Deceive me .... if you can!

I felt the need to emphasise how far the dessert home bake had come, and how much effort it was for the participants who could very easily have said to me "its too hard, I can't think of anything, so I won't be coming". But no, people embraced the challenge, in return had some fun (I hope) and an eventual sugar high. Thank you very much to those who made such an effort, the research, making multiple batches before presenting the final optimised versions (you geeky scientists you)!! I hope you are not so traumatised by the experience as to shy away from any future bake-offs! 

~~~~~ 

Creating something outside the realm of normalcy is expectedly tricky but what people won't realise is that it took me a LONG time to decide on the theme. With the inspirations from the great chefs like Heston and Adriano, we decided on messing with our senses … so, here's an invitation to deceive.

Over the past 4 weeks I discussed and brainstormed with the eventual brave participants, scoured the internet for "desserts that look like something else", had excited lightbulb moments, then the logistics of how to achieve what was imagined… dare I say this was definitely the most demanding theme ever for a home bake. Flowers were tricky, but as they were generally a flavouring element (as were savoury or spiced desserts) it was not too complicated to create a dessert flavoured with floral, or savoury, or spice elements.

My default deceptive dessert would have been one borrowed from Zumbo. A long time ago I had a "chocolate hamburger" composed of chocolate macaron shells as burger bun, chocolate ice cream as the meat pattie, raspberry sauce as tomato sauce. If I couldn't come up with any other ideas, that'd be it. But I had always wanted to come up with something I can call my own, and this obsession consumed me (my precious...). Then one night as I lay in bed (when my mind is most active… go figure) and had enlightenment. Kept me awake for at least an hour as I was so excited.

So what were the offerings on the day? First to arrive was pizza. Then fresh mushrooms. And a plate of sushi. And my pride and joy - Peking duck in pancake. This was followed by drink of iced coffee to wash it down.

The pizza looked so real - excellent choice of "cheese"!! It felt like all this needed was to go into the oven. It was made of a sponge cake base, raspberry jam, yellow and green snakes cut to look like capsicums, red fruit roll-ups for salame, and marzipan for cheese. Good work Kaitlin and Martyn! (NB: it even looked like left-over pizza on the next day!!)

I love mushrooms. I can have them any way. Even better when it's made of meringue and chocolate ... just take a look, how realistic are these! Just like they were picked fresh from the forest floor! And when packing up the left-overs, I somehow smelled mushrooms in the kitchen... either I've lost it, or it had successfully messed with my head!! Thanks Dave!!

Move over Kobe Jones, here are some sushi you will never beat. Beautifully moist cakes with chocolate icing, wrapped in green marzipan and topped with coconut and 'caviar' of chopped up jelly lollies. There's even a small blob of "wasabi" on the side!! Served with chopsticks and 'soy sauce' (chocolate ganache). Nice one Annika!

Here's my Peking duck. I love duck. Give me duck prepared in any way I would be happy. But this ain't duck. It was chocolate sponge topped with creme brulee ('crispy skin' and the delicious fat under that skin) with chilli chocolate ganache and julienne of green apple soaked in salt water to keep it from going brown and to give my 'duck' a sense of savouriness, wrapped in crepe. I had so much fun making it!

And the black iced coffee - 決明子 for those of you who can read Chinese (click on text for link of an image of the drink). Tastes like coffee. Smells like coffee. But it really wasn't coffee. My mum used to brew a big pot and I'd drink it cold when I was little, she used to call it Chinese coffee. After some Googling I found out its name - cassia senna obtusifolia (family, genus, species, for the geek scientist that I am). That explains the "do not over brew or over consume as it has a mild laxative effect" on the packaging. Senna tablets are available in the health-food section .... It was a natural thing that perfectly fitted my deceptive theme so I had to offer it. And hey, it was well accepted! Just don't overdo it :p 

But of course I did offer up some real coffee. As a coffee buff I can't live without the real thing myself. And that some of us really needed a mid-afteroon pick-up!! Espresso - no deception there! 

