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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Winnipeg
Tall angel food-style sponge cake made with egg whites and pecan halves, filled and covered with whipped cream and drizzled with caramel sauce. It’s a celebratory dessert associated with Winnipeg.
Traditional sweet from Winnipeg, Manitoba
Also known as: shmoo torte, schmoo, shmoo
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Schmoo torte — Winnipeg, Canada
The schmoo torte is a Winnipeg dessert. The base is a light, tall egg-white sponge—an angel food style—with ground pecans folded into the batter. After baking, the cake is sliced into layers, filled with whipped cream, covered with more cream and drizzled with caramel sauce, and topped with pecans.
The most common account links the cake to the city’s Jewish community. One story says a mother made it for her son’s bar mitzvah.
The origin of the name is also uncertain.
In Winnipeg, the schmoo torte is a frequent presence on dessert tables at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs and other celebrations, and it appears in the display cases of local bakeries and cafés.
Winnipeg , Manitoba
Angel food–style egg-white sponge with ground pecans; whipped cream; caramel sauce; pecans for topping.
Served in tall slices, chilled, with caramel sauce on top.
All year round; commonly served at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs and other family celebrations.
Your questions
A Winnipeg dessert made with an egg-white sponge and pecans, filled and covered with whipped cream and drizzled with caramel sauce.
The most often-told history links the cake to Winnipeg’s Jewish community: a local mother is said to have made it for her son’s bar mitzvah.
In Winnipeg it appears mainly on dessert tables at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs and other celebrations, and also in bakeries and cafés.
Flavors of Canada
Vodka cocktail with tomato and clam juices, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce, served in a tall glass with a celery salt rim, a celery stalk and lemon. It was created in Calgary in 1969 and is considered Canada’s national cocktail.
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Beef seasoned and roasted on a vertical spit, thinly sliced and served in a pita with tomato, onion and a sweet sauce of condensed milk, vinegar and garlic. Created in Halifax in the 1970s, it is the city’s official food.
Soft bread filled with pieces of cooked lobster mixed with mayonnaise, celery, and a little lemon, served cold. It’s a traditional way to eat Prince Edward Island lobster.
Smaller, more compact and slightly sweet, hand-rolled, dipped in boiling water with honey and baked in a wood-fired oven. It arrived in Montreal with Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the early 20th century and became one of the city’s signatures.
Beef brisket cured with salt and spices, smoked and cooked, served in thick slices on rye bread with mustard. Brought to Montreal by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is one of the dishes most associated with the city.
Sweet in three layers that doesn’t go in the oven: cookie base with cocoa, coconut and almonds, a yellow vanilla cream in the middle, and chocolate on top. It’s named for the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, which selected an official recipe in the 1980s.
Dessert wine made from grapes that freeze naturally on the vine and are harvested and pressed frozen, which concentrates sugar and acidity. In Niagara-on-the-Lake, on the Niagara Peninsula, wineries produce it and the town hosts a winter festival dedicated to it.
Blueberries cooked with sugar in a covered pan, with steamed dough dumplings on top. It’s a traditional dessert from Nova Scotia, linked to the blueberry harvest in August and September.
Large dumpling made from grated raw potato and mashed cooked potato, filled with salted pork and boiled in water. It is an Acadian dish from southeastern New Brunswick.
Individual tart made with pie crust filled with butter, sugar, syrup and egg; creamy inside and firmer on top. The earliest known printed recipe dates from 1900 in Barrie, and the tart features on bakery and festival trails in Ontario.
Sweet cider distilled only from Quebec apples, whose sugar is concentrated by the natural cold of winter. Protected as a geographical indication, it has aromas of fresh and baked apple, honey and dried fruit.
French fries topped with fresh cheese curds that squeak between your teeth, and a hot gravy. It originated in roadside eateries in rural Quebec in the late 1950s and became one of the province’s culinary symbols.
Buttery shortcrust pastry pie filled with saskatoon berries, small purple prairie fruits similar to blueberries with an almond-like flavor. It’s a traditional pie from Saskatchewan.
Salted beef cooked with cabbage, potato, carrot and rutabaga, served with pea pudding and gravy. It is the traditional Sunday dinner in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Pieces of bread dough fried in pork lard until golden, served hot with molasses. They are the traditional breakfast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Sweet roll of fried dough, similar to a flattened cinnamon bun, covered with a pink red-fruit glaze. It’s the sweet most associated with Thunder Bay, in northern Ontario.
Sandwich of cured, unsmoked pork loin, coated in cornmeal, grilled and served hot on a soft roll, usually with mustard. Linked to Toronto’s pork history, it was declared the city’s signature dish in 2016.
Beef hamburger topped with a chili-style meat sauce, long-sliced dill pickles, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and mustard. It’s the drive-in sandwich of Winnipeg.
Pancakes made with sourdough starter, the prospectors’ recipe from the Klondike Gold Rush. In the Yukon they are a breakfast tied to the territory’s history and to Whitehorse’s winter festival.
