End of year Homebake - Disney Madness!

I love homebake. Absolutely adore this six monthly event involving brain storming, inspiration seeking to get our creative juices flowing. None of us are professional bakers, but we are all innovative, outside-the-box thinkers, despite the crazy themes we've set for everyone, someone, or rather everyone, brings something to surprise and delight. Enough adjectives, but this really is how I feel about our homebake, and I can't seem to emphasise this enough.

We set a task not so unlike the Disney fairy tale climaxes where our heroes/heroines are to battle the villains, or whatever tasks they have to overcome. Why do we do this? Because we can - the dessertees have not failed us yet! It seems that the themes are never hard enough!

Today's creative and delicious offerings: a perfectly fitting first-day-of-summer blue pineapple-mango fizzy jelly ocean and brown sugar beach, with jelly lolly critters at the bottom of the ocean and shells washed up on the beach (The Little Mermaid); a leaning chocolate sponge tower which should still be safe enough to lock Rapunzel in (provided she lives in cold climate); Winnie the Pooh reincarnated in the form of a delectable carrot cake; sweet talker Lumier filled with smooth white chocolate and mango/raspberry mousse, entertaining us while we eat; and Cinderella has her pumpkin cheesecake 'custard' tart (which turned out to be Clarebear's new favourite!) An absentee Mr Potatohead who hid from us thanks to an abnormal hue (apparently he was quite tasty). This left the poor lime curd aliens under the dome, and their fates depending on their master, The Claws.

I love you guys. So much effort went into your creations.

And that ends another year of divine dessert tours. Six full years and no sign of faltering! Let's see if we could do it for another six (before I develop diabetes, maybe?)

CS

Annual Multiple Indulgence in October

Why they changed "Sugarhits" to "Let's do desserts" is beyond me (and many others). Sugarhit just has such a lovely ring to it, and so much easier to say when making a booking -

     "I'd like a table for x people for this date for Sugarhit please"
     "I'm sorry what?"
     "Eh, the dessert event, at 9pm?"
     "You mean the Lets Do Desserts?"
     "Yes that."

Change it back, organisers.

Not that it stops me at all, as you can see we organised it well in advance and had it spaced out fairly evenly so the pancreas won't be overstretched in a short period of time.

First place was Bishop Sessa, with an apple millefeuille, salted caramel ice cream, peanut madeleine and nougats, served with a glass of Brown Brothers orange muscat.

The presentation was rather 'wow' and scored big points. Of course we know the apple slices would not have been cut by hand - mandolins are a great invention - but the layering would have been done by hand. Salted caramel ice cream - good amount of salt (ie salty) and creamy. Nougat was very delicious. Madeline was fab - I love the nutty aroma.

Overall it was a very refreshing dessert. However the general consensus was, as lovely as the individual elements were, they kinda didn't meld. I'd eaten them separately as if it was a dessert medley. Not complaining as I still loved it.

Prior to our second dessert outing, we had a pre-dessert dessert (KT you must love this) at the Night Noodle Market - after dinner, that is - I see Serendipity ice cream and I can't resist. So many fab flavours to choose from, I ended up with coconut and kaffir lime (like eating a Thai dessert), and a taste of pretzel and peanut butter swirl (must have a tub of that at home), blood orange sorbet (always good), chilli passionfruit (something I'd had before and didn't appreciate). Happiness.

Then, the main dessert course at The Woods, Four Seasons, of wood-baked pear tarte tatin with smoked ice cream, with botrytis semillon.

OMG.

Angels sang at my first bite. We could taste the smokiness first thing (like smoked bacon!!) and the subtle but definite charcoal flavour in the tarte. Every second mouthful someone would say "mmm". Really amazing, it looks ordinary - upside down pear tart with a scoop of ice cream - but the flavour!! Angels continued to sing until I scooped up the last morsel. And this was after

DETOUR! This was not really a part of the SugarHits, given it is always available now at Westin Hotel (due to its immense popularity when it was launched). Mad-Hatters Afternoon Tea just sounded amazing before I even bothered checking it out, so we just looked forward to it for a whole month before the day finally came! See here for menu and prices.

