I recently asked in a forum, if anyone had noticed that the home town bake shops have all but disappeared. The few that were around me had closed their doors leaving us with the bakeries in the supermarkets, which I find to be very expensive for the quality of pastry. In fact, most of the supermarket bakery products are less than great quality for the prices they inflict upon the public. One of the neighboring markets charges $4.99 for half a bundt cake that is dry to the taste. I'm very particular about my sweets but being a widow I don't want to bake just for myself. What to do? I'll tell you what I did. I went on a hunting expedition to find quality baking and this is what I found.

The two bakeries that I have reviewed both have their specialties and both are great bakeries in some areas. They also have websites and you can go to each to view what I have commented on as far as cake decorating goes.

I was recommended to and had intended to review a long time bake shop in Bloomfield but I was told they now market their pastries through Shop N Save supermarkets. To me this means that they have joined the ranks of the supermarket bakers even though what I have purchased from that supermarket has been passable and I do buy baked goods at that chain.

Today, I read a less than complimentary review on this bakery in Bloomfield and decided to go over and interview the manager to either refute the claim that I found online or to put a nail in the coffin so to speak. Read my review below on Paddy Cake Bakery.

I want to go on record and tell you that the shops do not give me their products in return for a review. I buy what I report on at the bake shops prices.

If I miss any bake shops on my hunt, send a comment so I can try the one in your neighborhood.

I started my tour of bake shops in Millvale which is 4 miles north of Pittsburgh along the Allegheny River. I was recommended to this bake shop by friends who gave this shop raving reviews. They were right.

Upon entering this shop I talked with the sales people and they confirmed that Jean-Mark Chatellier is originally from the Breton District in France. The Shop is simply named "Jean-Mark Chatellier's French Bakery."

For all of you people with a sweet tooth you will not be disappointed by what you get at this shop. I was invited to try their shortbread which they had out in a sampler on top of their display cases. Oo la la!!!!! The butter taste just oozed out of these wonderfully soft dough pieces.

There is a sign proclaiming that Quiche is pronounced "keesh" and not quickies. There were a variety of these fine egg pies in the display case. I did not get one of these but I know I will on my next visit.

As I talked with the sales people, I asked if they make the Elephant Ears. They do but didn't have any to sell me. They are called palmiers in French. For those of you who don't know what elephant ears are they are large flat cookies that are flaky with a cinnamon taste. Delicate flaky, flaky, flaky cookies.

This bakery carries the ordinary everyday cakes for special occasions but the specialties were abundant in the cases as you can see in the pictures above.

As far as expensive, I have to say I made some selective purchases, an apple tart, an apricot tart, a cinnamon croissant, a nut danish, an apricot danish and only paid $10. For this quality of baked goods, I don't think that is expensive. It would only be expensive if the pastries were inferior and I can tell you first hand, these were not. You can tell that Jean-Marc is an artisan who puts love into all of his baking.

The tarts were wonderful with a delightful sweet crust, filled with a cream and layered with the fruit. The cinnamon croissant was flaky and delicately flavored with the cinnamon. The danish was soft and flaky, just the right consistency for epicurean delights. The danish has a distinctive buttery flavor and the icing is oh so wonderful. I don't know if they use a pound of butter in their recipes or are using a flavoring but the end product is tantalizingly good.

As you can tell I have a sweet tooth and I'm very choosy about what I buy from any bakery but I will continue to patronize this wonderful find. Great job Jean-Marc!!!!!

This morning it was my pleasure to meet Patrick Connolly, manager of Paddy Cake Bakery. Patrick was most accommodating and didn't flinch when I hit him with my reason for changing my mind about reviewing this bakery. I had read a rather uncomplimentary review about the bakery concerning a botched wedding cake and the shop's lack of concern to the issue. After interviewing Patrick I realized due to my own experience in cake decorating that the shop had done all they could to make it right with the customer. True, after the wedding there was nothing they could do to make amends for the couple's dissatisfaction.

One of the claims of this couple was that they did not get any of the cake and that they didn't have any way to take the couple's anniversary cake home. Patrick informed me that it is the custom of the shop to provide a first anniversary cake at no charge a year after the wedding. I was also told by Patrick that they put icing under the support for the next layer with white jimmies to make it easy to remove the plastic support. The couple requested to not have the jimmies on the cake it would pull up the icing below and is not the fault of the bakery.

The other derogatory reason for my not interviewing this shop was because I was told by someone who knew the shop that their products are marketed at the local Shop N Save. This is true, but Shop N Save buys the products from Paddy Cake Bakery and then resells them. They are not given a discount.

