Bring out the cheesecake

Local bakeries outdo themselves for JI taste-testing contest.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY

To me, there is only one type of cheesecake. Every cheesecake I taste is judged against my mother's recipe. I admit it. But I'm not the only one with such prejudices. Eight members of the Jewish Independent team came together last month to compare cheesecakes – and the passions (and the blood sugar) ran high.

Surprised by the incredible variety of the cakes donated to the JI by eight different local bakeries and restaurants, as well as the two store-bought desserts, I looked up cheesecake on Wikipedia. The list of possible styles was lengthy: New York, Chicago, Pennsylvania Dutch, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Farmer's cheese, sour cream, Roman, Italian, French, Greek, German, Dutch/Belgian, Brazilian, Japanese, Asian, country, vegan, lactose-free, cottage cheese and lemon. Who knew?

Our table had representatives of several styles. It was a glorious, colorful sight to behold. Kind donors were Sweet Obsession, Ganache Patisserie, Breka Bakery and Café, Patisserie Bordeaux, Max's Bakery and Delicatessen, Cosmo Bakery Inc., Nava Creative Kosher Cuisine and True Confections Broadway Inc. Two store-bought cakes were included in the mix, one from Safeway, the other from IGA, just to see whether it was possible to match the quality of a bakery, at a lesser cost.

In the JI kitchen, I removed the cakes from their boxes, so that no taster would be tempted to give their favorite baker a higher grade, even if another cake tasted or looked better. I then placed them on a table, numbering each, so that I could identify them by name later.

The cheesecakes were marked on a scale of zero (worst) to five (best) in three categories: presentation, taste and texture. An overall rating was tallied from the average of these scores.

We started the "contest" by taking in the view. Fresh raspberries, oranges, peaches, strawberries, kiwi, mangoes and other fruits; maraschino cherries, chunks of dark chocolate and pistachio raindrops. Comments ranged from "looks the most yummy" to "big mess!" and "looks store bought." One of the favorites elicited multiple uses of the word "elegant" – even an "over-the-top elegance."

I sliced the cakes following the sage instructions from Sweet Obsession: use a sharp knife, make sure the knife blade is hot and wipe the blade after each slice. It seemed a sad thing to waste all that cake that the knife attracted, but I kept to the plan. One bakery declined to participate in the tasting because we didn't have a professional cake server, so I wanted to pay proper homage to those cooks who had shown faith in the JI and trusted us with their wares.

Once the tasting began, people's prejudices emerged and the remarks went flying. We all had in our minds what a cheesecake should taste like and how firm it should be – and these ideas were as varied as the cakes in front of us. A cake that someone declared to be their favorite was too mousse-like for another taster. One cheesecake made someone say, "Wow," while another lamented that, "As in life, there is such a thing as too rich."

There was some agreement, however, as no one particularly liked the store-bought cakes (the "ersatz cheesecake, with no real, fresh ingredients") and there were a couple of cakes that we all enjoyed – but which didn't taste like cheesecake, in our opinion.

At the end of the day, there were some clear preferences. For presentation, the JI staff were really impressed by Nava's pistachio cheesecake, highlighted with the aforementioned raindrops, followed by Sweet Obsession's classic-looking mango cheesecake and Max's decadent chocolate turtle cheesecake. For taste, Nava and Sweet Obsession again topped the list, with True Confection's raspberry-decorated cheesecake placing third. For texture, Max's came back onto the Top 3 list, after Nava and Sweet Obsession. And this was the order of the Top 3, for overall best cheesecake: Nava, Sweet Obsession and Max's. This is not to say that the others aren't worth trying – far from it.

If you're looking for a light, fruity dessert, try Ganache's mango cheesecake – it was in the top half of most ratings. Patisserie Bordeaux's beautifully fruit-garnished cake also fared well, but, while it tasted very good, it was more akin to blintzes than cheesecake. Cosmo's black forest cake was unlike any cheesecake any of us had had before, and Breka's low-fat entry was actually pretty tasty.

It was a sweet afternoon at the Independent and it was the perfect "last dessert" for a few of us, who went on a week-long detox diet right after Canada Day. As one of those people, I can tell you, I know where I'm heading once the week is over – and it isn't to a health-food store.

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Bring out the cheesecake

Local bakeries outdo themselves for JI taste-testing contest. CYNTHIA RAMSAY

The Independent thanks its taste-test sponsors:

Local bakeries outdo themselves for JI taste-testing contest.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY