W=Walnut Cakes (with a surprise twist!)

In Korea, a yummy street food staple are Hodu Kwaja — aka walnut cakes — that are traditionally filled with sweetened red bean paste (the quintessential Asian pastry filling) but one bakery called Hodo Kwaja, (in Toronto’s Koreatown) the surprise twist is a decadent, creamy filling of mashed potatoes mixed with almonds or walnuts.

If visiting Toronto, you can see the modern process of making walnut cakes up close and personal through the front window of the bakery. There, they have placed the machine that fills the molds with batter, bean paste, and mashed potato mixture, then shapes and bakes everything into the perfectly browned, impossibly soft cakes which are said to be creamy, chewy, and luxurious!

Make sure you are there between 11:30-1:30 or later on between 4:30 and 5:30pm. What a treat!!