Saint Germain Bakery 新之美餅店

Cakes from Saint Germain Bakery

My mom finally went to redeem her tattered wedding gift certificate for a few pieces of cake at Saint Germain Bakery's Metrotown location. When I think of Chinese-style bakeries, things like sponge cakes, 'Mexican' buns, coconut tarts, wife cakes, and 'pineapple' buns come to mind. All of which are part of my childhood memories~ So deep, yes I know.

The gift certificate was good for $12 worth of goodies, and we decided it would be best used if we purchased special items we couldn't normally buy. We got six pieces of dessert for just over $13.

Desserts from Saint Germain Bakery

Let us get on with reviewing each dessert! I'll be going from left to right following the photo above.


Nepoleon
Not to be confused with neapolitan flavour (vanilla+strawberry+chocolate), a nepoleon cake from a Chinese bakery is alternating layers of crispy pastry and a denser walnut sponge cake, sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. Some versions have layers of buttercream too, but not this one. Which I feel like this nepoleon really needed. There was like a non-existent amount of cream (I had to look really closely and poke around, yet still am not sure if there was any) between the cake layer and pastry layer. It was too dry in the mouth and really needed something wet to really bring the whole dessert together. Nepoleon was one of my most favourite items to buy at Chinese bakeries, so this one really disappointed me. 

Japanese Cheesecake
Since it was less than $2 a piece, I decided to try their Japanese Cheesecake. Cheesecake can be a good indicator as to whether a restaurant or bakery is stingy in using expensive ingredients. Cake-Ya Bakery makes a fantastic Japanese cheesecake, full of cream cheese yet still retains the necessary spongey-ness and air to make it a Japanese cheesecake. (American cheesecakes are heavier and much denser, almost like eating pure cream cheese~) The Japanese cheesecake from Saint Germain doesn't even come close to matching up with Cake-Ya. The faintest hint of cheese in a way-too-dense cake. It was like a compressed sponge cake with an indistinct cheese aftertaste that makes you think "oh, there was cheese in that?" Don't bother with this one.

Black Forest Cake
Ah, the Black Forest Cake. This flavour of cake is a Cantonese kid's typical birthday cake, right next to fresh mango. I don't know how many times my brother and I have collectively had this for our birthday. Probably too many times because I became a bit bored of this cake. Until now. Saint Germain's black forest cake is one of the best I've ever eaten. Perfect layers of chocolate sponge cake surround a centre of whipped cream and liquor-soaked cherries, and topped with a generous amount of chocolate shavings. My mom said that their whipped cream is perfect, not oily when eaten, perfect fluffiness, and not too sweet. (Although I wonder how whipped cream can be made different when it's just whipping cream.) Nonetheless, this is a great black forest cake, highly recommend it! 

Chestnut Cake
I have previously proclaimed my love for chestnut in my post on Cake-Ya Bakery. I love chestnut puree and want a lot of it in my cake. Covered if possible ;) Even though the chestnut cake from Cake-Ya is heavenly, the chestnut puree from Chinese bakeries is more pure. It is not as sugary and a lot thicker because there is more chestnuts in the paste. The middle of the cake can't be seen by the two photos in the post, but there is a pretty thick layer of chestnut puree sandwiched between the two layers of perfectly made white sponge cake. In addition to the decorative (and delicious) blob of chestnut puree on top, I'd say Saint Germain is pretty generous with the amount of chestnut they put into this cake. This may just become my birthday cake of 2014...

Mango Pudding Cake
What is a mango pudding cake, you ask? It's simply just a dual layer white sponge cake with an equally as thick layer of mango pudding on top, making it a total of three layers. There is also the 'Fresh Mango Cake' which has fresh cubes of mango between the layers of sponge cake and slices of fresh mango on the top and sides. A slice of fresh mango cake is about one dollar more expensive than the pudding version. However, I think the fresh mango cake is probably a better choice because the mango pudding was not very exciting. Made well, looks pretty, just not very special.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by all the desserts we bought. I don't look too highly of the Chinese bakeries in Vancouver, especially Maxim's as a few years ago the birthday cake my mom bought for me was obviously stale and not made the day of. From this 'taste testing', I can say that the sponge cakes are the best items at Saint Germain Bakery. The quality is good, slices not too small, and the dessert is not too sweet. Just expect to pay $4 for a single slice of cake and $20 and up for a full cake. Not all cakes are available at all times, but you can order cakes in advance. Compared to other Chinese bakeries, Saint Germain is slightly pricier. Sometimes you get what you pay for, this is true for Saint Germain Bakery. There are a few locations throughout Greater Vancouver and I think their products are pretty consistent no matter which location you visit.



Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