FOOD | Pasteleria Manila: The bakery that sprung from a brazo bar

Cuatro Cups. Too pretty to eat, you think?

Ah, the things you see on Instagram, plus the joys of delivery. We recently tried out Pasteleria Manila, a home-based bakery business by Ces Lopez that sells cakes, cookies, pastries, and other baked goods. It has a curious backstory, having started out as a fundraising activity for her kids. Lopez innovated on the classic Brazo de Mercedes and turned it into something a little more convenient to eat by way of brazo bars. She later came up with other products and the rest, as they say, is history.

We thought about what the best way would be to try out what Pasteleria Manila has to offer, and got their Cuatro Cups, a sampling of four different goodies neatly partitioned in dainty, little, square boxes, and with heart-shaped plastic spoons to boot. It comes in boxes of 12 (Php 975) and 24 (Php 1,950). They're just so cute!

Brazo Cup.

The sampler box contains brazo cups, ube cake cups, red bean cake cups, and strawberry shortcake cups. I had high hopes for the brazo but it tasted like any other brazo slice to me, unfortunately. It's my least favorite of the four.

The ube cake, on the other hand, was fairly good. I like that it's not too sweet and instead of icing, it's topped with the unparalleled goodness of Good Shepherd ube jam from Baguio. Meanwhile, the red bean cake is a mocha chiffon cake topped with a generous helping of red beans. This one I enjoyed because of the texture and again, it's not too sweet. Besides, red beans aren't widely used in desserts, so this I appreciate.

Ube Cake Cup, topped with Good Shepherd ube jam.

Red beans galore sitting on a mocha chiffon base.

Strawberry on strawberry. Their Strawberry Shortcake Cup.

The last of the four, the strawberry shortcake cup, is a visual delight to start with as it's topped with a large fresh strawberry. The cake itself is moist, made even better with luscious bits of - you guessed it - strawberry.

We also added a box of Broas Sticks, another innovative take of Lopez's on broas, or ladyfingers. She made it thinner to resemble sticks in three different flavors: red velvet with cream cheese filling, ube, and dulce de leche. At first I found it unusual that she recommends freezing them for about 30 minutes before serving. Quite surprisingly, they never turn out really frozen (even if you store them in the freezer way beyond 30 minutes); they only get firmer. They basically taste like good o'l broas, only flavored.

A box of 12 costs either Php 260 or Php 280, depending on the flavor, dulce de leche being the cheapest.

Broas in stick form.

Based on what we had so far, Pasteleria Manila is worth a try. Yes, it can be a bit pricey for some people but I don't think it's way overpriced. While there are some products that I like less than the others, overall it's still all good. Maybe even more than good.

To see what products are available for delivery in your area, just go visit their website:
pasteleriamanila.com