Mia Famiglia?

I'm sure we've all seen a certain Italian, family baker on TLC. You know, the one who has three annoying sisters? The one with the stereotypical Jersey-Italian accent? Yes, I'm talking about Buddy Valastro from Cake Boss. After watching every episode of every season, dreaming of cannoli, tiramisu, lobster tails, and (of course) cake, I wanted to try it for myself, obviously! But is it really that amazing? The sweet, little Italian bakery we see on the show?

I stumbled across Carlos' Bakery, wedged between skyscraper and expensive boutiques, the product of nearby Rittenhouse. It seemed like fate. My friends and I were just saying that we needed something to eat; apparently soft serve ice cream and a third of a cheesesteak isn't a meal! Naturally, seeing a bakery made us think that was the answer to balancing our meal. I practically insisted that we go in. My friends were international students, after all, and this was part of the American experience--celebrity TV chef restaurants.

Although this wasn't the original, it was pretty close to the store you see on TV: red and white color scheme, black and white tile, rows of sugar laden, perfectly iced pastries. The only thing missing was a line snaking its way through the streets. The place was practically vacant with only one couple in line ahead of us. Maybe it was because it was near closing. Maybe it was because it's touristy. Or maybe it was just because it's not that great. Either way, I wasn't going to let a short line detour me from my dreams of puff pastry and Chantilly cream.
I decided to order a classic. If Buddy is really an Italian baker, he should know his way around a tiramisu.

Spoiler: he doesn't.


The tiramisu itself look visually pleasing (sort of). A checkered design made out of cocoa powder, a legion of lady fingers bordering the whole dessert like a crown, and all tied up in a red ribbon (cute, but inedible). The mascarpone filling was tasty, admittedly, though the proportions were off. It was about an inch and a half of filling for maybe a quarter of an inch of sponge. The sponge cake was also fairly good, though nothing to remark about. It was about as good as any other bakery's, but their rum syrup  saturating the vanilla sponge was very good. It was the perfect balance of sweet and bitter, still allowing the coffee to cut through the abundance of cheese. My biggest issue was not the imbalance between filling and cake, though; it was the lady fingers that created a truly mediocre experience. The lady fingers were not soaked in the delicious syrup at all, resulting in a dry crest of bready pastry that only succeeded in giving me something to eat with my glob of mascarpone. But, the greatest accomplishment of these little pastries was making the tiramisu dry and bland once you got to the end. If there already wasn't enough syrup, these dry lady fingers did Buddy no favors.

I paid $6 for disappointment. Maybe the original is better, maybe I need to try something else there, but all in all, it was still just a bakery. And not a very good one.

Rating: 2/5 I've had better tiramisu from grocery stores.

Guess I'm not part of "la famiglia,"
Christina