Let's have a drink to celebrate 4 years of indulgence...

How time flies. It never ceases to amaze me how far we've come in life. And does every year go by quicker than the last? How is it possible that we've had 4 full years of indulgence already?!

Let's do some maths: if each piece of indulgence contains an average 500 calories, and I have 3 items per tour, that's 132 indulgent experiences ... ok let's skip the calorie count already...

To celebrate 4 full years of indulgence, and that it's again close to the end of the year, we decided to have a drink to it ... more precisely, have a dessert WITH a drink or two in it - Alcoholic dessert home bake! To make it more challenging, our dear CEO came up with the rule of "4 ingredient dessert" that includes the alcoholic ingredient... significantly limited what we could do. But then again, who could resist strawberry and champagne (or sparkling white, now that Champagne should be reserved for bubblies produced in Champagne only) to go with a flaming crepe suzette? See, that's an alcoholic dessert to start your day ....

So we started the day with an affogato: freshly brewed espresso, liquor of your choice (suggest Frangelico, or Kahlua, or Bailey, or something sweet and sticky but not fruity), and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. You'd think the coffee will be masked by the ice cream and the liquor, but no, a good coffee always comes through, as does good quality ice cream (recommend Connoisseurs vanilla bean ice cream, but if you have many guests any creamy ice cream will do).

It was suggested to us by a non-participating dessertee to have a sparkling white spider - ie bubblie + ice cream - but somehow we didn't think the prosecco was working (except MB who thought anything ice cream, and anything alcoholic, was divine), but Tempus 2 golden botrytis worked better.

This is my 'guilt free' dessert - making Italian zabaglione is a little bit of hard work, as you need to whisk the egg yolks over a bain marie manually until it's light and fluffy ... half an hour later, light, melt in your mouth golden botrytis zabaglione was ready! I reckon I burnt off all the calories from one serving of zabaglione with the half hour of whisking. Well worth the effort.

At any dessert experience, there must be chocolate. Our visiting dessert aficionado JT, all the way from South Africa, brought us hand made truffles with liquor. Gorgeous, professional and absolutely divine, beautifully tempered dark chocolate. All she needed was a box, and she's ready to sell!

So the rest of the afternoon we just chilled, nibbled on ice cream, and chocolate, sipped prosecco, topped ice cream with Kahlua, or coffee, thinking about our future dessert adventures... next year will be interesting for you DDDs, as there will be a European and South American DDT experience in 2012 - stay tuned!!!

CS

[KT: South American experience? Are you only referring to Eze's presence? teehee]

Sugar Hit 2011: a 4 part sweet shot!!

October has been one of the most exciting months of the year for one fabulous reason: it is the annual Sydney International Food Festival - food is all around us throughout the month, and for us dessertees, it's a matter of multiple choice questions with multiple answers: which ones do we opt for?

This year though, we found the variety somewhat lacking compared to previous years: it used to trouble us trying to narrow it down to 5, but this year we found it hard to select for one SugarHit  per week.... but of course, we did eventually.

The Cortile at the InterContinental is a frequent SugarHit destination as they usually offer creative desserts. This year the bitter chocolate vacherin sold me: it's a mousse like dessert but isn't as airy. The blood orange custard sandwiched within gave an exciting citrus explosion, a well-combined contrasting flavour to the mild bitter chocolate. The pistachio however paled in comparison (in my opinion). The plate was decorated with sprinkles of wattle seed dust - it's aromatic but not so keen on the texture as everything else was delicate. The mini chocolate and bergamot macaron - delicate, fragile, lovely flavour ... I heart thee.

In one of the previous home bakes we had a theme of sweet and savoury, which confused/intimidated/scared many, at the same time we had willing and daring creations that charmed us all. The gorgonzola panna cotta at Ocean Room was probably not a popular dessert pick, blue cheese is very much an acquired taste to start with, and to have this in dessert? Then again, I did once have a brilliant sweet savoury dish of roasted fig with gorgonzola and honey, as well as red wine poached pear with gorgonzola, maybe this SugarHit pick will add to my gorgonzola dessert repertoire?

