-looking textured recycled quail eggshell wall is a highlight of the tiny but efficient space designed by Quintessential Co., the same designers behind Yasu.
A modular kitchen area at the front is where Cordon-Bleu-trained Tina adds her final details in front of curious eyes, adding herbs from a living wall behind her.
A cherry danish ($4.55) is filled with vanilla custard and cherry jelly, topped with a sage leaf. Multi-seed croissants ($3.10) are topped with black and white sesame, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds all pan fried with chili powder, cumin and cayenne in aged soy sauce.
Lemon meringue croissants ($4.95) are topped with a meringue mixture that’s torched before your very eyes, also garnished with garden herbs.
They’re known for their banh mi croissant sandwiches, house roasted porchetta, herb mayo made with fresh plucked thyme, parsley and garlic, pickles, daikon and carrot inside their classic butter croissant. The effect is soft, squishy, full of Asian flavour, and very meaty.
Slices of airy, elaborately decorated chiffon and buttercream cake go for $6.95, in flavours like blueberry lemon, s’mores, Chocolat! Chocolat!, and Matchamisu.
For a whole cake you’ll have to shell out $49.50.
Perfectly golden, flaky crispy quiches ($4.55) have various stuffings, some topped with melty cheese.
They’re famous for their magnificent brioche loaves ($6.25) here. The secret? Lots and lots of free-run eggs, no artificial flavours and preservatives and real milk and flour. The loaves are also used to make other sweet treats: sliced, soaked in orange blossom syrup, and topped with almonds and powdered sugar, for example.
A matcha strawberry danish is absolutely mind-blowing, the matcha imported directly from Uji. Matcha pastry cream goes under a layer of scrumptious fresh strawberry jam, topped with fresh strawberries and given a touch of powdered sugar on the corners, finished off with an apricot glaze.
A Baker’s Latte ($4.95) is sweetened with tonka bean and vanilla syrup, giving it a deep, almost caramel flavour.
The tiny shop is often packed with hungry fans, and it’s no surprise with the French technique, fresh seasonal ingredients, and culture-blending creativity going into the goods here.
Jesse Milns