As voted by Rochester Magazine readers.

 

Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake

North Mr. Pizza

Classic recipe. The recipe for the Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake comes from original pastry chef Heather Fulton, part of the former family owners of North Mr. Pizza. Current head pastry chef Kara Mischke trained with Fulton for four years and perfected those cheesecake recipes that are still on the menu today.

Cheesecake for days. Here’s a pro tip from the North Mr. Pizza Kitchen: Get the cheesecake at the end of your family’s meal, regardless if you have room for it. The generous slice will be great after tomorrow’s lunch, as well. (Or why not breakfast? You’re an adult.)

Yin and Yang: Try the “Big Peppi,” a thin-crust, double pepperoni pizza with marinara sauce, roasted garlic, and mozzarella, asiago, and parmesan cheeses, and pair it with the Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake. The savory pizza meshes perfectly with the dessert’s sweetness.

Tiramisu from Terza RistoranteTiramisu from Terza | Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

Tiramisu

Terza

Whipping it up from scratch. Terza’s kitchen crafts the Tiramisu in-house every other day. First, the chefs whip the base layer of mascarpone, taking prepared ladyfingers and soaking them in house-made espresso and brandy. Then comes layer after layer of creamy mascarpone and ladyfingers, topped off with cocoa powder.

From the Old Country, not Google. The recipe comes from Chef Vincenzo Giangiordano (yes, he’s Italian) who brought the traditional, classic recipe to Terza when it opened about nine years ago. It’s been a staple of the menu since the restaurant opened its doors.

Perfect combination. The tiramisu has also inspired the “Terza-misu,” a specialty tiramisu-guided cocktail that combines vanilla vodka, Rumchata, Kahlua, chocolate liqueur, with a bit of cream. Look for that to return for a limited time later this year.

Bunnies' Coconut CakeBunnie's Coconut Cake | Traci Westcott / Post Bulletin

Bunnie’s Coconut Cake

Canadian Honker

Mamma knows best. When Joe Powers finished the menu for his first Canadian Honker restaurant in 1984, his father kept badgering him about putting his mother’s cake on the menu. The debate went back and forth, but eventually the elder Powers wore down his son, and Joe begrudgingly added his mom’s coconut cake. It immediately became a hit. “Thank God I did. The rest is history,” says Joe Powers, CEO of Powers Ventures.

That’s a lot of coconuts. On the Easter holiday alone, the Honker sold enough pieces of Bunnie’s Coconut Cake to equal 300 total cakes. At 12 slices out of each cake, that’s 3,600 pieces of cake.

Bunnie’s secret lives on. The exact origin of the recipe is unknown; Powers believes his mother might have gotten the ingredients from a 1960s era cookbook. But he also concedes that his mother was quite a cook, and could have added her own twist to it. In his own travels as a restaurateur, if he comes across a coconut cake on the menu, he’ll give it a try to see how it stacks up. “I have yet to find one like hers,” he says.

Sorellina’s Italian by Victoria’s tiramisu cheesecakeTiramisu Cheesecake from Sorellina's | Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

Tiramisu Cheesecake

Sorellina's

Fresh take on a classic. Sorellina’s bills itself as an updated take on the classic Italian fare offered by its sister restaurant Victoria’s, of which the Tiramisu Cheesecake is a direct representation. Pastry Chef Rachel Dolton specializes in cheesecake, and once she learned to make Victoria’s tiramisu, she began crafting her own recipe, combining tiramisu and cheesecake for the eatery.

Cakes on cakes on cakes. Sorellina’s goes through about 384 pieces of Tiramisu Cheesecake a week, making about 48 cakes total. It’s the most popular of their desserts, and while the dessert menu rotates its cheesecake offerings, the Tiramisu Cheesecake is always on hand.

Have some coffee with your coffee. The lighter, sweeter cheesecake pairs well with Sorellina’s chocolate martini, or even a classic black coffee.

Danish donuts from Marrow

Danish Donuts from Marrow | Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

Danish Donuts

Marrow

Donuts with foie gras? In. Marrow’s Danish Donuts are described as brown pancake balls, filled with a hazelnut mousse, along with foie gras acting as the butter.

A Christmas Miracle. The idea behind Danish Donuts came from co-owner Sarah Schwenker’s family, where the dessert is served every Christmas morning. From there, husband and co-owner Jeff Schwenker took his own long-time pancake recipe, and engineered an elevated take for the restaurant.

It translates to something ... completely different. It is known as “abelskiver” in Dutch, which literally translates to apple slices, although apples are no longer typically part of the dessert. The Danish Donuts have appeared on Marrow’s menu going back to its pop-up eatery days in 2018.

Pavlova from Our PaladarPavlova from Our Paladar | Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin

Pavlova

Our Paladar

Leave the berries, take the bananas. Whereas Pavlova is commonly a meringue-based dessert topped with an assortment of berries and kiwi, Our Paladar goes with a lighter take closer to a Bananas Foster, with caramel and rum along for the ride.

Step 1: Pasta. Step 2: What do we do with all these eggs? Step 3: Pavlova. When Our Paladar chefs first began hand-crafting their pasta, they found themselves sitting with four dozen egg whites a day. How could they put them to good use? Easy. A dessert centered around egg whites. Enter the meringue-based pavlova.

Elevation over activity. For co-owners and chefs Kiefer Manning and Nick Diaz, it’s not about overly-detailed dishes bombarding the palate, Manning says. With the Pavlova, it’s making sure each step is perfect, from perfect peaks on the egg whites, to proper rest time from the oven, to the short shelf life meringue affords. “We want to take great, local ingredients, apply a solid foundation and technique, and let everything shine on the plate,” Manning says.