When the wobbly plates of panna cotta were carefully placed in front of us, I knew it was going to be good: Smooth and fragile, it was drizzled in caramel sauce, served with caramelized banana, and citrus jelly. Perfect consistency for panna cotta (lush, creamy, but not heavy at all), and only a hint (but definite) of gorgonzola , giving this creamy dessert more body. Caramelised bananas, well, not a personal favourite dessert, but it was rich and complemented the panna cotta. The flavoursome citrus jelly was a surprising delight, I could have this jelly (or jam) every day. Wine: Think it was Brown Brother's sparkling moscato - the kind of stuff I drink too quickly and makes me sing and dance unashamedly... (lucky for Ocean Room, I didn't)

Getting a table at Hilton's Glass Brasserie was a pain. In fact the same thing happened last year and we ended up skipping Hilton altogether. Then we turned up to find the Glass Brasserie quiet and spacious - booked out?! Really? Or is it that the managers simply didn't want the classy restaurant packed with fanatical sweet teeth with cameras and annoying flashlights?

Never mind all that. We were drawn here by the milk chocolate bavarois with tonka bean creme brulee and caramel sorbet with salted beans - definitely more popular and readily accepted than the gorgonzola panna cotta the previous week. Each mouthful divine - the subtle sweet savoury flavours rocked. Silky smooth texture in the caramel sorbet, with a surprise hit of crushed nuts. The bavarois-creme brulee layers were like a semi-freddo in texture, with delicate flavour leaving us wanting more. Coincidentally it was similar to the vacherin (see above) in texture but definitely not flavour.

I left Cafe Ish's "Create your own" dessert to last, partly because after 3 divine Sugar Hits we should have better ideas of how to construct a dessert ... On the way there, we were guessing how it was going to work, and thought it's likely that we'd have elements of both Australian and Japanese desserts on a plate, and we'd basically be challenged on our plating skills. Was there gonna be Anzac biscuits and green tea flavoured stuff, and maybe red bean paste and meringue .... the mind boggled!

Surry Hills is great. As we circled around looking for Cafe Ish, we kept pointing out interesting looking cafes/restaurants/shops along the way - lucky residents!  It's a mixture of the funky, the classy and the creative. DDT must return to spend a day in this neighbourhood.

Our dessert came on an artist's palette, and we were given little spatulas, brushes, droppers and forceps - tools to be creative with. Sauces were in little dips on the palette, so were the berry and red bean paste; A scoop of wattle seed ice cream sat in the middle, an Anzac biscuit, tiny piece of meringue and a biscotti surrounded the ice cream. Cubes of jelly were stacked in the other little dips of the palette. Really, the presentation on its own was so lovely, most of us just wanted to eat it straight away! Besides, the ice cream was melting ... had to just eat it...

But no. Not I. I'm not Adriano Zumbo, but I am a scientist (what's the association here??) and I have a graphic designer sister. I MUST play with my food ... and my mum never had to tell me to stop playing with my food (never had to - always a good eater). First thing was to move the ice cream onto the plate. Then I just stabbed the (red) spatula into the ice cream. Anzac biscuit was crumbled and scattered on top of the ice cream. A couple of droplets of custard carefully placed next to the ice cream ... having decided that it was too pretentious, I just smeared it a little and left the brush where it was. Then I drizzled the custard on the meringue. And stacked the jelly on the tuille biscuit. 

No I didn't have any design in mind, really I was just playing with my food. 

It was fun. Ice cream was fabulous, Anzac biscuit was nutty and crumbly (not tough and chewy like some others)... but that was all I could say about the dessert. The concept was great, but the contents ordinary. The biscotti was rather tough. There was not enough of the authentically Japanese flavours: Where was the green tea? I was also hoping for some mochi, or maybe black sesame (though technically it's Chinese, but then again fusion cuisine is meant to be borderless). And we were somewhat disappointed that our lamington was absent from the Australian dessert component. And what's with the yellow stuff I thought was custard ... it tasted weird to me, almost garlicky!! What the....%$#@ It was a great night nonetheless.

