I arrived at Samovar with my stomach still full from a chanukah brunch consisting of latkes, bagels, lox, cream cheese and more.  I arrived to tables piled with baked goods, a big crowd, lots of noise, lots of noise, lots to see. Almost sensory overload. I pushed my way through the crowd and surveyed the offerings. My favourite of the evening was one of the first things I tried. Here’s the menu for reference.

My favourite:

Sticky date cake with beer-caramel sauce with a side of pomegranate compote and ice cream. The tang of the pomegranate took away from the sweetness of everything else and made it less cloying.

After a few tastings I realized that the best thing to do was share. More items to taste, less eating. There was usually someone willing to take a taste off my napkin or plate and I was usually willing to help someone out with eating theirs.

My two favourites in the visual category:

1. St. Lawrence Market White Velvet Cake from Cake or Death:

You can’t tell from the photo but the cake was huge. Read her event recap. I think Rannie recommended that I try it. Or maybe that was the cupcakes below. Or both.

2. Pina Colada cupcakes and Ferraro Rocher cupcakes from Sugar Baking.

The decorations were made with fondant and the fondant palm trees were held up with straws. Beautiful and delicious!

Bonita’s black sesame & white chocolate wasabi cupcakes were among the many unique offerings. At the end of the event I took her last 2 dozen home with me along with her chocolate & brandied chestnut cupcakes. They survived the streetcar, subway and bus but got jostled up the narrow staircase to my apartment as I juggled large box of cupcakes & keys. They were taken to the office next day and devoured. I like that cupcake box. It’s certainly not the kind of box that cupcakes came in when I was a child, and parents brought cupcakes to school for their child’s birthdays. Memories of cupcakes from kosher bakeries, chocolate with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles. Those, these were not (and all the bacon brownies and Joel’s maple frosted almond shortbread with pig candy would NOT have been acceptable then, to state the obvious).

Event wrap ups:

• Behind the scenes: Lavender French Butter Cookies [The Nervous Chef].
• Official wrap up on the Foodiemeet website, and recipe from the winner. [Foodiemeet website]
• Post-Bake Off summary, photos and links from the organizers, more comprehensive than the one I originally came up with. [Foodiemeet website]

If you blogged it feel free to add your link in the comments.

Take a look at the FoodieMeet Flickr group. I’ve added mine.