EDITOR’S NOTE: Critic’s Close-up offers occasional tastes of bakeries, delicatessens and other places close to a restaurant critic’s heart. The old-timer spoke through a mouthful of muffin: “Blueberries ward off old-timers.”

He swallowed and said it again: “Blueberries ward off Alzheimer’s.”

He held out his half-eaten muffin and nearly blew my mind. I won’t forget the bevy of blueberries in that moist little muffin.

Standing in Corina Bakery, it struck me: Big treats hide in little places. That, in a nutshell, is Corina Bakery, a diminutive storefront shop that opened Jan. 16, specializing in homey cakes, pies, cheesecake and pudding, plus nibbles such as muffins, cookies and cupcakes.

Little is a description best limited to the 600-square-foot bakery, named for owner Jessica Gaya’s 4-year-old daughter.

Most of Corina’s cakes are towering triple-layer affairs. I don’t mean one 9-inch cake split into three layers and decorated. I mean three 9-inch cakes layered on top of each other, with frosting in between and all around.

Slices of cake (Corina Bakery cuts one cake into eight pieces) stand 4 to 6 inches tall – hefty but not so unwieldy that they must be laid on their sides to be consumed.

“They come out pretty big,” said Gaya, who runs the shop with her husband, Walter. “I increased a lot of the recipes so that I would have giant cakes – just for fun.”

Also fun are the cakes themselves – Red Velvet cake, Hummingbird cake, German chocolate cake – creations that are more Betty Crocker basic than Martha Stewart perfection.

“I definitely wanted something that was just down-to-earth, homemade, not fancy,” said Gaya, who previously worked in bakeries in Portland and on the East Coast. “There’s no creepy stuff in it that most bakeries put in it like stabilizers and preservatives. I just wanted it to feel like grandma’s house.”

Red Velvet cake was certainly a retro delight, a tender chocolate-buttermilk cake brightened with red food coloring and encased in cream cheese frosting. A Southern favorite, it’s stunning without being staining: Red food coloring turns cocoa-powder batter a vivid shade of ruby, but doesn’t color your tongue or teeth.

Hummingbird cake isn’t for light eaters. An oil-based cake with bananas, pineapple and pecans, it was even more luscious than its cream cheese frosting.

Lemon-coconut cake was a pleasing contrast of flavors and textures. Shredded coconut sweetened the lemony cake’s lemon curd filling and added a chewy edge to airy meringue frosting, whose dry, exposed surface was lightly crackly.

Vanilla cheesecake towered atop a thick graham cracker crust. Sour cream provided a top layer of tang.

Pecan pie was sweet and slightly toasty. Its buttery bronze crust was crisp and crumbly.

Gaya called her lemon bars “nothing special … just butter and flour mixed in the Kitchen Aid and squished into a pan.” Oh, the modesty. The crumbly crust was tender and buttery. A light spread of lemon curd was topped with a crackly sugar crust.

Save room for pudding. Corina Bakery’s vanilla pudding is made even creamier with the addition of whipped cream. The three times I sampled the pudding, it was layered with sliced bananas and Nilla Wafers, which, having absorbed some of the pudding’s moisture, turned plump and cakey. Each spoonful was light, but servings are whopping, in 12-, 16- and 20-ounce to-go coffee cups.

French press coffee is also on the menu.

Seating is limited. Because customers must travel through the kitchen to get to the bakery’s lone restroom, the health department limited Corina Bakery to just two tables. One table and two chairs went in last week. There’s a bench by the counter.

Although the bakery resides on an incline as Sixth Avenue descends from Tacoma Avenue toward Fawcett, sidewalk seating may be an option.

“We’re trying to figure out how to do that without having people roll down the hill,” Gaya said.

Not stuffing customers with sweet treats could be a start. But that would be no fun at all.

Ed Murrieta: 253-597-8678

ed.murrieta@thenewstribune.com

Corina Bakery 510 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253-627-5070

HOURS: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sundays

PRICES: Cake ($3.85 slice, $24 whole), pie ($2.75/$14.95), cheesecake ($4.25/$28), cupcakes $1.25, muffins $1, pudding $2.95-$3.85