That concludes the Divine Dessert Tour's attempt at Sugar Hit 2011. Many lovely memories: I was asked which one was my favourite, but I really couldn't say - scroll up to see for yourself the first 3 divine offers and you will understand why it was hard to choose a favourite. Of course I may be biased by my personal preference for delicate and sophisticated, French influenced flavours ... then again, which dessert aficionado isn't? 

CS

Divine Dessert does EUROPE!

What on earth happened to DDT the last few months?? August DDT was canceled for the first time ever because of poor (non) turn out (to Adriano - WERE YOU PEOPLE CRAZY?!), so our CEO reported her divine dessert encounter in Buenos Aires ... followed by a culinary September where we had our private DDT in where we consider the gourmet capital of the world - FRANCE.

To line our dessert stomach, we headed to the "best afternoon tea" in London, where high tea all started - the Langham Hotel. We opted for the Alice in Wonderland, and chose from their extensive tea selections. It was a lovely touch that we were able to change tea free of charge, if we did not like the taste we could have another one free of charge, though given the price of course it should be!!

Choux pastry with raspberry creme patissier was so light, but with distinct but subtle (how does that work?!) raspberry flavour. The friand with raspberries and pistachio cream was topped with a tiny thin strip of raspberry dark chocolate - even with such a small piece of chocolate you can taste the raspberry flavour. It was amazing. The glittery chocolate ganache covered ball was the best carrot cake I have ever had, with the luxury of gold foil and "bling" of the glitters - cuteness. The whole presentation was just sweet and cute - shortbread on a stick like a lolly pop, glitter on ganache and pink pearly rice bubbles on cupcakes....

The savouries were underwhelming and nothing "wonderland" about them - chicken and tarragon sandwiches were delicious, out of the 4 different sandwiches on the plate. Neither the salmon cream cheese nor egg sandwiches were extraordinary; and I don't get cucumber sandwiches. It is tradition - but if it doesn't give anybody fireworks on their tastebuds, why bother continuing that tradition?

Finally there were the scones and cream and fruit conserves - good warm scones, rich double cream and flavoursome jams. But we were too full to finish our scones - gasp! Oh well.

In hindsight we should have ordered from two different high tea menus despite the other one being £50. Next time maybe (not)? Overall we felt underwhelmed by the food - possibly the hype of the "best high tea in London 2010" award meant we expected a lot. The service was impeccable though.

Paris, here we come! It was exhilarating traversing the English channel and when we reached the light at the end of the tunnel, nous sommes arrivés en France! My first baguette, first plain (butter) croissant, first croissant aux amandes et chocolat, first macaron, first meal of cured duck breast fillet, were all big milestones. And I had it all in the first 24 hours! :D~~ The small boulangerie just down the road sells the best chocolate and almond croissant (not chocolate or almond, but chocolate AND almond), it's moist and fluffy at the same time. And the local patisserie 2 blocks from me, had beautiful macarons and baguettes. Cafe/bar just on the other end of my street, generous, simple and delicious cured duck breast salad. It would have been easy to live here and not venture out, I have my breakfast, second breakfast, lunch and dinner sorted!

Along my Paris experience were many boulangeries (bakers), fromageries (cheese), charcuteries (cured meats), patisseries (cakes and pastries), cafes and restaurants. I had many opportunities to stop and sample, as well as missed opportunities because it was not humanly possible to. But here are the few places of our dessert pilgrimage of Paris - including Laduree, Lenotre, and Pierre Herme - requiring special mentions.

Chance brought me my first Lenotre experience - just walking along, contemplating whether to find a cafe to rest my feet, or catch the metro back to the hotel to rest my feet, then like angels descending on me - ok stop that melodrama -  Lenotre. It was a beautiful patisserie, cakes were painstakingly constructed, everything made with love and respect. There were no tables so I had no choice but to buy something least likely to be damaged in transit - macarons. It was the first time EVER I ate 4 macarons in one sitting and not get sick from the sugar - they were so light! And each one had its distinct flavour, not masked by the heavy sugar (such as those often found in Sydney - Eugh!), it was only fair to say - PERFECT macarons, where you could only judge it by whether you liked the flavour.

Perfect macarons from Lenotre - lightly crunchy, melt in your mouth, light and fragile, feet that don't extend beyond the dome, and no air pocket under the smooth dome.