Important stuff - food. Savouries - Roasted beef and asparagus roulade on mini laugen; bocconcini and cherry tomato 'catepillar' salad; Alaskan crabmeat salad on bread wrapped in cucumber. Salad was ok, beef and asparagus roulade was delicious but simple, and the sandwich was the best cucumber sandwich ever! So refreshing.

On to the sweet stuff. Queen of heart - Raspberry butter cream, chocolate ganache and raspberry jelly; White rabbit's pocket watch: Purple macaron with blueberry cream filling; Mad hatter's hat: Rich dark chocolate mud cake in chocolate icing. Consumed in this order. Queen of heart has my heart - perfect and gorgeous combination, I'll have 3 of those thank you! Blueberry macaron - most of the time blueberry flavour is rather non-descript and this was no exception. Good well made mac, though. Mud cake: Absolutely stunning presentation, gorgeous flavour and perfect size for a mud cake. Then we realised there's scones with cream and jam to come. Yikes, I'm full already! But the jams were spectacular - strawberry jam (or conserve, it was runny) and raspberry chocolate sauce were to die for! Excellent way to finish off the crazy funky mad-hatter's afternoon tea!

Final stop - Shangri-La offers a milk chocolate delice, passionfruit curd with grue cacao crunch, salted caramel and roast hazelnut, and a honey thyme pear strawberries 'n' creme graffiti lollipop. What a mouthful, we thought, and very delicately presented. Gorgeous little lollipop (except it just tasted of sweet white chocolate), yummy passionfruit curd with a crunchy centre, and very light chocolatey mousse with a flavourful base.

Verdict? Lovely. No wow. Are our taste buds getting really hard to please? Or that chefs nowadays are getting so involved with complexity and variety, and forgetting that the more element, the less focus in flavour?

I don't know. My bias remains with classics with great flavours. The Wood's smoked pear tarte tatin, for example, was so simple an idea but packed a surprise heavenly smoky flavour. Or at Mad-Hatter's, top notch and fun presentation but it's really based on classic desserts. But that's me - Surely other people will appreciate the great efforts of the chefs.

Another month of sweet indulgence done! Next adventure - Something magical, imaginative, fairy tale and finish with 'happily ever after' ... Lets do a Disney Homebake!

CS.

Newtown revisited - I never get sick of eating here!

Beautiful day. Sydney turned on its most glorious spring day for us. And the Sydney Marathon runners. Damned road closures all over the place - ended up looping to Randwick in order to get to Newtown! Alas, a little delay only made us more hungry! Not a bad thing, maybe.

Arriving at the lovely Bakerman's, just got a tad confused as this establishment appear to be a row of three shops open to each other - a pizzeria, Bakerman cafe, and an old bookshop. Sorry pizzeria, might have to visit you another time.

French toast with bacon and melons, chocolate eclaire, a couple of coffees. And a sweet corn fritter ... Its allowed because it's sweet, and that we had one corn fritter at our inaugural DDT at Bills.

Lovely fruity bread French toast drenched in maple syrup, with 2 succulent rolls of bacon, topped with fresh melons. Very lovely and hearty. The chocolate eclaire was fresh, light, creamy, chocolatey, heavenly. Sweet corn fritter was full of juicy corn kernels, it almost didn't hold the fritter together. Delicious coffee helped complete our breakfast.

As we were delayed thanks to the keen early-risers running around the city, we decided to skip Mak Mak. Well for good reason too. It's closed on Sundays. Next stop, Pie Tin!

We stepped in to this unassuming, rustic shop with pies sweet and savoury. The flavours all look exciting - something we must come back to, especially when I hear that the duck pie was spectacular!

The sweet pies - lemony lemon curd pie reminiscent of Bourke St Bakery lemon brulee tart, fragrant passionfruit curd pie with similar consistency (not as delicate as the Zumbo passionfruit tart but very delicious nonetheless), and a chocolate caramel pie with delicious bitter-sweet crumbly pie crust and devilishly decadent caramel filling! LOVE!

And what's this giant thing - The Pie That Ate Newtown? It was just such a surprise to see a pie tin that sized too! (See the 50c coin at the bottom right hand corner? That's our scale reference!!)

Cafe Shenkin's was our next quick stop for coffee. AHHH I have been here before! But last time I came, I saw no signs so didn't know its name, just that it was a good coffee worth coming back to. Lovely coffee, acidic and fresh. Should have bought a bag... maybe next time, when I return to pick up a pie.