And so it was, the end of the year, another fabulous and relaxing day thanks to great company and lovely desserts. Hope this challenging theme had inspired you dessertees and the closet master chef in us all!

CS

PS so some say the world will end in a few weeks time. Oh well, I have no regrets. If we should all die at least we should all die happy (and high on sugar!)

SugarHit 2012 - Annual multiple sugar injection

My October 2012 was spectacular. KT our DDT CEO got hitched with a BANG, celebrating in style over about 10 days (!!!) - We enjoyed a happy emotional civil ceremony with General San Martin and his beloved in Buenos Aires, followed by a Gaucho party on a ranch, and continuous food and wine at Mendoza for a group honeymoon. And then coming back to Sydney for SugarHit. It just couldn't get better than that.

Reporting quickly before I get onto the Sugarhit - dessert scene in Argentina involves a few standard items - Dulce de leche, flan, ice cream. And they will put dulce de leche on everything - flan and ice cream, for example. Best entertainment was the whisky flambeed crepe filled with dulce de leche and doused in caramelised sugar - classic Argentinian indulgence, that.

OK back to the actual stuff I'm meant to report on. In fact, when planning for the SugarHit, I had trouble selecting even 4 out of the list. Previous years I had trouble culling down to 4 outings. This year, more than half of the offerings involved some sort of lacklustre chocolate cake/mousse, to start with. Don't get me wrong, a good chocolate dessert can be proposal-worthy (just ask KT to make her infamous proposal cake), and I understand it is difficult to describe chocolate cake and convince me of its worth. But seriously - have the pastry chefs of Sydney simply run out of ideas for dessert? Surely not I hope??!!

Aaanyway, we were meant to have walnut semolina tart with honey oranges and yogurt sorbet (probably the most interesting out of my SugarHit list) at Harbour Rocks Hotel, but due to various factors (including me having to juggle catching up with people and flying out in less than 48 hrs time etc) we didn't end up going there. What a shame.

Then we had a somewhat unexciting chocolate truffle bombe with mixed berry zabaglione and passionfruit coulis. It's not a bad dessert, but not divine (GOD I'm a food snob). Decadent chocolate truffle wrapped in chocolate "gift box" was, well, chocolatey. The 'zabaglione' was in fact just some bland custard mixed with berries. Technically zabaglione IS a custard. But, what zabaglione should be, is a custard made fresh (sometimes consumed still warm) from egg yolks, sugar and liquor, whipped by hand on a simmering water bath, until it is fluffy and doubled in volume, so it is silky and light in texture. The Radisson 'zabaglione' was just an ordinary custard, if you ask me.

I'm a food snob upset by this dessert, so I really looked forward to the next one - the blackforest with cherry brulee, kirsch vanilla mousse and cherry sorbet. Sounds both interesting and decadent... so I make a booking the day before, arrive at Wildfire on time, got seated and THEN told that "so sorry, we ran out of the SugarHit black forest cake, but we have replaced it with a mandarin parfait and it also comes with a glass of Cienna". What, you could not have told me when I made the booking, or could not have called me on the day to tell me that? Surely it would be clear I came here for your specific SugarHit offering and not just what's on your menu!!

We decided on trying the replacement mandarin parfait (with chocolate and almond crunch, milk chocolate ice cream, mandarin syrup), which was prettily presented but lacking somewhat in flavour. Maybe it wanted to be subtle, but when its a fruit like mandarin which was very subtle to start with, you need to add a little oomph to make it work.

Not keen on an uninteresting dessert, I opted for a Banoffe pie of banana mousse, salted caramel, dark chocolate sable. The banana mousse was very fluffy and airy, slightly nutty, but again lacking in flavour (it could be more banana'y). Mousse was encased in a sugar banana shell - kinda cute for the presentation. The ice cream on top of the chocolate sable and salted caramel was not too exciting (lacking in flavour). In fact the whole dessert was somewhat bland if it weren't for the chocolate sable and the presentation.

Now here's my rant.

