How the Grand Order of Divine Sweets Tantalizes Fandoms with Chocolates & Cakes

Photo courtesy of The Grand Order of Divine Sweets

Fandoms often congregate online or at conventions but The Grand Order of Divine Sweets in Toronto is another truly sweet destination for devotees of the subculture.

Upon entering the Sci-Fi, fantasy and comics-inspired sweet shop and dessert cafe within the city’s West Queen West neighborhood, it is easy to geek out over specialty chocolates adorned with comic book character logos (think Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman). Fans of other genres - Harry Potter, Star Trek, Doctor Who and Star Wars, to start - will delight in seeing sweet versions of their beloved series. They might spot a chocolatey Death Star, or The Matrix bunny or a candy bar marked with the Hogwarts crest or Star Trek Enterprise plate.

Photo courtesy of The Grand Order of Divine Sweets

Background

Co-owners Sam Lapointe and Meridith Braun are behind the magic of The Grand Order of Divine Sweets (or also known as The GOoDS), which opened at its location in December 2019. The business partners met virtually that same year.

Lapointe is a chocolatier and cake designer and Braun is a retired gaming industry veteran whose resume includes the game, “Digital Extremes Warframe.” Braun recently had retired from the videogame industry when she learned about Lapointe through an article on her flood-damaged cake shop. Braun, who also had done some at-home cake design, was intrigued by Lapointe’s cake work in fandoms and contacted her, asking if she’d like to become business partners. “I also realized that there’s no one focusing on this area of dessert design in the fandom space even though some fandoms had become very mainstream in recent years, and biggest of all ‘why isn’t there a ‘Lady Cake Boss?’” says Braun. 

The two finally met in person in February 2019 and formulated their business partnership later that May. Amid the emerging global pandemic in 2020, Braun and Lapointe pivoted by building up their online presence and obtaining intellectual property licensing agreements. 

“We’re actually the first fresh food bakery [in Canada] to get the Harry Potter license,” says Braun, which she adds has been a huge help in pulling them out of a pandemic slump. The GOoDS has been producing Harry Potter themed products in conjunction with the current run of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto.

In talking about her partner Braun, Lapointe shares that “she has worked on a lot of really awesome video games that I actually played as a fan, which is really fun. And we got to know each other, and we just mesh really well together.”

With The Grand Order of Divine Sweets, Braun handles its business and marketing and came up with the name of their brand. In turn, Lapointe focuses on developing the recipes for their sweet geek treats, referring to herself as “a mad scientist” in the kitchen experimenting with ingredients and moldings.

Lapointe uses Callebaut Chocolate, citing their involvement in Cocoa Horizons, an impact-driven program for improving the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their families.

“I've always sort of stepped outside of the box as far as the themes and my designs and even a lot of my flavor combinations,” says Lapointe. “And [Braun] really liked that. Being a geek herself, it really spoke to her.”

Lapointe studied baking and pastry arts at George Brown College in Toronto and took classes through the Chocolate Academy Montreal and Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionary Arts, also in Toronto.

Photo courtesy of The Grand Order of Divine Sweets

Before The GOoDS, Lapointe owned Cakes Cove, a Toronto bakery that launched in 2013 at Fan Expo Canada. Due to damage caused by an upstairs unit flooding, she closed that bakery on New Year’s Day 2019 and, upon going into business with Braun, then rebranded Cakes Cove into The GOoDS.

Yet, Lapointe says that much of her culinary knowledge has been self-taught. “I’ll likely find myself at other courses as my curiosity and thirst for knowledge will always be a part of me. You’re never too old or too experienced to learn something new.”

Character Licensing & Seasonal Delights

Another aspect of Lapointe’s creations involves acquiring character licensing rights. She starts with making a prototype of this character in question chocolate and then submits it to the licensor for approval. In April 2022, The GOoDs held a two-day Fantastic Beasts themed pop up, with the staging inspired by the film’s Kowalski Quality Baked Goods.

Photo courtesy of The Grand Order of Divine Sweets

Fandom chocolates has also involved seasonal releases. For Easter, a collection of comic and fantasy eggs included a dark chocolate and a mossy green colored “Wonderland” with a golden keyhole base and an accompanying candy mushroom. Halloween, of course, is also a busy time for the shop; so is the holiday season and Valentine’s Day.

Using Sweets to Celebrate Fandom

An enthusiastic follower of many fandoms, Lapointe applies this interest to her craft because she finds that two elements in human history have always, and continue to, bring people together - sharing food and telling stories. To her, these movies, video game, TV and comic book franchises all tell good stories.

“I really wanted to combine the food elements with the stories and the fandoms that I grew up with. And I found out that a lot of other people enjoyed it as well,” says Lapointe. “Chocolate and cake are not only a delicious medium, but they're also a very creative medium that you can have a lot of fun with and play around with what you're doing within it.”

However, you don’t have to be part of a fandom to find something you’d like at The GOoDS. Other confections are equally wonderstruck. The candy bark line includes Mermaid Bark with white chocolate, sparkles and “a little magic” while the Circus Floor Bark has pretzels, caramel corn, potato chips and 24k edible gold. Some candy bars are even made for diabetics and use maltitol instead of sugar.

In the rear of the shop, the baked goods selection includes specialty muffins, cupcakes and cakes. Their signature tiered Tainted Love looks gut-retching but comes in a choice of cake flavors and buttercream fillings.

Photo courtesy of The Grand Order of Divine Sweets

One of Lapoint’s favorite signature products is the Galaxy Truffles, a solar system-inspired collection of candy planets whose looks and flavors match up to their cosmic descriptions. The Earth truffle has a vanilla caramel mantle and crunchy hazelnut core, while the Moon gives off a slight note of Parmesan as a nod to its fanciful cheese notion.

Another popular store item are the exploding caramels, which are self-descriptive. “When you bite into it, it does kind of explode, which is very exciting,” said Lapointe. But for fans of fandom, the whole store is truly a treat.