Last stop, finishing on a high, Blackstars. We fell in love with its chocolate caramel "goo" tart on our first DDT here, and then their gorgeous canelles, the rose and watermelon cake (some consider this their all-time favourite dessert). What's new now? Lets try their "boozy" almond tart (a cross between almond croissant and brioche, laced with rum), or a salted caramel panna cotta (orgasmic... yes, I said it), as well as more of the old favourites because we must. And because there were no seats available at Blackstar, we devoured them under the sun on a lush green lawn.

Languidly we get up and leave.... with the prospect of sweets in 10 days time - Crave Festival is coming, and guess what - lets do desserts!!! :D

Swimming in the classic Bather's Pavillion

We have revisited many past DDT favourites. Adriano Zumbo, La Renaissance/Baroque, Blackstar Bakery, Bourke St Bakery, but for some reason despite having had one of the most amazing dessert memories, we never revisited Bathers on a DDT event. That said, I'd returned many other times, where I'd enjoyed more than just their delectable sweets.

It's the middle of winter. Of course it made sense to be at the beach. Today, if it weren't for the chill in the shades, it would be hard to believe it was a winter's day. Blue sky, mild breeze, bikinis and board shorts on the beach, sun baking (thankfully no budgie smugglers in our field of view). The day could not have been more perfect.

Our plan of attack was to start with the breakfast menu items at 11, leisurely finish our breakfast and move straight on to desserts on the lunch menu after 12. Two "courses" - talk about decadent!!

Poached rhubarb with blood orange and mandarin segments, sheep milk yogurt and pistachio - it was gorgeous! The sheep yogurt was mild, different from cows milk yogurt, but didn't have that familiar sheep cheese flavour that we disliked. Lighter in texture too, maybe. Definitely a delicious but light breakfast for those counting calories.

Cinnamon French toast with caramelised bananas was a major hit - it was so good, lightly crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, just fabulous and hopefully will stay on the menu forever. I know, it looked like toast with baked beans, but 100 times better!

To wash it all down, a lovely "The Grounds Alexandria" coffee, or a refreshing cranberry watermelon and pineapple mocktail.

Second course - selected from the lunch menu - caramel creme brulee, pear bourdaloue tart with pistachio ice cream, and quince tarte tatin with star anise ice cream.

Our memory of the Bathers creme brulee was classic vanilla. Way back when, we thought they had the BEST classic creme brulee - perfect texture, flavour, smooth creamy heavenly goodness. Today's creme brulee was different - it was caramel flavoured, and topped with caramelised banana (what was with our desserts being topped with bananas??!!). It was rich. Still excellent, but guess I miss the classic creme brulee.

I've not had quince other than as quince paste before. It had a texture I could only describe as "like" pear, soft and somewhat 'fluffy'. The anise ice cream was smooth and licorice flavoured - good balance, not overpowering, not something I'd like but that was because I wasn't keen on the flavour itself.

Pear tart - looks unassuming, but the almond-based filling was gorgeously light and fluffy, like a financier cake. The pistachio ice cream was not as stunning as the star anise ice cream in terms of that hit of flavour. But I could eat this tart all day.

Once we have had our fill of sweet goodness, we walked off a fraction of the calories consumed by strolling along the beach on this perfect mild winter's day. Blessed!!

Annual caffeination (and sugarisation) at the Aroma Festival

We do this every year, virtually carbon copy of the year before, but how can you blame us? Clear blue sky, crisp winter's day with warm sunshine on our backs, carnival atmosphere, lovely lovely company, that was what we had at this year's Aroma Festival.

The usual deal - start early, beat the crowds, get our caffeine dose before midday if we could, then kick back and watch the rest of the crowd queue for their coffee because they didn't get up early enough.

Mandatory stop - La Renaissance - where the best macarons in Sydney are made. Big claim? I think not, with every person I introduce these delectable little goodies to, even skeptics (like myself before tasting La Renaissance's macs) are converted at an instant. My research tells me, macarons should be fragile, slightly crispy on the outside, melt in the mouth. Furthermore, the shells should not be sickeningly sweet that overpowers the flavour of the filling. La Renaissance's macs are all that - and never fail to please! Love. My future boy had better propose with a box of macs disguising the carat rock ....