Immediately after our order, the bill came. The lady explained to us that it's not to rush us, but just so when we're ready we don't have to wait further. Then we waited a good half hour for our dessert. Another waitress then appeared very keen to kick us out - came to us twice to see if we've paid (while obviously we only just got our dessert), and came a second time wanting to clear the table when I still have about half a banana on the plate and half a glass of wine in front of me.

Slow to serve, but quick to extract money and kick us out. NIIICE.

The outcome is that I will not come back to or recommend Wildfire. While Radisson offered an uninteresting dessert, their service was great. The impression from Wildfire staff was that of cold politeness. They made us feel like we were keeping them from going home.

Unfortunately I must say this months foodie highlight was in Argentina, not in Sydney. Go figure. Oh well, guess I will have to make amends at the annual end of year Homebake then?

CS

Full moon rising behind the Opera House!

Woo!!oomoo!!oo Basics

Very often I find myself getting back to basics. These classics endure the test of time - A croissant, for example. A lemon curd tart. Hot apple pie with crusty pastry, still steaming hot out of the oven. Bottom line is, we love our desserts, but we don't need fancy construction (or sometimes deconstruction) all the time.

Cute pair of pugs looking longingly at their mummy
who's enjoying breakfast at Flour and Stone

We came across Flour and Stone from bloggers and friends' recommendations. The owner/patissier said it all in the website - "From the joy of a lemon drizzle cake and the simplicity of an old fashioned vanilla cake to a well honed macaroon or fine apple tart". Simple classics... but when done well, oh the satisfaction!!

Tiny, hole in the wall sized shop, hard to get a table but we managed eventually. What a sight! Tiny counter, but it's full of tantalising sweets, all of them beautifully made (with love, we're sure!!). Oh the temptation... and the dilemmas!

We ended up with fig sourdough with ricotta and honey, rhubarb and ricotta tart, almond croissant, plain croissant, raspberry drop, and a couple of very good coffees. The croissant was flaky and light, no need to be toasted. Almond croissant is light and fluffy too, not the dense style filled with almond paste. Raspberry drop was melt-in-your-mouth, had to take great care when picking it up or it will just fall into a heap!! The agreed favourite though, was the rhubarb and ricotta tart. Light, fresh, guilt-free pleasure! I gotta learn how to make it!!

Despite having to spit out oak flower fluff between bites of delicious pastries (windy spring day... perfect hay fever attack weather) we really enjoyed Flour and Stone. We'll come back again for the panna cotta filled lamingtons (sold out by the time I was ready for the second round) and the fine apple tart and the chocolate cake and.....

Moving on, we were meant to stop at Detour Espresso, but they weren't open! WTF ... saturday lunch hour and you're closed? Oh well. Next time. Maybe.

So we decided to stroll some and do a real detour, to one of our old favourites - Bourke St Bakery. Quite fitting to our theme today, the hearty, well-made sweets and pastries worth coming back over and over again.

Disappointed they don't have strawberry brulee tart anymore (replaced by ginger brulee tart), I opted for a strawberry meringue tart (something new to me) and a raspberry chocolate mousse tart (old favourite too).

I wasn't so sure how I'd like the strawberry meringue tart. Not a fan of meringue, thought strawberry jam-meringue combo will be sickeningly sweet. How wrong was I. It was a light but beautifully flavoured strawberry mousse under a thin layer of Italian meringue. Somewhat guilty to say this but it may have replaced my previous favourite of strawberry brulee tart... (shock horror!!)

Another lovely day - hearty and satisfying, and what I believe is 'real' food, you know exactly what you are tasting, needing no pretentious fanfare. My compliments to the chef - and KT, you have MUCH to catch up on when you return!!

CS.

Sweet excuse to lunch at the Gastro Park

Gastro Park opened in April 2011 but already earned 2 hats and many rave reviews such as this one. How exciting! A 2 hatter restaurant for our dessert tour - our senses were in for a massive treat today. Then again, it's the creation of ex-Pier (now Sailors Club) chef Grant King. I'm sure if I enjoyed Pier, I'd like Gastro Park too.

