Sunday Randomness #113 : Mrs. Backers Bakery in Utah

Mrs. Backers Bakery has been around since before I was born. (Which is a number of decades now!)

We bought their mini eclairs for Mica and FryGuy (Sven?)'s reception.  They are one of the last if not the only bakery left in Utah to make everything from scratch for their eclairs from the choux pastry to the custard to the ganache and buttercream flower on top.  We received so many compliments on the eclairs-we had done taste tests with over a 1/2 a dozen other bakeries and definitely preferred the ones from Mrs Backers.  The above cookie and other treat pictures were taken this year (2024)-so glad they are still making their delicious bakery goods! My personal favorite?  Their white cupcake with the pink poof frosting on top.  I remember getting one after obstetrician appointments (when I was expecting Hedgehog and Daisy) which happened to be at a medical office building conveniently across the street from Mrs. Backer's. 

See their website for more pictures of their treats and desserts: https://www.mrsbackers.com/desserts/  They are also on some social media platforms.

Mego found these pages from a 1958 Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop calendar that his mom had saved-I'm sharing the vintage nostalgia:

 

Bakery comparison: Carol's Pastry Shop and Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop

Carol's lemon tart, eclairs, chocolate donut, maple bar, wedding cookie  Everything was good but the pate choux shells of the eclairs was great. The filling not so much.  Carol's Pastry Shop was established in 1948 in the Salt Lake valley in the sugarhouse area.  Find out more at their site: https://carolspastryshop.wixsite.com/carolspastry

Mrs. Backer's was established in the Salt Lake valley in 1941 in the downtown area.  Find out more at their site: http://www.mrsbackers.com/    Mrs. Backer's chocolate donut, eclairs. wedding cookie, maple bear donut  (continued below)

 

Mrs. Backer's pink sugar cookie, macaroon (coconut based-not the French sandwich macaron cookies), fancy cakes-german chocolate and pineapple rum chocolate.  Everything was great except the maple bear and chocolate donut which were just good.  

We're probably going to stick with Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop for the most part. We did a taste test of eclairs from all over the valley including Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop, Carol's Pastry Shop, Granite Bakery, Schmidt's Bakery (which does have the best marzipan cakes in the valley in our opinion!), Leslie's French Pastries, Eclair French Pastry (where the eclairs are $5.00 each and about 20-30% of the time the filling has been curdled inside-do not recommend but should probably try them again), V & R Bakery (which have some of the best danish pastries I've ever had along with rustic breads, cakes, amazing individual deserts,etc...),  and some grocery store eclairs.  Dan's grocery store use to have really good eclairs at some of their stores but now they tastes like the same prepacked filling that is used by grocery store bakeries and even some little individual bakeries.  

Mrs. Backer's eclairs won over-all for their pate choux, house made pastry cream, and chocolate ganache.