Where was I  ... Ah yes, La Renaissance. Other goodies - Almond croissant, brioche, palmier, apple custard slice, mille feuille, chocolate caramel tart, creme brulee, and gorgeous petit fours - cheese cake, mixed berry mousse and coffee and chocolate mousse. And of course, salted caramel, and choc-passionfruit macarons.

Favourite? For me, the berry mousse, the macs, mille feuille. Cheese cake was excellent, gorgeous classic baked cheese cake. Almond croissant - always lovely (but I miss the choc-almond croissant in Paris... love...). Chocolate tart was rich. Creme brulee was perfect and classic. Apple custard slice was like an apple pie with light and flaky pastry. Palmier was good (but maybe still not as good as La Gerber d'Or). Could not fault any of their dessert, except maybe the size, they're just too small. :p

Time for a stroll. So many goodies, so many people, and so many people enjoying the many goodies everywhere. Again we are most fortunate with the weather, everyone was out and about, taking it in. And this year's coffee art - We've had Mona Lisa, Marilyn Monroe, who would it be this year? Our very own, Dame Edna!

Once the sun left us, it got cold. The lovely deceptive blue sky was only kind to us when the sun was out. By mid afternoon it was rather unbearable in the shade ... so we took our leave and left the long queues to the patient people needing their mid afternoon caffeine fix. Aroma festival, I'll see you next year!!

CS

[KT: Welcome to first time DDDs Ada, Woody, Yujin, Amy & Kelly! What happened to the "sweet" potato chips, CS? hehe]

So tell me, what do you do?

Once again we make it hard for dessert lovers to love desserts. Next time I should invite Heston, surely he would embrace such challenges as 'bake your work', or the previous theme 'deceive me'. In fact he was probably the reason we started going a little crazy with these themes lately. But the good dessertees always come up with the goods!! Always stepping up to the challenge, when it comes to sweet goodness in life!

So tell me, what do you do? Oh, tell me by way of dessert, thank you very much!!

I'm going to tell on our darling CEO, who works at the NSW criminal courts. She sees all sorts of badness on trial, so decided to present a plate of snowy white stuff.

What's so divine about that!!! Plate of icing sugar, on a Homebake event? At least present the goods nicely ... like, her famous proposal cake? So the snowy powder was heaped on top of a decadent flourless chocolate "proposal" cake. Sniff that!!!

I was pacified, everyone else was in love after a bite. (About time this cake made its appearance at our home bake!!)

I'm a scientist. Since my uni days my research area had moved several times. Currently I am up to my neck in spine research, particular focus on intervertebral disc degeneration (a major cause of lower back pain). So, macarons with lemon jelly + lemon curd centre filling were arranged in the shape of a spine. Some even had disc herniation, I mean, the gooey filling squishing out of the shells.


My fellow scientist friend and colleague MJ actually got inspiration DURING the work that became her creation. She works with a mutant named "Jaffa", and uses a technology called flow cytometry. She puts cells from Jaffa in with antibodies that are tagged with different colours, then uses flow cytometry to separate different cell types based on what the antibodies have detected, and the colours that are attached to the antibody then tells us what it found.

We present to you, orange chocolate biscuits with her standard flow cytometry analysis panel.

SS, an artist, turned up with a lunch box full of slices of chocolate cake. How uninspiring. Then she picked some blooming camellias, frangipani leaves, and arranged her cakes into the most beautiful artwork!

Contracting marketing strategist RD is currently not working, so she prepared a plate of chocolate dipped strawberries, sitting beautifully on individual mini paper cups, got messed up en route to home bake. I guess no amount of strategy and planning can prepare you for the unexpected ... bad traffic, disappointing weather, messed up tray of chocolate dipped strawberries, for example!!


Another lawyer NL is currently working on the inquiry into unsavoury crimes. Uninspired by the scums that crosses her paths, brought a plate of castrated balls of sex offenders, I mean of the cinnamon donut type. For good measure, I scattered a handful of chocolate condoms around it for more protection. Rated MA+.


