ottawa foodies

I've been meaning to try Holland's Cake and Shake but various reasons (lineups, diets, etc) have blocked my path but this week it finally happened! These tasty little cakes did not disappoint.
We had the "Gimme S'more" and "Polar Dip". Presentation on the S'mores Cake was just magical but the flavour of the polar dip was the winner IMHO.
It featured a moist dark chocolate cake, peppermint icing, chocolate ganache, and the topping peppermint icing was dipped in a hard chocolate shell. The effect was like a freshly made peppermint patty topping that delectable moist masterpiece of a cake.
The S'mores cake was a white cake featuring s'mores cereal - not quite as moist as the chocolate cake but still pretty stand-up! It was topped and filled with chocolate icing and marshmallow fluff (someone took a torch to the fluff topping which made a really nice toasted marshmallow campfirey s'mores feel). There was also a little sail of s'mores pop-tart brittle that added a very cute aesthetic.
The imagination and creativity of all of these delightful cakes is really impressive. I would definitely eat both again, and hope to return for a crazy sandwich creation (they feature daily sandwiches on Thursday and Friday and fill them with crazy ingredients like poutine, potato chips, buffalo cauliflower, and doritos). Intense!

Had a wonderful sandwich from here yesterday - turkey, bacon mayo, guacamole, tomato, spinach topped with nacho chips in a milk bread bun. I always enjoy the addition of the "crunch" from the added chips (sometimes potato chips, sometimes doritos, in this case nacho chips) which is somewhat of a signature. The bread yesterday was also a little more crispy (less soft) than other times which I liked better.

Wonderful cake shake on a beautiful summer day – pick individual cake flavour, pick ice cream flavour – half the cake (including the icing) and the ice cream are whipped up into a "shake" - very flavourful, filling and delicious! Made a great substitute birthday cake.

It stopped in here today and bought one chcolate cake and one vanilla cake. Like deb s, I too was disappointed. I had two bites of the vanilla cake and binned the rest. It was dry and the icing, which I expected to be buttercream, was of the shortening and icing sugar variety. My husband had the chocolate and said it was "very average". I will try them again as I love owner run businesses and I want them to do well. I think the price of the cakes at $4 for vanilla and $4.25 for chocolate is fair, but for that price I also expect fresh cake and buttercream icing.

Tried Holland Cake and Shake today and hope that the future brings sweet sucess. I have been anxiously awaiting the much hyped opening and unfortunately am a bit disappointed. Bought 3 items to sample and was only impressed by one. I tried the Chocolate Cake which had a nice chocolate icing but the cake tasted no better than a boxed store bought cake. Next I tried the Pink Lemonade Cake which was quite nicely flavoured and balanced well between tart and sweet. The last thing that I tried (shared all with my husband :-) was the Red Licorice Tart which was the most disappointing of the 3. While it tasted pretty much exactly like red licorice, that is where my compliments stop. I like red licorice as a candy but for me it does not translate to a cream tart form. There was no balance to the flavour, just sweet. Additionally the tart pastry was tasteless and tough.

I will give Holland Cake and Shake another try in the future and hope that the this is just an early misstep.

I stopped in yesterday on opening day to check it out. It was relatively quiet when I was there but it sounds like it was really busy at other points in the day and they sold out of everything. They had four flavours of mini 3" layer cakes and two flavours of soft serve, plus assorted other treats. Apparently Ministry of Coffee will be setting up an espresso bar inside the shop in a few weeks, but in the meantime there's regular coffee.

I bought two mini cakes to take home - pink lemonade (pictured) and chocolate. Both were delicious and had just the right balance of cake to frosting. This is going to be a dangerous addition to the neighbourhood!

Grape and vanilla swirl happening here. Ridiculous. The texture is a bit granular as noted below and I keep meaning to ask why that is. Never not a favourite.

I got my chocolate ice cream at 4:30pm on Sunday.

It was granular with the chocolate micro bits (powderized chocolate ?) I think it's supposed to be that way. The texture was not a distraction or deterrent for me. But is was a new experience.

I've had both the vanilla soft serve, and the sundae made with it and the Michael's Dolce jam. The sundae was great, but the soft serve by itself, while having great flavour, was just a touch granular in consistency. It was early in the day, and maybe the machine works better later in the day (?).

Had the chocolate soft serve.

What appeared to be ground cocoa beans (brown specs) turned out to be powderized chocolate. It easily melted in the cold ice cream. Yumm.

This is top shelf stuff.

Wow! If, like me, your favourite ice cream experience is letting hard real vanilla ice cream melt a bit before eating it, then you will love the vanilla soft serve here. Unlike commercially prepared soft serve, this is made in house and you can totally taste the vanilla and the eggs. $4 gets you a generous cup. They also have chocolate and can make you a twist if that's your thing.

The cakes continue to be hit or miss here. The "Captain Crunch" cake (pictured in foreground) with peanut butter pastry cream and candied peanuts was dryish and not particularly peanutty. The candied peanuts were the high point. Pro tip: the cardboardy shards of sweet cracker on the tops of these cakes are better consumed visually than orally.

In the background, you can see the "Tresh Leche" cake. It was positively delicious! Milk-soaked vanilla cake guaranteed no dryness, and the milk pastry cream and whipped cream added richness without dominating the flavour.

The "Double Chocolate" cake was (by reports) unexceptional, as was the "Chocolate Beet" cake. Again, the style of icing is extremely sweet--likely a matter of personal preference, but also a good way to increase product shelf life.

This place is Ottawa's "Suzy Q Doughnuts" of cake shops. Clever and photogenic product, but a bit of a gamble from a flavour perspective. A gamble I'm likely going to keep taking! ;-)

The Banana and Nutella cake made for a perfect breakfast. Holland's cakes are an ideal hybrid in that they combine the deliciousness and beauty of layer cakes with the single-serving decadence of cupcakes. At $4.25, the price seems about right: gourmet cupcake price plus a $1 premium for extra quality and torteyness.

The banana bread cake was moist and tasty -- unlike most cupcakes, it would be great even without icing. But the icing brings in the subtle Nutella component and kicks this confection over the top. This is definitely on the sweet end of the cake spectrum. But it is cake after all. Go big or go home. :-)

The upcoming The Ministry of Coffee presence at the bakery will provide an ideal accompaniment to these cakes. I can totally see this place becoming one of the growing number of foodie attractions that brings visitors to Ottawa.

Went in Sunday afternoon, around 3-ish. We were looking to try the soft serve, but was told there was no soft serve at all. The vanilla was not available, but they could serve the chocolate but it would be in a cup like the sundae version. We decided to try the vanilla milkshake instead.

It was the best vanilla shake I have had. Fantastic, lots of real vanilla flecks. It seemed to be made from ice cream from the soft serve machine - maybe the vanilla was too soft to be served as is, but ok for milkshakes? I don't know, but it was great. It is a medium size and was $4.50 with tax.

I'll be back to try it in a cone/cup next time.

None of the baked goods appealed to me.