The next Lenotre encounter was also by chance - walking towards Avenue des Champs-Elysees and we noticed the Lenotre school and restaurant (Le Pavillon Elysee Lenotre). A very elegant establishment, the entry hall is filled with designer and specialty kitchenware (I could spend hours looking at them!!), cook books (ditto previous comment). Then, you make a turn, and enter the restaurant in the sun room. Or you could choose to sit at the balcony - weather permitting. The whole atmosphere was relaxed and elegant - ah this is the lifestyle I long for.

This is deviating from the dessert theme but I must mention their 'fish sausage stuffed with minced mushrooms, served with chicken jus and spring vegetables. The flavours were very simple, I love the way the French let the ingredient speak for themselves - Nothing is lost through the cooking process. The salmon tartare was also a hit - served with green tea and mint foam - subtle flavour that just waltzed on the tastebuds!! It intrigues me that the flavours were distinct, but subtle, completely opposite from many other cuisines (such as SE Asian, Indian, Moroccan, Southern Chinese) which uses strong flavours that explodes in your mouth, this style to me is the ultimate in food sophistication - back to basics.

The amazing fish sausage stuffed with minced mushroom, served on a bed of spring veges and chicken jus; the salmon tartare, and green tea and mint foam.

For dessert, we had an XXL millefeuille with bourbon infused vanilla creme patissier, served with raspberry coulis. XXL? Yep, and it was enormous! I have never seen a millefeuille this big (probably 25cm long!). Tasty it was! We also had 2 macarons (part of my set 3 course meal) - lemon and pink grapefruit - tres bon.

Coffee served in a cup with a lid, macarons, and giant millefeuille.

Another famous establishment that has (predominantly American) tourists queuing from about midday onwards - Laduree. They have many shops dotted around Paris and are famous for their macarons and pastry creations. I chanced upon Laduree many times, in the 1er, in the 6eme, on Champs Elysees (afternoon tea in their salon de the).

Laduree salted caramel macaron, shop front, and their heart-shaped rose Ispahan

Again, my comment for the macarons is that they were all perfectly constructed; the only variable to judge by was the flavour. I was not a fan of their salted caramel - it was a filling of rich caramel that wasn't very salty, quite different from my expectation (and comparison to La Renaissance in The Rocks). Other flavours that stood out in my memory was the green apple - slightly tart and fresh, a flavour I will attempt to recreate.

The ambiance of the Salon de The (tea room) was posh, but a little cluttered (to fit more tables?) and therefore noisy. The waiters were friendly, but because they were busy it was difficult to get their attention. We had the pistachio macaron pistachio creme patissier and creme chantilly, and a classic French desset Mont Blanc. The pistachio macaron dessert was practically pistachio on pistachio with pistachio - no doubt it was pistachio based dessert. Highly recommended. The Mont Blanc was a simple dessert of smooth chestnut puree on whipped cream and thin pastry. I would recommend this dessert if you like chestnut puree - which was 80% of this dessert.

I wasn't convinced that Laduree lived up to the hype. I enjoyed the experience, the desserts were tantalising, beautifully created, but somehow, either I've lost that initial "wow" I had on first arrival, or I had been having such wonderful pastries the standard had been raised.

How I will cope with the desserts in Sydney... let's worry about that later.

Pierre Hermes is another well-known establishment famous for his macarons. His signature dessert is (apparently) the rose Ispahan, an amazing creation of rose scented macarons filled with fresh raspberries. I had the fortune of just walking past one, without the infamous queue of tourists, and took the opportunity of grabbing the rose ispahan as well as a couple of other macarons - salted caramel (again not salty enough) and jasmine - which was lovely and fragrant, loved it. Cassis was also a hit with my companion - tangy cassis jelly cut the sweetness of the macaron.

Bliss.

My travel companions opted for something chocolatey - oh my. Chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache, topped with pieces of chocolate. It was simply luscious, but even a chocoholic like her could not finish this!

Chocolate dome; various macarons; and the beautiful ispahan.