A late arrival, created by accountant and actuarist couple RB & MB, brought brownies with passionfruit cream. It was pretty hard coming up with something to represent their work, and when googled accounting cakes, calculators came up. Marzipan buttons and all. Not an easy profession to be creative with, really. But we had some fun turning this into Jenga. Here's the challenge ... try not to topple the tower!

Much chocolate, coffee, tea and sugar this afternoon, shared with friends, old and new. There's really no better way to spend a rainy gloomy day!!

CS

Kick off your heels in Surry Hills!

There are just so many places worth visiting in Surry Hills - this suburb is dotted with everything from fancy restaurants to hole-in-the-wall cafes. To survive Surry Hills, each of these establishments will have to do their very best to satisfy the sassy customers who, like us, will find no shortage of convenient replacements just 2 doors down.

We were always ambitious with Surry Hills - first DDT here we planned 8 places and struggled to get through 9 (because we could not resist the temptation of an unplanned stop!!) Today, we planned to visit, say, 7. Let's just see how many we end up with!

Reuben Hills Cafe gets busy. We had to wait about an hour for a table for 6, while jealously looking at couples walk past while we try our best to soak up the morning sun. Patiently we (and others) waited our turn ... for the lovely affogato, the hearty rice pudding, refreshing poached plums. Oh and the ice cream sandwich with gorgeous raspberry mousse!

The selection of jams and honey on the shelf added excitement to our foodie conversation; the brioche with "dulce de leche" was disappointing as it wasn't dulce de leche... just a slight brownishly tinged sweetened condensed milk. Jam went much nicer on the brioche though. [KT: The Argentine says it wasn't dulce de leche, so it wasn't!]

Next stop just up the road - Bruschetteria - we were mostly drawn to its Nutella coffee. Apart from that, the "dirty chai latte" (chai coffee) which was interesting but ... well, not quite right. The Nutella coffee really was just a mocha. Nice, but not quite the espresso I'm used to drinking. The Nutella hot chocolate was uber sweet - possibly a hot chocolate with an extra dollop of Nutella.

Beautiful little cafe with character, might come again next time for their breakfasts... and I'll skip the Nutella coffee, thank you!

A quick stroll later, we arrived at Mint, where I consumed a whole delicious dessert tasting plate (for one, not two, thankfully) on my last visit .... alone!!! This time around I have company! So we had a few more desserts -  a decadent chocolate halva cigar with honey chocolate mousse, and a gorgeous kuneffeh (baked shredded kataifi pastry with ricotta and fruits).  And of course, the tasting plate which consisted of a malaba (rose water pudding), chocolate brownie, dates, walnut, dried apricots, Turkish delight, nougat, and baklava.

For those of you who like middle eastern desserts - don't be jealous. Those of you who don't know about middle eastern desserts - you are missing out. This was the place I first had a real Turkish delight (as opposed to the artificially-flavoured, overly sweet concoction from supermarkets). The kuneffeh was so light, it's easily consumable by one person (but we share, because we care). That chocolate mousse was so dark and devilish, generating a "mmm" from everyone who had the pleasure of tasting it.

So what happened to the other stops? Books Kitchen, Bang Bang, FourAteFive, Bourke St Bakery?

We sheepishly confess that we didn't make it to these stops. We however stopped to check out Kurtosh (Hungarian pastry) and Cafe Sicilia (Italian pasticceria) for our future visits.

Another glorious late autumn day, enjoyed by those who cared to be out and about. Now, a nap to help the digestion .... zzzzz

Chic Chippendale

Inner city Sydney is constantly revamping and re-energising itself thanks to the need for inner city dwelling and rich developers wanting to make more money. Luckily for us, places like Redfern, Waterloo, Alexandria, Chippendale have become hip, tasty and aromatic.

Our perfect autumn day started at Cafe Giulia, a long blackboard bedazzling us with its offerings. However it was somewhat limited in sweet breakfast so (SHOCK HORROR) our CEO allowed savouries breakfast for those attendees who couldn't stomach sweets first thing in the morning. [I tell ya, she'd gone soft since she fell in love! Chuckle chuckle....]

