and a sinfully sweet . . . poutine?
Sweet poutine substitutes sponge cake for french fries, and chocolate sauce for gravy
From deep-fried butter to baconwrapped, chocolate-coated everything, CNE food is undeniably an adventure in gastronomy.
So it should come as no surprise that this year, among the predictably zany offerings, there is yet another contender, though it’s off the Food Building’s beaten path. Wait for it: Cake Poutine. It’s not what you think! About 10 slender “fries,” crinkle-cut from vanilla sponge cake, are topped with one of three themed “gravies” for $5 an order: Campfire (graham cracker, teeny marshmallows, chocolate sauce), Canadian (strawberry sauce and white chocolate chips) and Bacon Eh (caramel sauce, bits of chopped bacon and a drizzle of maple syrup), which looks startlingly like potato fries and beef jus.
Natasha Falcioni, 23, and Alicia Cardoso, 24, both recent graduates of Humber College’s Baking and Pastry Art Management school, dreamed up the idea for their final class project a few months ago — they were after something “different” yet “Canadian” — creating the logo, packaging (a tidy, white cardboard box where you’d expect to find fries and curd) and a business plan.
Their sugary homage to this country’s ubiquitous dish was such a hit in class, and then at a waterfront festival earlier this summer, a Humber professor suggested they ask for a spot at the Ex.
When their first attempt failed — no room! — they tried again, this time wowing an executive at the 11th hour and snagging a booth in the Enercare Centre (formerly the Direct Energy Centre).
“We were in shock,” Falcioni says, of the moment they found out they were “in.” That’s when the hard work began. Cardoso and Falcioni have both invested $3,500 of their savings, which they had individually earmarked to open cafés. Falcioni is pinching herself, she says, about this spate of good luck. Around the time the CNE said yes, her mom, who has been on dialysis for nine years, got good news too. A doctor told her she could get a kidney transplant (she had the surgery last week) and now she is planning to help out at the CNE.
Falcioni and Cardoso will also be aided by some Humber baking students.
Hoping to sell 12,000 “units” to exhibition goers in the next two weeks, the crew is already hard at work in Humber College’s kitchens each day — the school has given them use of its facilities — cooking slab after slab of vanilla sponge cake.
They’re also plotting their route from Etobicoke to downtown Toronto. Each day during the exhibition, a runner will deliver the toppings, which are made fresh daily.
The chunky strawberry sauce, made with fresh fruit, adds tartness to the sweet dish. The bacon — crisped in the oven and chopped to generous bits — adds welcome saltiness. And the graham crackers lend crunch.
The toppings cling well to the beefy “fries,” which really do look like wedges of potato, but thankfully, taste like bread pudding. Surprising — and fun. Isn’t that what CNE food is all about? It’s enough to make a mom proud. “We’ve put our money, heart and soul into this project,” Falcioni says. “I’m really excited.”