(**KT dear, stop reading now. Go study your Spanish. Or bake your famous "proposal cake". Just don't torture yourself with further reading!!**)

The drinks menu consisted of a page each of signature cocktails, classic cocktails, liquors and spirits, and then what seemed to be an endless list of wines from all over the world. Pity my companions are not drinkers... I promise to revisit with vino aficionados and share a bottle or two!! Just for today, we settled with an orange juice, mojito and a berry mocktail.

And no, I did not match my drink to my sunglasses.

The deceivingly simple A4 page of food menu didn't bother me at all - we all know it's all about quality and not quantity. In fact there were many exquisite-looking dishes to choose from, where the only limiting factor was the size of our stomachs ... or to some extent, the depth of our wallets.

The first thing to single out of the menu was what sweetness shall I indulge in at the end of my meal. And then I choose my main based on how heavy the dessert will be (eg, if I opt for a chocolatey dessert, I may choose a fishy main). I am an efficient orderer ... restaurant staff usually loves me for it. And my speedy decision doesn't have anything to do with the short menu - just that I know what I want, and I want it NOW..... (read - feed me, feed me!!)

Heavenly flavoursome mushroom and
onion macchiato with veal sweetbread
on a rosemary skewer

I once got reprimanded for posting savoury meal photos on this dessert-only blog. However, as this was truly an extraordinary experience, it's sinful not to share what I thought was a total sensual indulgence! Not only did it all taste divine, we also feasted with our eyes! It was there we fully appreciated how vital the presentation is to the enjoyment of a meal. It was awesome that we had the restaurant to ourselves (highly unusual for a Saturday) so that we didn't embarrass ourselves with our paparazzi behaviour.

In fact our waiter probably wanted to strangle us as we sacrilegiously allowed our food to go cold before we devoured them!! Still divine, thank you chef!

My gorgeous venison which I sliced with just a normal knife, not a steak knife ... tender juicy goodness!! Seriously can  you bear to destroy it? Gotta immortalise in photos before devouring it!

We don't normally choose dishes just because it was made famous by popular TV cooking shows. For example, we knew Adriano before TV made him insanely popular that we had to queue for 30 minutes to get in his patisserie. But we serendipitously selected a crispy scaled snapper with squid ink 300 ways (or was it 3... I'd lost count) as seen on TV and again were delighted with the many textures and flavours spectacularly arranged on the plate.

Edible art ... texture and flavour galore. Sorry chef we let it get cold!

OK, the REAL reason we came out - desserts! Simply looking at the description got me excited. I wish we tasted more, but one of my companions didn't bring her dessert stomach along so we settled with two - the nitro pavlova, pineapple, coconut and papaya, and the fresh cherries with hibiscus ice cream, bolero milk snow, chilled rhubarb and cherry broth.

[KT: Whoever that participant was that didn't bring the dessert stomach shall be banned for the rest of the year!!!]

I could have died there. And I would be happy.

Again we allowed our desserts to melt a bit because they were so gorgeously presented, we had to immortalise it. The paparazzi session was no longer simply a record of the tour, but a photography practical class, and our subjects were the top models of the food world.

The nitro pavlova was like a fluffy semifreddo covered with coconutty foam and these gel-encapsulated seeds (like basil seeds soaked in water). The flavour was subtle but distinct, really refreshing and summery.

The papaya though, was it because it's out of season? Or that it was just not a rich flavour? This didn't really work for me. But who cares, the rest of the dessert was fab.

Stunning and a bit whacky, described as "Parc Guell"-like, it makes me want to smuggle liquid nitrogen or dry ice out of my lab to have a play in my kitchen....

Berry gets me. Or I should say that I have a soft spot for anything that has berries. It took me about 5 seconds to decide that I'm having the cherry and hibiscus ice cream dessert - love at first sight it was, and continued to be an affair to remember. It's another summer dessert, and with the warm weather we've been getting in the past few days, very fitting!

Tangy, refreshing and dare I say sexy! Can I call this the Miranda Kerr of desserts? And can I get a straw please... it's all melted.....