It was hard to leave Paris. It was harder to accept that, despite the gourmet culture we have in Sydney, the level of sophistication is simply not comparable to that of France. They do take their food very seriously, and it is so ingrained in their culture that you don't have to go far to find satisfaction (or above). One thing though - would you French people learn to make espresso properly! That PLASTIC cup of watery espresso for take away is simply not acceptable ... Italy is your immediate neighbour - TALK TO THEM! At least, it was tolerable coffee - coffee from Belgium was simply not palatable.

So we leave you with more photos of goodness from Paris - and will come back to Sydney for DDT OCTOBER GOOD FOOD MONTH!

CS

Gerard Mulot in 6eme

Delicatessen and fromagerie in 6eme; and the busy Gerard Mulot

Lenotre *LOVE*

Mariage Frere's tea house - famous for an extremely extensive tea menu. SNOB salad - very snobbish, very delicious!

Grand Marche at the Lafayette department store. Foodie heaven! If I die here, I die happy. All sorts of goodies you only imagined - and they exist!

Around the world in Enmore!

I had to have a huge appetite.

A couple of days leading to our culinary round-the-world trip, I had 3 DDDs cancel (one going home leaving Sydney that day, one had to be at the other side of Sydney [in this rain? Not pleasant] and another one has a last minute thing pop up). As I'd offered to eat their share of sweet indulgence for them (plus KT's ) ... I had to eat for myself and 4 others today.

Let's just say I'll have a food baby by the end of the day ... or food quadruplet, more like.

My parking luck was truly legendary. Untimed parking across the road from Pickwick's! It wasn't the result of my painstaking street-parking research but through pure luck.... rainy day demands good parking spot!

I did not hesitate to order the brioche French Toast (with ricotta, lemon myrtle honey, cinnamon sugar, strawberries and fresh raspberry compote). Coulis was fresh crushed raspberry, layers of brioche bread soaked in custards, generous and sweet fresh strawberries piled up on the plate ... And, bonus - good Toby's Estate coffee.

I decided to skip Ocean and Cow & The Moon as it was too cold for icy desserts and I didn't want to miss out on the famous Blackstar 'goo' chocolate tart (they sold out early afternoon last time we came). And I found parking just outside Black Star - AGAIN! I was free from any parking problem in Newtown ... that's unheard of!! 

Black Star is phenomenal because despite the miserable weather, there was still a queue out the door and the chairs outside the bakery were still occupied! From a large selection these were cherry picked: a canelle (a French dessert that looks unassuming but has a lovely caramelised flavour), a goo tart (KT: uh, they won't know what DDD asks for coz WE call it the goo tart haha. It's the chocolate & caramel tart!), and a beautifully constructed strawberry watermelon and rose cake. 

Strawberry watermelon and rose cake was melt-in-your-mouth moist and fragrant, the texture more like trifle because it was so moist; I have never had a dessert with a slice of watermelon in the middle - it was lovely but although the flavour was great, I question the texture as the rest of the cake was so fragile and tender. I love this dessert nonetheless. Canelle is a classic baked dessert that isn't eye-catching. It's something you must have tried to appreciate it. Slightly crispy on the caramelised surface, slightly doughy centre, very fragrant. And then the star of Black Star - the chocolate caramel 'goo' tart , gorgeous, decadent, gooey and luscious, pinch of salt to cut the sweetness, but the caramel was so sweet it  overpowered the chocolate - who would have thought! [KT: compared to the pic from 2009 it's not as GOOEY the chocolate... the cold weather? change of recipe?]

Next time I have a chance to visit Black Star, and if they still make it, must try their salted caramel panna cotta.

Had to battle the rain and again find parking, and again I had the good fortune of finding free parking just around the corner from the next destination! Pity about the rain, it didn't matter where we went, it was miserable.

Decided to fast-forward to Luxe Bakery and finish the day early - Funky warehouse style interior, a wall of (nearly sold out) organic sourdough loaves, and a cabinet of tarts and pastries perfect for the afternoon. Creamy smooth tangy lemon curd on flaky pastry similar to that of Bourke Street bakery, highly recommended. The loaves were so tantalizing I had to take one home.