Chocolate brownie, sourdough with maple and ricotta, waffles with mascarpone and rhubarb, sour dough French toast with bananas and maple, a wholesome muesli, and pancake stack with strawberries and maple. All were well made, very tasty, hearty and smile inducing. Good coffee - many of us opted for the very French bowl of coffee, which was probably double the size of a normal coffee and VERY strong ... could it be more than a double shot? @_o

I actually didn't really want to move. It was such a lovely courtyard (when shaded) on a gorgeous day, catching up with friends (there were many). But we moved on anyway by the lure of Brickfields. Just a week or two earlier this place received a glowing review in SMH - again I ask, how did you find these places KT? I am just so pleased that you, not I, are doing the research (I just turn up and eat).

Lemon polenta cake, Persian love cake, lemon curd tart, choc hazelnut tart, fig sourdough with home made marmalade. All very delicious. Persian love cake full of aromatics, lemon curd tart (adjective, not noun), choc hazelnut creme lush, marmalade full of flavour. Good coffee too.

Languidly we move on as the warmth and the satisfaction lulls us to drowsiness ... no the caffeine didn't do much for me, it's a good sign that the coffees were properly made (bad coffee gives me palpitation and shaky hands). Something for Jess awaits - yet another little watering hole servicing the lucky locals.

I was drawn immediately to the fig and pistachio affogato (yes, another coffee) which was fab. The rest of the DDDs actually were having lunch - WHAT!!! Burritos were on the menu ... and they did look very good.

Next stop - House Specialty Coffee, which was pretty much just around the corner. Arrived at a packed up cafe, nothing left on the counter, and the coffee machine about to get cleaned up and shut down. Oops ... Clearly they do good business on a Sunday. [KT: They have their own coffee blend from The Little Marionette, so we'll be back!]

What a lovely day, smiles all round - don't think there was one dud order throughout the day (savoury dishes included). And welcome back Eze, aren't you glad we turned the weather on for your arrival!!

[KT: Welcome first time DDDs - Julia, Minnie, Jean and Susie!]

Amazing foodie experiences in revamped warehouses!

There are simply too many places, but too little time (and stomach power) to eat at. Suppose this is where people like us exist ... we live to eat!

As with all the trendy places in Sydney nowadays, no booking was allowed for Kitchen by Mike. After the experience at The Grinds at Alexandria, we knew better to get there at a respectable (translation - ungodly) hour to secure a table, avoid the queues, and get the goodies before they run out. 

So we made it at 8:45 (!!!). I live 5 minutes from work and don't actually get to work until nearly 10am. Then again, I will get up early if I have to ... Clearly dessert is something I willingly get up early for. Just as well, we easily secured a table, leisurely made our orders (overheard by the counter - "there's only 10 serves of pancakes left"!!) before the mad Sunday breakfast rush (which happens about 10). 

The greedy duo (aka KT and CS) went for the following: Honeycomb and ricotta on toasted fruit and nut bread, strawberry muffin, sourdough pancake with lemon curd, chocolate twist, lemon lime and pineapple juice, and a berry smoothie. One of the more sensible dessertees opted for a healthy wholesome bircher museli flavoured with apple and lime juice.

Oh that lime millefeuille is one of mine. We put it there because it fitted in perfectly :p

The smoothie was very thick, but tasty, a fab meal on its own. The muesli was gorgeous - it was soaked in lime and apple juice so the tang really woke us up with the first mouthful. The honey-ricotta toast was hearty, and next time we'll just opt for honey drizzled over the top rather than trying to chew wax. Strawberry muffin was light, more like a cupcake, which I preferred. Chocolate twist was good but compared to everything else, it was nothing out of the ordinary. The piece de resistance - the pancake which ran out - it was VERY interesting. It did taste like sourdough, but it was a pancake. The lemon curd was gorgeously tangy (we like our tang!). Top pick for the day - and get in early!! 

Carrying our very heavy stomachs, we walked to Grandma's Little Bakery at Alexandria. Unscheduled stop, but it was on the way, and we have heard of it, so why the hell not! It's a cute cafe with a distinctly Mediterranean menu. Plus there's a $20 buffet breakfast special we're sure to return for!! Rosewater and pistachio "Malabi" was like a rose-scented panna cotta. Warm apple strudel actually looked like a puffy apple danish and was light and flaky. Cheese cake was light and crumbly (could do without the top crumble, some say). Iced coffee was an excellent cooling slushy made of real coffee, I could have this any time (maybe not in the middle of winter, mind you).

