Layers Bakery
Grizzle Nickel Bar
Chocolate Chip Cookie / Molasses Cookie
Chocolate Whoopie Pie
Apple Coffee Cake
Promoting a natural and organic approach to all of their products Layers Bakery is the sort of place anyone with a substantial sweet tooth should really want to like, but with a first visit to the flagship proving rather underwhelming it was almost a year later that a trip to the smaller storefront on Medical Center Street finally took place – the results equally unimpressive as a stripped down selection due to “lack of demand” yielded only one memorable item out of an order of five.
Perhaps one third the size of the original, tucked away next to the Hospital just off the 215, it was admittedly a trip to the nearby FedEx that took me to the smaller Layers and although service first chastised me for taking pictures, the young woman eventually lightened up and filled the order, all items wrapped in paper and placed in a pair of bags at a total of $17 as the rest of the staff stood in the kitchen without a single person to serve in the café.
Opting to take goods elsewhere to enjoy alongside coffee it was in the bakeless “Grizzle Nickel” bar that I first partook and although interestingly textured with graham, coconut, chocolate chips, and peanuts all competing for palate space the flavor was largely that of the bittersweet chocolate that dominated, a flavor I’d find far more subdued in a chocolate chip cookie that was quite decent, though nothing the average baker couldn’t make just as well at home.
More impressed by a molasses cookie that featured a far bolder spice profile than most restaurants or bakeries would be willing trot out while the coffee cake proved too dry in areas not in direct contact with the admittedly delicious apples, it was after more coffee that the refrigerated whoopie pie was explored but despite having allowed it about an hour to warm up the now room-temperature palm-sized disc still proved far too ‘cakey’ while the filling was pasty and thick, not smooth and creamy like several experienced in the past.
TWO AND A HALF STARS: Giving them credit for trying to do what is right it can only be said that Layers simply does not execute as well as other bakeries speckled across the valley and with none of their cakes offered at this location while only one is cut daily at the Henderson flagship I simply cannot justify recommending them to anyone, there are simply better options to be had.
RECOMMENDED: Molasses Cookie.
AVOID: Whoopie Pie. Also, the Coffee Cake, though the sour cherry version was much better at the Henderson location, so perhaps this one…or that…was an anomaly.
TIP: Closed on Sunday and Monday, open 8a-3p Tues-Friday, 9a-2p Saturday.
WHAT THE STARS MEAN: 5 World Class, 4 Excellent, 3 Good, 2 Fair, 1 Poor
http://www.layersbakery.com/