We had an awesome time. This makes the "divine" in divine dessert tour. Not only were they pleasurable to all our senses, but this kind of experience also reminds me how much more I have to learn and how far I have to go in the kitchen arena. Extraordinary experience, very humbling at the same time. No regrets for having bread and water for the next 4 weeks while the wallet recovers!

CS.

ps Many thanks to JD and SW for sharing this memorable foodie experience with me! And thanks to the lovely Gastro Park staff for a beautiful afternoon!

Annual Pilgrimage to the Aroma Festival

Sydney's glorious winter's day

Another perfect Sydney winter's day.

Since 1998 The Rocks played host to the annual Aroma Coffee Festival, which turned into Aroma Festival a few years ago to incorporate more elements - spice, tea, chocolate, sweets - which unfortunately took the focus away from the appreciation of the fine art that is coffee. Nevertheless it was still a beautiful day out MOST of the times - of the years they held the festival, only once do I remember it raining (yes, I have been to every single one of them). 

And as my annual coffee pilgrimage is now no longer satisfying my coffee sensors (occupying a significant part of my brain), this event simply became our regular July dessert outing. At least there's La Renaissance and Baroque, if all else fails, a few of their perfect macarons will send me home happy as Larry.

The thing about the Aroma Festival is that the crowd size seems to increase exponentially as the day goes by. Definitely worth arriving before 11, and even better - get here at 10, so you will not queue behind more than 5 people at any one stall at that time. Check the program and get to the stalls you want to seek out first so you won't get put off by the long queues by midday.

Standard stop when at The Rocks - picking up breakfast at La Renaissance - queue first, decide what you want while you wait. Fluffy brioche, flaky palmier, flavoursome almond croissant (KT this is for you!) and half dozen of their beautiful macarons. Adriano, you need to teach your macaron chefs about the finer details of the mac shell - they need to be light, yielding to the slightest pressures between your tongue and the top of your palate, not sticky, not sickeningly sweet (so to allow the flavour of the filling to shine) and have no air pocket within the shell. Adriano's macs have amazing flavours but in terms of texture, if memory serves me right, they sometimes generated a CRUNCH, are very sweet, and frequently have that sinful air pocket within.

Two coffees shops I tasted - Cafe Cherry Beans - not bad, a little thin for my liking (probably from the lighter roast), and wasn't particularly flavourful. Then one from The Wood Roaster - again the espresso was a little less full-bodied than I'd hoped for, but according to my other coffee aficionado friends who enjoy a milky coffee, that it was smooth and beautiful drinking. So, half a kilo should do me for my breakfast coffee then.

There were no shortage of the sweet stuff, but not all of them "divine" enough to tempt me. With maybe the exception of gelato filled cannoli or brioche sandwich - perfect for breakfast, really!!

Must say despite the lack of coffee stalls (Gloria Jeans doesn't count) it was a great day. The Latin Quarter had live salsa band playing and people dancing; the Continent had opera singers and jazz artists performing; the Orient had lion dance on stilts (!!). Fabulous fun. Will go again... and again... and again.... 

CS

French House revisited

French House in Waterloo is special to us - we discovered this gem in a previous DDT and our dear DDD Ness was very taken by the tea served on a silver platter. Also that there were French servers behind the counter and the lovely French pastries and desserts on display. Not to mention, the beautiful decor and the wrought iron table setting. So we come back again, especially before she leaves the beautiful land of Oz, so she could have a silver platter at least one last time.

Dear KT, how much do you miss croissant aux amandes? Well here's another one to remind you of the goodness of French pastry we can find in Sydney. It was a rich pastry with an almond crust on top and almond paste sandwiched inside a croissant. A little different from the almond croissant from other patisseries, still tasty and hearty.

Pity, I did miss out on their breakfast menu by 5 minutes... it would have been good to try their French toast with strawberry and ricotta, or maybe banana and maple syrup, or bacon and maple syrup ... oh well, next time.

Little madeleine - lovely little cake with a fresh citrus aroma - just big enough to be satisfied, but small enough to leave room for other goodies!

4 flavours of macarons made with French meringue (a lighter texture than that made with Italian meringue) - we were not so impressed with these, the shells were doughy and sticky, not light and airy and fragile, and the filling was average flavoured with essence... it's a pity. They could do so much better.

