Cardinal Cafe serving up raspberries with a new twist

Craig Bakay | Apr 27, 2017

The Cardinal Cafe in Sharbot Lake has a new product this week with a twist — a raspberry twist to be exact.

At first glance, Caden’s Ultimate Raspberry Twist looks like a tasty square, which it is. But how it came to be is a bit of a story in itself.

Cardinal owner Rob Moore is known for his innovative concoctions but in this case he had some help from the Lakers and senior food and nutrition programs at GREC. Moore has had a relationship with the Lakers program in the past and so when students were studying how to promote fruits, Moore came to give a talk. The next thing you know, they’d come up with a bit of a contest, with Moore offering to feature the winner’s creation in his Cafe.

Part of the Lakers program’s mandate is to get students involved in the community. You might know them from their work with the Food Bank.

“He came to our class to talk about fruits and deserts and then each person had to come up with a recipe,” said Summer Kennedy. “Rob then judged them.”

The result was Caden’s Ultimate Raspberry Twist, which is on sale this week at the Cafe for $3 a square.

‘Caden’ in this case is Grade 12 Caden Stephenson, a budding pastry chef who’s looking at St. Lawrence College next year.

“I found the original recipe on the Internet,” Stephenson said. “It took two or three tries to get it to look right.

“It’s raspberries, lemon zest, sugar, flour, salt and lemon juice.”

It was something of a labour of love for Stephenson.

“I love cooking and baking,” he said. “I can do it all day.”

Moore said judging the competition was a difficult job.

“There were a lot of delicious creations,” he said. “But part of the criteria was how it would work as a marketable item.”

He liked the raspberry twist and saw its potential.

“It has a unique texture and a very vibrant flavour,” Moore said. “And we didn’t have anything like it.

“I modified the base into a short-bread and came up with a lemon-raspberry curd topping.”

“Rob’s changes are awesome,” said Stephenson.

Moore said the squares will be for sale all this week and if all goes well “I might keep them.”