Candy's Cakes, Boston

When I recently visited Boston, I of course did a bit of research into where to get great baked goods.  I could of course have gotten the very famous cannoli and goodies from Mike's Pastry (or Modern Pastry), and that would be the most classic Boston experience, but, I wanted something a bit different.  Somehow my searches led me to Candy's Cakes, a very small local bakery, with Asian flair, and very little online presence.  They have a basic website, no Yelp reviews, and just a handful of Google reviews.

"We came all the way from Asia to infuse our culture and tradition into the delicious cakes and pastries we produced for you. Customers will taste our hearty baking when they consume our products, as we constantly debug and innovate in order to be the best. Candy's Cake is a one-stop shop for cakes and pastries, offering a wide range of flavors and styles to suit your needs. We take delight in using fresh ingredients, ensuring high-quality goods, and adding healthy sweetness to our expanding cake and pastry menu. Our recipe is delicious and healthy."

I didn't have much to go on, but, I liked what I saw on the menu, and in their blurb on their DoorDash listing, so, I took a complete gamble and ordered from Candy's Cakes.

The menu that drew me in starts with layer cakes in a box, individual portions of chiffon cake, cream, and fruits and other goodies layered together.  Here you'll find pandan, mango, durian, mochi, taro, matcha, red bean, and the like.  Now you may understand why I was so tempted.  For less adventurous, Candy's makes a tiramisu or chocolate mini lay box cake too.  Then there are basque style cheesecakes, in unique flavors.  Portuguese egg tarts.  Fresh cream and fruit mochi.  Cream puffs filled with goodies like taro, egg yolk sauce, durian, soy custard, mango, strawberries and more.  In the non-cake department, there is also mango pomelo sago pudding.  As a lover of most of these things, I pretty much wanted the entire menu.

I selected three items, trying to order from across the menu to hedge my bets.  I ordered my delivery on DoorDash, no issues there.  It arrived fairly quickly, packaged well.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

I was glad to try these more unique items, and everything was fine, but I likely wouldn't order again.

Crispy Puff

"Cream puff made to crispiness in the outside and softness inside."

I don't generally go for cream puffs.  This is true.  Choux pastry just isn't high on my list. But, I was ordering a variety of items from Candy's Cakes, and the idea of lots of cream really called out.  So, cream puffs, er, "Crispy Puffs", it was.  They come only as a pair.  

Candy's makes a large variety of cream puffs.  For the less adventurous, there is a fruity strawberry cream puff, with fresh strawberries and soy cream, or a mocha Oreo puff, with mocha cream and Oreos.  But my eyes were only on the more interesting ones.  Interesting as in ... durian (with soy custard).  Taro (with egg yolk sauce or pork floss). But since I was order two other taro items, as tempting as both of the taro versions were, I ruled that out.  I also just wasn't in the mood for durian.  I love durian, but, it has a time and a place, and this wasn't it.  And thus, I went for the quasi-boring mango and soy option.

Mango / Soymilk Puff. $10.99.

"Mango, soybean, fresh cream, crispy puff. 芒果豆乳酥皮泡芙."

So, the puffs!  I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the "soymilk" aspect of the name, and the "soybean" element of the ingredients.  The answer seemed to be a bit of a soy pudding inside, along with the fresh whipped cream.

The puff itself was decent, clearly quite fresh.  Light and airy, reasonably crisp on the outside.  And key for me, not too eggy.  Not exciting, but, a good base for fillings.

Inside was quite a generous amount of fresh whipped cream.  It wasn't overly sweetened, which was nice.  It tasted, well, like quality cream.  Just like the choux, clearly pretty fresh.  

Then there was the aforementioned soy pudding, just a little of it.  It didn't taste that clearly of soy, but it was slightly more yellow, and slightly more firm, that then snow white whipped cream.  And of course, the mango.  Fresh cubes of mango.  Not much actually, just a few cubes around the outside.  No mango component inside, and pretty easily lost amongst the cream.

This satisfied my desire for whipped cream, but I did decide to add strawberries and blueberries to it, as it was rather low overall in the fruit, and a bit boring.  That said, it was clearly freshly made, and all well made components.  The $10.99 price for the pair was reasonable.  ***+.

Cheesecake

"Made with high quality cream cheese and customized sweetness to your preference."

Available in two flavors, taro or jasmine.  I of course went for the taro.

Mini Basque Taro Cheesecake. $7.99

I was confused when I received this.  I knew to expect at burnt top, as it was basque style after all, but I was expecting a more traditional cheesecake shape.  But moreover, well, I was expecting something purple-ish .... taro colored.  This looked lightly green.  Was it the jasmine?  Pandan?  Certainly not what I was expecting.

It turned out that it was the taro cheesecake, but, it still let me down pretty badly.  The texture was nothing like a basque cheesecake.  It was grainy, and almost looked like it had been defrosted.  It didn't really taste like cheesecake.  It *did* taste of taro, and, under that top green layer it was purple, but, it mostly was kinda grainy thick set taro pudding.  Certainly not what I'd call cheesecake, and definitely not basque cheesecake, and not particularly enjoyable.  The scorched top did look sorta like basque cheesecake, but, it didn't taste caramelized or anything.

So, taro, yes, but cheesecake, and basque cheesecake, no.  I certainly wouldn't get this again.  *+.

Other

The rest of the menu is rounded out by single items, such as Portuguese egg tarts, mango pomelo sago pudding, and pork floss bites.  I'd gladly consume any of these things, but, it was the later that I went for.

Pork Floss Bite with Taro & Mochi. $8.99.

"Chiffon cake sandwich coated with savory pork floss. Delicious taro paste and mochi fillings in sandwich."

These sounded fascinating!  I love taro, obviously.  I really like pork floss. I knew they'd have nori too, even though not listed in the ingredients.  I like mochi.  Chiffon cake, well, I could care less about that, but, I didn't mind it being included.  These came two to set, at a very reasonable price of $8.99.

I was thrilled when I opened my package to see my goodies.  SO MUCH PORK FLOSS!  ZOMG.

The pork floss and nori were savory and salty and so very umami.  Excellent coating.  I couldn't wait to get inside the cakes.

Pork Floss Bite: Inside.

Inside was exactly as promised.  Two layers of chiffon cake, filled with taro paste and mochi.  ZOMG.  The cake was light, the taro flavorful and savory-sweet, and the mochi layer added a bit of soft chew.  There was no cream element to this dessert.

This was mostly fairly savory, it had so many textures, and was really as fascinating to eat as I hoped it would be.  It certainly wasn't a sweet dessert, but it also wasn't really a truly savory item too.  Perfect for those who don't want something too sweet.  It paired beautifully with a glass of red wine.  

Such an adventure, and I'd get it again if in the mood, but, not quite sweet enough and dessert-like for mn.  ***+.