“We never say ‘maca-roon,’ says Giselle Corteau, part owner of Duchess BakeShop. “It’s spelled ‘macaron’ and pronounced that way. We are fighting the good fight, [we] even have had people contact us saying we misspelled it on our website,” she laughs.
To say Duchess Bake Shop has been a hit in Edmonton would be selling it very, very short. The 124th Street bakery and café has daily lineups of folks who cannot get enough of the French-inspired patisserie, that shares showcase space alongside good old fashioned baked goods, such as butter tarts and brownies.
The name Duchess was chosen because “We wanted a royal feel, but not a scary, impossible to pronounce name,” says Giselle. The bake shop has since grown to a bigger space, and added a next-door boutique called Provisions, which sells tools and ingredients for the home baker, as well as cook books. Speaking of, Duchess BakeShop’s first cookbook was launched in late 2014, selling like hot cakes - or make that lemon meringue cake, one of their bestsellers.
But what is the item they’re best known for? Their world-class macaron, especially the salted caramel flavour. “We make everything from scratch using real ingredients,’ says Giselle. “We have suppliers banging on our door [wanting us] to use their macaron mix; I can’t tell you how many bakeries use that mix. We often sacrifice our bottom dollar for good quality ingredients; we bring in Valrhona chocolate, and almond flour from California that we could get for half the price elsewhere, but everything is made with pride here.”