A real shame about the weather - would have been a lovely day otherwise Hopefully we'll have a good October for Crave International Food Festival!

CS

[KT: Line your tummies, ardent dessertees!!!!]

Hidden gems in Marrickville

I actually hoped to go to Newtown this month - Black Star's "goo" salted chocolate and caramel tart had been calling me - but got the neighbouring suburb instead, thanks to the superb organisational skills of our CEO from exactly the opposite side of the world. The route of our Marrickville adventure spans about 2.5km from start to finish, which meant either a lot of walking (useful for working off our sugar high) or carpooling (if sugar isn't a problem for your blood). It was a lovely sunny but cool day - the chill of the tail of our winter lingers - quite perfect for a stroll, really.

Miss Petty Cash Cafe was an unassuming place around the corner off the main street, but I found it packed with locals. It really was quite lovely sitting by the sidewalk, watching the world go by... and being off the main road, it was VERY pleasant.

Lovely breakfast selection on the menu - of course the chocolate brioche French toast was selected, as well as buttermilk pancakes with fresh fruit and maple syrup. Was it too early for a chocolate brownie? NEVER!

Light, fragrant and syrupy pancakes and piles of fresh fruit adorn the generous plate. The raspberry friand, chocolate brownie and "chocolate friand" (which tasted more like a brownie) were moist, chocolate brownie decadent (KT, come back ...). The highlight was the chocolate brioche French toast though - the waiter said "you might need a box for the left-overs"... to which I replied "you have not seen me eat, obviously".

What else can I say about this tower of brioche stack with chocolate ganache, chocolate sauce, praline and ice cream apart from simply indulgent?  Yes. The brioche was a tad dry. Pity, otherwise a beautiful dessert/breakfast to die for. [KT: note to self, Sunday breakfast at home in BA. *drool*]

Perfect day for a stroll - a little nippy in the shade, but we were armed with chocolatey goodness so fearlessly we headed to the next spot - one of my all-time favourites - Bourke St Bakery. But it's not at Bourke St. Who cares really, if I could get my brulee tart and other delectable goodies, I will happily have it anywhere.

As always, beautiful pastry - either the tart base or the flaky Danish. I will always order a brulee tart from Bourke St Bakery, although I usually opt for the strawberry brulee tart rather than the ginger brulee tart. However there was nothing to hate about the ginger tart - it was just as creamy and luscious. Our favourite was the simple date and custard tart - everyone took one mouthful and said, "mmmm!" because it was just such a simple, subtle but flavoursome treat now added to my "must have" list from Bourke St Bakery (strawberry brulee tarts, chocolate and raspberry tart, croissant). However I'm not quite sure about the cherry and fennel seed sourdough ... excellent bread, just not so taken by the flavour.

Cafe New Deli's cake display cabinet housed some rather unusual tartes and tortes - Belgium chocolate and meringue tart, for example - who has seen a non-citrus meringue tart before? The chocolate ganache was decadently dark but with the meringue, it felt rich. Linzar tart was filled with at least two punnets of berries - a tart of a home made berry jam, it's tangy and packed with flavours, highly recommended. Cafe New Deli makes fresh juices of your choice, I chose an apple, pineapple and lime juice - would have loved to have more lime, but it was still very refreshing.

Our final stop was the sweetest spot of Hellenic Bakery, where we knew we will have all things syrupy. We wished for more company as we entered, there were so many cakes and biscuits and custards and other Greek specialty sweets to choose from. We ended up with just a couple of custard desserts and a take home pack of syrupy nutty citrusy biscuits. Very rich, in need of coffee to wash them down!!

Pity Old Thanh Huong which was just across the road was closed, otherwise I could have used the icy 3-bean dessert drink to refresh myself. Then again, I don't think my body would appreciate the ice on this cool late winter afternoon.... Another lovely day had, as always!

CS

ps it never ceased to amaze me how we always managed a table everywhere we went - but given our next spot is the always busy Newtown/Enmore, we shall try our luck!!

Caffeine addicts unite!! Aroma Festival 2011

This is what 100s and 1000s of people came for!