Florentine - a nutty chocolatey biscuit perfect with a cuppa tea on a cold winter's afternoon...

Oh and we like freebies - perfect little morsels of orange and pistachio cake - moist and fragrant, would be great if I had more room in my stomach.

So with a full stomach and feeling slightly dozy from the indulgence, we depart from the lovely French House ... but not forever. We shall return!!

CS

Back to our roots - Taiwanese dessert bonanza

 Dessert stand in a night market in Taipei

You would think that immediately after my return from my home town Taiwan, and having had a gastronomical indulgence while I was there, I wouldn't be in a hurry to sample more of the same in Sydney.... you thunk wrong my friends! In fact, it made me miss the tofu desserts, shaved ice, desserts of various jellies and legumes and things you normally consider as savoury only, but sweet. So Taiwanese (and other Asian) desserts it is!

Lucky for us Taiwanese gluttons, Meet Fresh opened in Sydney a couple of years ago. It's a specifically Taiwanese dessert chain offering classic desserts like sweet silken tofu and taro balls, with a variety of toppings from red beans to 'honey beans', not to mention grass jelly - very much an acquired taste as it has an unappealing appearance.

Let me start with the least visually appealing sweet of the day - warm grass jelly, basically a bowl of black. And it is a thick, half set jelly, highly unlikely that anyone would order it if they didn't grow up with it. Grass jelly in summer is enjoyed cool and helps calm and chill, but consumed warm it helps with the respiratory tracts, protecting it from the winter chills. Sure it looks hideous.... get over it!

Red bean and green tea is now a stock-standard, vanilla ice cream of "Asian dessert" flavours. Again green tea and matcha (powdered green tea) is an acquired taste, and has slightly confronting appearance, but has now become more widely accepted.

Why oh why do Asian desserts have to look and sound scary? Here a first time Asian dessertee braves the black glutinous rice dessert with taro. And what did he think of it? He LOVED it! It is a rich, almost nutty, dessert with a great texture, another fabulous winter warmer.

And the classic "Taro ball" - made of mashed up taro with starch to form a chewy ball, cooked in a sweet syrup base and served with a selection of sweet taro, or red bean, or sweetened lima beans. A dessert and a meal at the same time.

Despite the temptation that is ice kachang, we only really desired something warm - Roti from Mamak! It's a lovely fine pastry that can be taken sweet or savoury. Of course we had a sweet version - pandan sugar and coconut - aromatic, syrupy sweet, and warm ~~~

Apologies but we could not bear to indulge in Passionflower ice cream, for it was cold and windy...black sesame ice cream will have to wait another time!!

YOUR mini reviews

I know, I know. It's about a month late. Much apologies for the late posting - I could have done it in my spare time while in Barcelona (rubbing it in… rub rub rub), or during the last 3 weeks when I had plenty of 'me' time. The real reason was that I just got slack - you may vent your frustration and anger (and maybe envy?), via the cyberspace, and I won't talk back. Promise.

OK so the theme for April was "submit your mini dessert review", meaning that while I indulged during my holidays, YOU the dessertees were my contributing guest editors. And I was really pleased at the responses over the last month. Dear June even posted photos (many thanks)!  Here are her reviews:

"My dessert was voted a favourite at the Restaurant Du Lyceé Hôtelier Escoffier in Nouméa, New Caledonia - Verrine Chantilly A L’ananas et Vanille De Lifou, Tuile Croustillante. Chantilly was the lightest, most delicate whipped cream ever, layered with discreetly mild pineapple and topped by strips of vanilla pod (with seeds!) from the nearby South Pacific island of Lifou. Oh, and the crispy tuile tickled my palate. What an indulgence!" 

"I don't need much encouragement to share this delectable dessert - the infamous Singapore ice kachang. When I was a kid I loved this dessert called ice ball - it was sold by street hawkers who shaved a block of ice into his hand and put a teaspoon-full of kachang (red beans, cooked and cooled) in the centre, before completing to shave more ice to form a ball of ice. Since those nostalgic days, ice kachang is now served on a dish (for hygienic purposes) and buries more delectable tid-bits than kachang. Slurping a hand-held, colourful, syrup-coated ice-ball provided most of the fun experience for a kid!" 

