Holland’s Cake and Shake

At the suggestion of my sister, my wife and I recently stopped in at Cake and Shake for some dessert while we were in the Wellington Village area for lunch.
It’s fairly bare bones inside — their signature personal-​sized cakes were on display in a case, while their open kitchen took up most of the room. A handful of small tables along the right side of the restaurant felt a bit under utilized, with a wide swath of space in between the tables and the work area.
There were six personal-​sized cake to choose from, and all looked like winners — a Dad’s oatmeal-​based cake, at least a couple chocolate options and a de rigeur salted caramel cake were amongst the options. I was persuaded by one of the chocolate cakes’ names, Black Like My Heart, which had a blackberry filling, and vanilla icing and chocolate ganache drizzle on top.
Not being in any rush to get anywhere, we sat down at one of their tables to dig in to our delicious-​looking calorie bombs. The Black Like My Heart was much tastier than I’d imagine my own black heart would — moist and chocolatey, the blackberry filling added some depth of flavour without being too sweet itself, and the vanilla icing was good as well.
My wife’s Dad’s cake had a very down-​home kind of flavour, with basically all of it made from Dad’s-brand products, and I enjoyed the small slices of buttery oatmeal cookies on top of it.
The food was great and at $ 6 a piece the prices are pretty reasonable for a quality, local baker. We didn’t get any of their famous milkshakes, but I look forward to trying one out in the future and my subsequent diabetes diagnosis.

I second reviews that say this place is a great new addition to Hintonburg.
The shakes are made with real ingredients and it tastes so. Best shake I have had in a long time. I had the chocolate one and there is none of that taste of too much vanilla ice cream and not enough of the actual flavour you ordered. The chocolate is good quality and it can be tasted. My sister had the apple cinnamon and loved it.
The flavours of the day for the soft serve ice cream were chocolate, cinnamon or twist of the two. My daughter had the twist. I was sceptical of cinnamon as a flavour but it was rich and actually surprisingly original!
The cakes are tasty too. We sampled the dark chocolate, the cherry and pistachio and the Black Forest. The cream was buttery. These were my least favourite of the offerings. The fillings and toppings are locally made with real and original ingredients (e.g., the pistachios were definitely locally sugar coated, the cherry filling was fresh yet rich) but I think I prefer having a full slice of cake. In other words, these are more like cupcakes, and in which case, it’s a little expensive.
Overall, kudos to everything being made by the chef himself. The quality shows. I won’t hesitate to stop by for a tasty shake or ice cream! And there is a counter from the Ministry of Coffee too within the store. I will sample that next time.

You guys. Mini. Cakes! Or personal sized cakes. However you want to think of them these things are brilliant. The perfect size for one person. The perfect ratio or cake to icing in each bite. And the flavors are lovely. They rotate weekly so you should check it out regularly to see if anything catches your fancy.
And if cakes aren’t your thing they also serve tarts, ice cream, cookies, muffins, and shakes. In fact you can get your cake blended into a shake. Is your mind blown or what?
As an added bonus if you prefer savory or just need lunch before dessert they also have a weekly sandwich menu.
So good. So good.

YUM!
Came here soon after they opened and got a chocolate cake, which was great.
Today I sampled a «cake shake» which was truly one of the tastiest things I’ve ever consumed. A milkshake with their own frozen yogurt, plus half of a (mini) cake! The different textures of the cake plus the creaminess of the frosting within what is already really good frozen yogurt resulted in something truly magnificent.
I also tried a sample of the peach frozen yogurt which was incredible — I will get it next time. It was clear from the flavour and texture that REAL peaches were used in its creation.

This place is a great addition to the neighbourhood! Located on the corner of Parkdale and Armstrong beside the old Orange Gallery space, they are brand new and putting out some of the yummiest treats in Ottawa.
As the name suggests, this place does cakes and shakes, but oh so much more. The cakes themselves are single serving cakes. Not to be confused with a cupcake, these tasty little guys are like mini layered cakes, and they are GOOD. I tried their banana peanut butter cake (think banana bread batter and sweet, peanut butter icing) and was in love. I also sampled the vanilla cake with cereal brittle which was also yum! They had an amazing-​looking cherry chocolate muffin that looked tasty as well.
In addition to their cakes and muffins they also have other sweet treats that are super original like their tarts (with flavours like bubble gum berry tart and orange crush cream pie), cookies (hot lips and dark chocolate, red licorice white chocolate) and something called the Elvis Truffle that people love.
They have soft serve as well and make sundaes!
They also do brown bag lunches, which I think is super cool. The menu changes weekly, and they include a sandwich, sweet treat (cookie or brownie) and a drink (coffee or Harvey and Vern’s soda) for $ 8.50.
The place is pretty sparse right now — not sure if that will change as they grow, but I like the artwork. This is going to be a great date spot, and a welcome addition to the Parkdale neighbourhood!

Tried Holland Cake and Shake and hope that the future brings sweet sucess. I have been anxiously awaiting the much hyped opening and unfortunately am a bit disappointed. Bought 3 items to sample and was only impressed by one. I tried the Chocolate Cake which had a nice chocolate icing but the cake tasted no better than a boxed store bought cake. Next I tried the Pink Lemonade Cake which was quite nicely flavoured and balanced well between tart and sweet. The last thing that I tried (shared all with my husband :-) was the Red Licorice Tart which was the most disappointing of the 3. While it tasted pretty much exactly like red licorice, that is where my compliments stop. I like red licorice as a candy but for me it does not translate to a cream tart form. There was no balance to the flavour, just sweet. Additionally the tart pastry was tasteless and tough.
I will give Holland Cake and Shake another try in the future and hope that the this is just an early misstep.