Ambleside bake shop delivers pure temptation
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Owner/baker Christine Morse at the Flour Bake Shop. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
A good scone is hard to come by. That’s why I was happy to find Flour Bake Shop in Ambleside, where the scones are not heavy or gummy in the mouth, or too soft and cakey. At Flour, the scone I had with some very good coffee had a crunchy, rustic exterior and a light crumb inside.
There had been a French bakery in this location for years and all of a sudden, returning home from a run on the West Van Seawall, I see this darling, sunny little place, definitely more bakeshop than patisserie with bright white furnishings and wainscotting and sea-green walls. Norah Jones was singing in the kitchen (but not in person).
From certain angles, the owner, Christine Morse looks like she should be gearing up for her high school graduation. Instead, she’s five months into running this bakery (her mother helps with design, sandwiches and sales) and offering some very toothsome wares along with a few panini should you want to stop by for lunch. Morse, 25, went through pastry training and has worked at Wedgewood as an assistant pastry chef and at Meinhardt in the pastry department.
“I prefer cooking when I’m at home, but for business, I’d rather be baking for my lifestyle. I’d rather be up early and working during the day at my own pace rather than in a fast-paced, hot kitchen at night,” says Morse.
I also tried her croissants (regular, almond and pain au chocolate), something else that requires precision and technical know-how. They were good. (The baguette, I felt, would not pass a Parisian’s standards; they were too soft and lacked a knock-knock crust.) Her muffins are great and if I had a hummingbird’s metabolism, I would have tried a lot more — like a piece of the coconut custard jelly roll or lemon brulée tart.
When little kids from the kids’ gym next door or the dance school across the way come in with their moms, they invariably want the colourful cupcakes or cookies (gingersnaps, chocolate hazelnut, oatmeal raisin) and, oddly enough, one of the creme brulées. On the morning I visited, a mom and three-year-old came in for the child’s birthday cake. Encircled with fondant bunnies, if cakes can be adorable, then it was.
On the savoury side, there are sandwiches on baguette — egg; ham and brie; roast beef and cheese; and pesto chicken. The teas are Silk Road teas, a high-end product from Victoria. And the coffee, Cafe Femenino (from Quadra Island) is product of a program helping to empower women in developing countries. “They earn their own money and empower their life,” says Morse.
Flour is open Monday to Saturday.
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FLOUR BAKE SHOP
1443 Clyde Ave., West Vancouver. 604-925-2101.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
