Feeling Blue about Purple Oven

I heard somewhere that Purple Oven (the bakeshop) supplies the cakes for Starbucks (I don't know if this is true but that's what I heard). So I was pretty excited to hear that the bakeshop had opened a branch near the Makati YMCA (which is a great location as it was pretty much on my way to work). Another good thing, the store usually is open by 7am.

 Unfortunately (you knew this was coming), good location notwithstanding, Purple Oven has proven to be a great disappointment. The loaf cakes I had tried were really nothing special (in fact, I can honestly say, at least two were some of the worst cakes I have ever tried). More so because of the premium pricing (P240 to P280 for a smallish loaf).

On two separate occasions, I bought the Apple Crumble and the Orange Almond loaves. On another visit, i bought their lemon squares for a merienda at the office. Both loaves were 'not very good' (I am being diplomatic here; note the heavy sarcasm). The Apple Crumble was dry and did not have discernable apple; it was torture trying to finish a slice (which I managed with a large cup of coffee). On the opposite end of the moistness scale was the Orange loaf, which oozed with oiliness but again, lacked flavor (the orange proved rather illusory). It was torture of another sort, trying to finish a slice of this slab of oiliness (this time around, even the coffee didn't help). The lemon squares were better; i found them a bit sweet but my officemates enjoyed them (P480/two dozen).

 I haven't tried their iced cakes; so I am not able to render any judgement on these (and I am unlikely to, given my experience). The bakeshop also had petite sized cakes and tarts, but curiously, one can only buy these in groups of six (curious given that one of these small cakes would still be big enough for two to share). I tried to buy some of the small cakes but apparently, the remaining five would be left forsaken if had taken one of the group away. On a similar note, my purchase of the lemon squares was an afterthought; I had originally wanted to buy two boxes of 24s of their brownies but the store only had boxes of 12 left. A box of 24 sells for less than the box of 12; the store personnel couldn't sell me the four dozens at the lower price (i suspect it was because the brownies had already been packed by the dozen and been recorded as such). The bakeshop seems to have an extremely strict inventory policy (no breaking up of grouped cakes; no repacking allowed). I must admit, this inflexibility annoyed me (just a bit).

 I truly wanted to like Purple Oven, truly (hence my multiple trips back); this would have been the perfect go-to-place for desserts and baked stuff. Unfortunately, it seems I may need to go elsewhere.