The Gingered Peach in Lawrence, New Jersey is undoubtedly among the best pastry shops in the entire tri-state area.
Starting back in 2011 Joanne Canady-Brown started the Let Them Eat Cake Bake Shop before revitalizing the business and introducing The Gingered Peach to the world, offering unique and outstanding baked goods that will put any at home bakers to shame.
Take one step into the bakery and experience the old farm-like interior and a wafting of the heavy scent of cinnamon rolls and freshly baked cookies. Be sure to be careful around the faithful patrons stampeding through the shop at any given moment to get their sugar fix. Just one glance at those delicious pasties and you know you will experience a fantastical land that is filled with flavors yet tasted, seductive chocolate wailing at you to buy, and savory pastries that offset the entire sweet menu perfectly.
It all starts with the cinnamon rolls. Unwrapping its layers is a sensual experience, getting sweeter and sweeter, until you find its glorious, gooey center. The center, sweet and sticky. By the time you inhale this delight you realize that you’re already in too deep, never able to pull back from the clutches of the Gingered Peach.
After recovering from the cinnamon roll one must venture towards the giant cupcake case filled with a diverse array of flavors and colors. Starting with the basics, there is the vanilla cupcake. The mellow flavor and luxurious sweet taste is perfectly presented by a perfectly whipped white icing top.
Ruth Anderson, a fifth semester Computer Information Systems major at MCCC says, “It reminds me of vanilla cookies. It’s just so delicious.”
The vanilla cupcake is not overly sweet, but it is just enough to keep your mouth watering for the next surprise, the chocolate.
The chocolate cupcakes are a highlight for anyone willing to try this dangerous desert. The chocolate here is deep and rich in flavor, but the defining trait of this scrumptious cupcake is the velvety smooth icing and moist cake. It is deceitfully decadent and up to this point has to be the best pastry so far. It’s absolutely to die for.
First semester Computer Science student Eesa Toheed takes his time on the chocolate cupcake, intaking the rich dessert with his eyes rolled back and with a deep exhale.
Toheed says, “I feel cozy, like a lump has filled me up on the inside.”
Some classics to also check out would have to be the chocolate chip cookies and molasses cookies. The chocolate chip cookie is basic, great if you want it but nothing special.
On the other hand there are their amazing molasses cookies. It’s sweet with the perfect chewy texture. If you’re lucky you will get a fresh baked molasses cookie so soft you will swear it’s the best treat there.
Of course, The Gingered Peach also uses many seasonal flavors in their menu. During the fall their pumpkin scones become an instant favorite.
“I can definitely taste the pumpkin,” says MCCC Communication major Ben Levitt, also a VOICE reporter, adding “I like the icing on it; it really compliments it. This is really good.”
The pumpkin scone is the peace before the storm that is the flavor of this bakery. It has subtle flavors of pumpkin, cinnamon, and other warm spices baked into its succulent, soft core. The exterior is covered in a shell of pumpkin glaze, that when bitten releases the instant aroma of the traditional fall flavors. Bliss.
What came next was my favorite dessert, the olive oil cake. To describe it simply, this cake is the most elegant of all the pastries. The scent of the cake is spectacular, rich olive oil and lemon overtake the body, causing an euphoria like experience to stop any diner from not eating this slowly. The lemon glaze dances upon the tongue in perfect rhythm of the smooth olive oil, creating a cohesive flavor that tickles the senses ever so slightly.
Gingered Peach has concocted what may be the perfect contrast to many of their sweet desserts, the Trenton Volcano. Pork roll, spinach, and cheese packed inside brioche and topped with everything bagel seasoning, what more can a person ask for? The salty pork takes immediate jurisdiction over the palette, bombarding the tongue with overwhelming flavor, the spinach rivals the pork, fighting for dominance in your mouth, and the cheese forces its way into your tastebuds. All of these flavors fight for attention, yet their collision only enhances the flavor. It truly is worth the name of a Trenton Volcano, because it’s the single best thing to ever burst in my mouth!
At this point only one dessert remains worthy of topping all the others, the Caramel Crack! There is a reason that this dessert is called crack, because this toffee coated brioche melts on the tongue, tantalizing the brain to stop time. Calories be damned, this dessert is dangerously addictive.
Now at the end of this exploration to The Gingered Peach my knees buckle under the weight of their culinary masterpieces. Leaving this divine experience I realize only one thing, I cannot wait until my next fix to wane my sugar withdrawal.
