The craze with banoffie pies began when Starbucks came out with them several years back. Since then, every pastry shop has come up with its own version. I admit that I've always been partial with pioneers, so to me the rest of them would always be copycats, no matter how much better they improvise on the original.
I liked Starbucks banoffie pie, although I could never finish an entire pie. I've tasted Red Ribbon's version, which was an utter embarassment to the kingdom of banoffie pies. Red Ribbon's bakers seem to be the diabetics' nemeses, churning out new flavors of cake for every marketable occasion. While the effort is impressive, the taste of the cakes are not. If this goes on, pretty soon Red Ribbon will have to give up its restaurant business to display all its cakes. Come to think of it, that might not be such a bad idea. Good riddance.
Wait, I shouldn't be talking about Red Ribbon. The focus of this review is a pastry shop that's been getting a lot of attention lately, Banapple. I didn't really get to taste the banoffie pie pictured above. But I appreciate the thick chocolate shavings falling beautifully on the white, white whipped cream, and the chunks of bananas filling up the pie. Ok, I did have one bite. Who would be able to resist? The banoffie pie isn't as sweet as the Starbucks version, although I couldn't get the 'offie' in the banoffie. Is 'offie' supposed to be toffee, or coffee? Since Starbucks put it out first, I'm guessing it's the latter, but you never know with the way these behemoths play with us consumers. It's a huge slice, but eating it all won't make you feel as guilty as eating Starbucks banoffie pie, because it has less caramel and there isn't a block of chocolate lodged at the center of the pie that's a pleasant surprise when you don't know it's there. The Banapple banoffie pie has thicker crust, so in essence you feel like you're eating three things: whipped cream on top of bananas on top of crushed graham. The chocolate only registers at the end, and the syrup decorating the plate is nasty Hershey's chocolate syrup. I hate that stuff.
No, I didn't go to Banapple just to taste a forkful of the famous banoffie pie and stare at it hoping it'll reveal its deepest secrets to me. I did actually order a giant Oatmeal POWER Cookie.
I'm not sure why they called it a Power cookie, except maybe to credit your willpower in picking the healthiest and most awful baked item on the menu. As huge as my hand, the cookie is served warm and drizzled with the Hershey's chocolate syrup. It's not very sweet, kind chewy, and every bite is hard to swallow. It's a good punishment for a badly behaving child. Sample Banapple's other delectable desserts like the White Chocolate Truffle Cake while s/he watches as you lick icing off your spoon, and his/her sister makes a mess out of chocolate and whipped cream. If s/he is still behaving badly, tell him/her that s/he will never taste a real cookie again.
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