Then it was my list of Sydney favourites - many of the desserts can actually be found in past blogs (see links), and I have deliberately chosen only those that are always available so if you feel the urge to challenge your sugar tolerance, just follow the links …

** Tiramisu - Napoli in Bocca at Haberfield - I consider this the best tiramisu I could buy in Sydney…. knowing how many fabulous home-cooks can now make a ripper of a tiramisu, I don't want to say this was the absolute best in the world!

** Creme brulee - Bather's Pavillion at Balmoral 

** Macaron - La Renaissance/Baroque at The Rocks - No "hamburger" or "pigs blood and chocolate" wackiness here!

** Pistachio gelato - Pasticerria Papa's at Haberfield

** Black sesame steamed bun - Ding Tai Fung at World Square, Sydney. Or any other Ding Tai Fung restaurant - black hero. 

** Croissant - Bourke St Bakery, Surry Hills, or one of their many other locations. Flaky and not dense nor glazed. 

** Passionfruit tart - Adriano Zumbo, Balmain (here and here). 

** Chocolate caramel "goo" tart - Blackstar Bakery, Newtown

** Palmier - La Gerbe d'Or, Paddington

** Espresso - this is hard so here are a few I can remember: Most of the places serving Campos Coffee or Toby's Estate Coffee, Little Marionette at Balmain, Bertoli's at Balmain, Bean Drinking at Crows Nest... 

Contribution from Wallace - thanks and now I have to go check them out!

** Banana Split - Bodega
** Fried Ice Cream - Holy Basil
** Watermelon Cake - Blackstar Pastry

Ness - who doesn't eat a lot of sweet stuff, but comes to DDT anyway so that we could take advantage of her generosity (she'd buy a serving and eat one mouthful, leaving the rest for us to devour!):

"It's been a while since I indulged (and yes, KT, you can laugh when I say "indulge"), but my favourite, favourite, favourite place is still The French House in Waterloo... That passionfruit dessert was delicious (the one spoonful that I had) and most impressively, my teapot and cup and saucer came out on a silver platter, with cubes of sugar and silver tweezers. I think everyone looked at their mugs of coffee and felt hard done by.

PS The black sesame creme caramel at Monkey Magic comes in at a close second, but that's because I also got cocktail of the month with a complete sushi roll (plus I got Katie's dessert wine)

PPS The Boon chocolates were pretty spesh (and exy), but mostly coz I got to share the experience with my dessert-making cousin, Jo... who left me a box made of chocolates full of chocolates after she house-sat."

And from Fran - with some international flavours too! 

‎1. The best maple syrup pie in Old Quebec town, Canada.
2. Lemon tart in Bathurst. 

3. Souffles in the Wharf restaurant.

So if having read through this long list of recommendations you are not tempted, go see a doctor. In fact come and see me - I AM a doctor (not the kind that's useful, but one none-the-less) and I'll fix you up!!!! 

CS

[KT: You missed my contributions... Losing your touch ;) Here they are:

Best hot chocolate: Hannsi Artisan Market, El Hatillo Venezuela - pure
cacao... I was high for a very long time and could stay that high
forever...








Best profiteroles: Antigua Bistro, Caracas Venezuela - crunchy choux,
ice cream centres, amazingly dark, warm chocolate sauce and fresh
toasted almonds







Best millefeuille: Lenôtre, Paris France - sized XXL, no joke! (pic
with CS' eager hand...)








Best pancake: Squzi, Buenos Aires Argentina - thin pancakes filled
with apple slices, flambée with rum, topped with vanilla ice cream








Best tart: (apart from myself?) Bourke Street Bakery, Sydney Australia
- ginger & pistachio crème brûlée tart, stunning! (no pic)