Ok, now for my own review of this shop. Kudos to Patrick and the bakery for celebrating their 25th year in operation. It is so refreshing to find a shop that keeps up the traditions and bakes from scratch.

I was informed that most of the bakeries today buy frozen and don't mix their own products. This is not the case with Paddy Cake. They are known for their butter cream icing and I want to tell you it is scrumptious. I took cake decorating and made butter cream icing. This far surpasses anything I was taught to make. Patrick told me the recipe is German and that they have never changed the recipe or scrimped on the ingredients. This is evident by the end products.

I am partial to coconut crullers and have not found any I like since Stocklein Bakery closed their doors. I bought them for years there and today I found a cruller to rival the ones I used to get. I was also glad to find out that they still make the flat pecan rolls that an old manager at my first employment used to bring in for treats. They have not lost their flavor and are one of the best pecan danish I have had the pleasure of eating.

Patrick told me that they have a pastry chef who comes in 3 days a week and I want to tell you the danish and pastries are first class.

Back to that Butter Cream Icing. This shop may not have the best designs for cake decorating and to be truthful what I saw in the way of birthday decorating was just above par. Their big advantage to other bake shops is the creativity that they put into their seasonal cakes as you can see by the variety of Halloween cake I photographed above.

While I only bought a variety of smaller items from the bakery, I find their pricing to be very fair. I only spent a little under $10 for all of the pastry I brought home.

Kudos to Paddy Cake Bakery -- I am heartened to find a bakery that meets with my stamp of approval in the cake decorating area.

Another stop in my search is the Oakmont Bakery which is in the Township of Oakmont. This bakery was originally in a corner shop in a tiny mall in the center of Oakmont. It now consists of 2 buildings, one of which is the retail business and houses a small coffee shop.

You can no longer equate this shop with the small town bake shop. In size alone they are equal to a convenience store. Their products are not the selective specialties of the house. They now carry everything from wedding cookies to the wedding cake. You will find danish and brioche along with lady locks, cream puffs, eclairs, snowballs, apple dumplings and various other favorites. You can still get brownies and they carry a carrot cake and chocolate chip cookie cake.

I could not buy any tarts because they don't carry them but I was able to buy apricot danish and their version of a nut danish which has sliced almonds sprinkled on top. The danish itself has a good taste but is definitely not the quality of the ones I had from the shop in Millvale.

I thoroughly enjoyed the brownies that I bought and must admit I'm a chocoholic. In the past I thought Jenny Lee Bakeries had the best brownies. Sadly Jenny Lee is gone but even if they weren't, Oakmont Bakery has the best brownie. I must give credit where credit is due.

Also, Oakmont Bakery is the better cake decorator if you are looking for cakes for appearance sake..

While this bakery enjoys the reputation of one of the finest bakeries in the area, the overall quality of the baked goods (minus the brownies) in my personal estimation is mediocre. Being discerning about my baked goods, I was not overly impressed with what I bought.

All in all, I would call Oakmont Bakery the supermarket of bakeries and that in itself tells it's own story. You will find all of the conventional products there and very few out of the ordinary delicacies. As far as expense, I bought a small sheet of brownies and 3 danish and paid $8. The danish was small but the brownies cost $6 by themselves. So I would estimate that you would call this bakery mid-range in price.

I had no intentions of traveling to the southern boroughs of the Pittsburgh area. You can't imagine my surprise when I found out that a pumpkin roll cake and a chocolate cake roll for the Thanksgiving holiday at a fund raiser at St. Margaret Hospital actually came from Potomac Bakery in Dormont. An even bigger surprise was that I had been eating their bakery in the cafeteria and as a patient for years.

My son lived in Dormont for the four years when he was stationed in Pittsburgh while in the Navy and I know he got his son's birthday cake from Potomac but at the time I was not doing the reviews like I am now.

Potomac Bakery has a unique product that I have not found at many other bake shops. Their angel food cake is not to be rivaled.  St. Margaret serves it with a side cup of cherry pie filling but I'm sure your could serve it with fresh strawberries or blueberries.

I work at St. Margaret Hospital and the cake that was purchased for our department Christmas party came from none other than Potomac Bakery. I'm sorry Oakmont Bakery, but the whole department groaned when we were told our cake would be coming from Oakmont Bakery.

What a surprise to find a cake that was so fresh, so moist and the icing so creamy and so nicely decorated. The department had gotten the cake through the catering department and it came from Potomac Bakery.

It's so nice to find a shop that I can rave about in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh. Great work Potomac Bakery