I've been to every single Aroma Coffee Festival. At least, if not, I've been to every event since I found out about it. Of all these years, it was only dampened by one rainy day! It's always a good day out, but the last few years it clashed with our usual "last Sunday of the month" dessert outings. So why not combine my two loves?

The Rocks boasts some of the BEST restaurants in Australia. But we are not here for them - maybe another time, the Snow Egg is ever so tempting - we are here for two of the best patisseries in Sydney.

La Renaissance has been an institution in The Rocks. Tiny unassuming entry lined with constant long queues, the display cabinet filled with temptation, delicate little cakes always hard to choose from, even just a plain croissant would induce satisfied smiles. Their baguettes are so beautiful - skinny, crusty, unlike the "baguettes" in a round-the-corner, pedestrian bakery.  In fact La Renaissance was the place that got me obsessed over macarons - the light, airy, melt in your mouth French almond meringue sandwiches ever so tempting and divine.

Breakfast for champions!

Sidetracked, again ... Breakfast at La Renaissance, even on a busy Aroma Festival day, it was surprisingly easy to hog a table or three at 10:30am, but the queue had already started. Of course we had to have pastries - chocolate croissant, pistachio snail, almond croissant (yes KT!) and a lovely apple almond tarte... Just to start us off! Then we indulged on a tangy, smooth lemon curd tart, and a light-as-a-feather mango/passionfruit mousse cake; also, a must - La Renaissance salted caramel macarons - the ultimate in macaron goodness (at least in Sydney).

The breakfast indulgence had to end; caffeine uptake must commence (if it hadn't already). We were rather disappointed that all of our favourite roasters weren't there! Vera Nero, Voodoo, Grinders ... ARGH! Now where do I get my coffee... I was now "forced" to try different brands to discover more favourite blends. Also no coffee machine display, or the coffee art - cups of coffee from the lightest cafe latte to long black making up a giant picture - what a shame. But it's still a great day out for those who love a festival, there are still some lovely coffee stalls and beautiful cookies and sweets. 

And some mediocrities ... what's Gloria Jeans doing at a festival that was dedicated to obsessive coffee connoisseurs ... and why are people lining up to get GJ coffee? Of ALL coffee places, on the annual coffee festival?!?! I'm not a smart woman, but I know what good coffee is!! [KT: sacrilegious!]

Enough whinging... we still have Baroque to look forward to. It is a patisserie as well as a bistro, serving authentic French meals done beautifully. Pity for some we're only there for desserts - very tempting was their 9-hour slow roasted pork, or a juicy bit of flank steak.... 

... Could have taken 2 more shots - one of the toppled mini macaron, and the final empty plate

Zulu - "Valrhona 'araguani' 72% chocolate mousse, 'Araguani' ganache with salted caramel, chocolate biscuit base finished with mini chocolate macaron" - lush, rich, not too sweet thanks to the high chocolate content, and that blob of salted caramel ganache - oh yeah, OOOOH YEAH. The quenelle of pistachio ice cream was silky smooth - love.

Gift-wrapped!

Voltaire - cold set vanilla cheese cake with mixed berries wrapped in Valrhona Ivoire white chocolate - a pretty present for Neil, though we were not quite impressed. Still love a baked cheese cake more. 

Rich and decadent

Fleur de Lys - Valrhona Guanaja 70% chocolate mousse with crunchy praline - another rich, decadent chocolate dessert - smooth and lush, an all time favourite. Just can't have too much in one go :p

I wasn't so sure when 'violet crumble' was on the descriptions - so this is what they mean by violet crumble! :D

The only dessert ordered off the dessert menu - salad of winter and preserved fruits, violet crumble, elderflower granite - it was absolutely GORGEOUS both in presentation and flavour! Light, fresh, luscious and delicate - give me ten such plates and I will devour them all. A very sophisticated dessert of great range of texture and flavour.... surprises with every mouthful.

After the two dessert stops for the day (plus sampling the flavour explosion of honey cinnamon cookies, chocolate coated coffee beans, nougat of various flavours, and filling my neural receptors with caffeine ...) we called it the day. A perfect winter's day, indulgent desserts.... Guess it could be better, but I would be greedy if I asked for more, wouldn't I!?

CS