Hazel Artisan Bakery | North Canton, Ohio – Update: CLOSED :(

hazel artisan.valentines

If you thought my recent lack of blog activity is because the list of notable Canton restaurants is dwindling, you are mistaken.  Fortunately, the list continues to grow, even when my blog doesn’t.  In North Canton, our *local* options are limited.  But we are incredibly lucky to have an amazing french bakery, that only true foodies and locals are privy to.  Hazel Artisan Bakery is tucked into a plaza on South Main Street, near the intersection of Everhard in North Canton.  It is a true diamond in the rough.  The selection of breads, pastries, cookies, canoli, biscotti, scones, macaroons, baklava…….(I could go on)…..is unmatched in this area. Continue reading

West Side Market | Cleveland, Ohio

The day before Easter, we finally made our first trip to the West Side Market in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood.  I decided to take the whole crew with me for a mini road trip.  We arrived shortly after lunch time (on a Saturday, they are closed Sundays), and it was packed with people.  Inside, as expected, was a delight to the senses.  We started in the produce section, which had it’s own entire building of vendors.

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The West Side Bakery | Akron, Ohio

You may have noticed that the frequency of new blog posts has diminished a bit over the last few months.  More astute readers may already know the reason for this, but for the rest of you, please know that there are many more great posts in the works, but there’s been a little personal “distraction” that’s prevented me from blogging to my full potential.  That distraction started last fall when Dave proposed to me at Falling Water.  In a matter of weeks, I went from being an abnormal female who didn’t like weddings, to the girl who’s borderline obsessed with planning a perfect one.  Funny how that works!  So lately we’ve been spending a lot of our free time planning, researching, saving, meeting, shopping, and spending….all the things that go along with preparing for the big day. Continue reading

Sugar Fixe Patisserie | Oak Park, Illinois

In the darling “downtown” of Oak Park lies an apparently new bakery called Sugar Fixe.  An inviting sign and storefront enticed me to come in for a quick dessert before I headed back to the airport.  And boy am I glad I stopped.  Inside was a case half full of eye candy: croissants, cupcakes and cookies mostly.  A cupcake seemed like it would really hit the spot, so I checked out the options, which at the time were only vanilla creme, chocolate, and coconut.  Of course I went for the coconut.  I got it packaged and headed back to Prairie Bread to have a sandwich and kill some time.

At first I was thinking okay, three bucks for a cupcake, this place might be a little pretentious and possibly a little full of themselves.  I also questioned the frosting – it looked like a bit much for the size of the cupcake.  Well if I had known what my tastebuds were about to experience, I would have bought the whole tray of cupcakes.  This was the most delicious, moist, not-too-sweet wonderful lightly coconut flavored cake I’ve ever tasted, and the frosting was light, fluffy, again not too sweet, and such a wondeful coconut undertone, I thought I had died and gone too cupcake heaven.  No joke.

I am a lover of cupcakes and made sure to visit Magnolia Bakery in our last visit to NYC. It was nothing short of amazing – we tried the carrot cupcake and devils food cupcake and they were both divine, as was enjoying them in the middle of Grand Central Station.  This coconut cupcake from Sugar Fixe could easily slide into the mix at Magnolia and fit right in.  What a treat!

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