You'd think we'd stop by now, but we have one more scheduled visit! Bread and Circus Wholefoods Canteen was a relaxing stop with open plan kitchen, fresh produce on display (and for sale), and vegetarian. Not having butter in my desserts is rather unusual but we'll give it a try. I do find the location something to chuckle at, as you can see it's between two construction sites, and within a revamped warehouse very simply fitted out with a kitchen and some tables. Still, it's funky, unpretentious and airy. 

The chocolate spread was VERY dark, which meant apart from the strong cocoa I really couldn't taste the coconut it was meant to have. The juices were fresh - you could taste the individual fruits. We had the lime pineapple and mint (like a rumless mojito) and watermelon lime and mint (watermelon mojito maybe?). Both quite tart, but we like tart... 

If I must buy coffee, I tend to try and look for Campos if it's available nearby. Generally they have good beans and the baristas are those who care about the coffee they serve their customers. Right next to Bread and Circus was Don Campos, so I had to get my afternoon espresso pick-me-up. After flirting with one of the staff members (!!!) I got my espresso and ... hm. Initial flavour was good, lovely crema, but then it left me with a bitter aftertaste. Hm. It was an award-winning Colombian blend too. Must think twice about Campos ... maybe stick with their house blend. 

We always seem to return home fat and happy at the end of our monthly tour, and this was no exception. Love these inner city revivals, love the fact that people who care about what they put in their systems also care about what they put in OUR systems. My compliments to the chefs! 

CS

KT's welcome back DDT!!

Holy. Did the sky forget to turn off its tap? Raining during the long weekend was just rude! Lucky we had a good Australian Day celebration, otherwise it would have been totally un-Australian!!

But our spirits were not dampened by the rain. We've been doing our dessert rain hail or shine for the last 4 years! And our KT is back - hooray to the Return of the Queen!

The Grounds at Alexandria was a popular spot worth waiting 45 minutes for. By the time KT arrived it was abuzz with activity and the queue of people did not seem to stop (neither did the rain...) Just looking at the sweets counter brings a smile to my face. And knowing they take great pride in their coffee .... I could probably stay here all day.

Good coffee, even when it was cooled it was enjoyable. Fabulous french toast - pick of the day. Thick cut banana bread was also delectable. Strawberry and cream was very lovely - I think it sandwiched creme patissier with whipped cream which made it nice and light. The jams that came with the banana bread or sourdough toast were really fruity and intense, love love love!

I'd heard the name Bitton before, not remembering where I heard this from. So when KT said she read it in the good food guide book, it was a "what are we waiting for". As soon as we saw it, I remembered... their products and cookbooks were everywhere! Leaky memory, mine.

I'm now an apprehensive macaron nit-picker. I love these delicate little puffs of almond meringue, but hate the ones that just LOOK like macarons. You just can't tell good from bad because they all look the same. Bitton had some interesting flavours - enough to entice us with "give us one of each, thanks" (except Bounty, as none of us were keen on coconut). And we decided also to have custard with muscat and orange salad, mango bavarois TART and citrus TART (NB: we had a debate on whether they're tarts or, as LG insisted, should be flans). [KT: TARTS!]

Macs were well made. But some of the fillings were too sweet for our liking. Citrus tart was lovely and tart. Bavarois was light. Custard with muscut salad was most unusual, and full of liquor (fire hazard!!). But nothing out of the ordinary. Thus the comments were "not bad, but we've had better."

Freebie time - maybe because one of us made a comment of an unpalatable strawberry smoothie (it was definitely too sweet for my liking) - six little dishes of creme brulee! Beautifully made, good consistency. Happy times. And it was great to have freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice on the menu, really helped us wash down the goodies.  

Lovely on a whole, good setting and we were well looked after. Definitely a return-er.

So everyone else went home. My lovely cousin and I soldiered on, braving the weather, checking out Newtown. Where else would I go when in Newtown? Blackstar Bakery. There she was delighted by the strawberry and watermelon cake, and the seemingly unassuming canelle.


And of course, good coffee, as always.

Well KT, after 2 years' absence, we finally have you back. Hope this was as good as what you'd hoped for ... welcome back!!! And welcome our first timers, "the other Katy", and my dear cousin JLo all the way from LA!!

Here's a touristy shot for you out-of-towners!!