One summer, a long time ago in a continent far, far away, a young boy was tasked by his grandmother to climb a sour cherry tree and pick away. If successful, said child would be rewarded with his grandmother’s cherry-filled baked goods: Strudels and cakes.
While Baltyk Bakery has deep Polish roots, the sour cherry is found in desserts throughout Eastern Europe.
It’s as common there as strawberry and apple flavoured desserts are here. Except, sour cherries are better. Way better. If you were to be told tomorrow that all trees would be wiped out save for one variety, the best of us would be savingthe sour cherry.
The sour cherry is celebrated in a couple forms at Baltyk Bakery — it flavours the rich, lavender-coloured cream in the Kingsway establishment’s Sour Cherry Cake with Meringue, and in the sweet buns.
What Baltyk Bakery doesn’t do is dainty cakes with little puffs of cream and intricate designs. What it does do is flavour bombs that explode as soon as they meet thefork. If cherries aren’t your jam (see what I did there?), try the paczki, Polish doughnuts filled with a sweet and sour plum butter.
There’s a deli next door that offers an array of Polish sausages and hearty deli Kaisers for lunch. Just pick a deli meat from the display and off you go.
10557 Kingsway, 780-428-2207, baltykbakery.com
This article appears in the February 2020 issue of Avenue Edmonton
