The best Melbourne souvenir. #macarons from @luxbite ! #food #foodies #foodblog #macaron #delicious #dessert #yummy
Tag: macarons
Caramel slice on a whole new level #food #foodies #foodblog #melbourne #luxbite #dessert #delicious #sweets #macaron #macarons #caramel @luxbite
Heart shaped #macarons for my Valentine 💕#food #foodies #foodblog #macaron #sweets #dessert #vday #canberra
Zumbo re-run
——-15/07/2012——-
Obviously I wasn’t going to go to Darling Harbour without dropping by Adriano Zumbo Patissier again. Just a quick trip to see what Zumbaron flavours were on offer this week and maybe grab a small cake to go, who could resist!
Grabbing a few old favourites and a lot of new ones: custard crunch, pancake and maple syrup, salted butter popcorn, some sort of fancy chocolate flavour, mandarin and malted milkshake.
Zumbo’s V8 cake vanilla almond crunch, vanilla chiffon, vanilla dacquoise vanilla macaron, vanilla water gel, vanilla glaze and vanilla ganache ($10.00). Although there is a lot of vanilla in there were still so many complex flavours and textures within every bite, provided you put your spoon through all the layers and not just picking at it.
I much preferred the cake over the Zumbaron flavours this time but I never leave disappointed.
Zumbarons! #food #foodporn #sweet #macaron #macarons #dessert (Taken with Instagram)
High tea @ the Hyatt
——02/06/2012——-
We were celebrating several occasions- birthdays and finishing courses but who doesn’t love catching up with wonderful friends in cute dresses while eating cake all afternoon? My friend booked well in advance to ensure we got a table for High tea at the Hyatt.
The table is set, let’s eat!
A big table of an ‘all of you can’ buffet with both sweets and savouries.
Each tea/coffee cup had a cute peppermint macaron for an ‘after dinner mint’. It was a very strong flavour and I didn’t think the shell was the best consistency.
Complimentary champagne or juice on arrival.
A close up for several plates- strawberry tart, jelly, tarts, cheesecakes, bread and butter puddings, pavlova and trifle.
Mmmm savouries!
My vegan friend was given a savoury platter with char-grilled vegetables and anti-pasto elements.
Even though we had specifically mentioned that there was a vegan while booking, we weren’t sure how they were going to cater for her. We were all amazed that there was a sweet vegan platter to follow. I asked to see the chef to explain the plate (and to double check that it was vegan). There were a lot of delicious elements but it got a wee bit sweet towards the end and unlike me, my friend couldn’t swap back to savoury afterwards.
Vegan option: Chocolate panna cotta, hazelnut crumble, orange polenta cake, biscuits, fruit loaf and sweet jellies. My friend’s favourites included the crumble and orange cake but found the jellies a bit too much.
A close of up the cold hazelnut crumble with apples.
I have eaten at a lot of local venues who have high tea and I think this is definitely one of the better ones. Something things were too sweet for me but that didn’t matter because they were constantly re-filling the hot savouries (as well as everything else). My favourites of the afternoon- spinach and cheese pastries, bread and butter pudding with berries and the trifle.
We have been to several high teas where my vegan has had to pay full price and was basically given vegetables sticks in 3 ways, so to see such a wonderful variety was a double plus! The icing on the (vegan) cupcake was that the price was only $28.00 in comparison to the full price $47.00.
Venue: The Tea Lounge @ the Hyatt
Address: 120 Commonwealth Avenue, Canberra
High Tea: From 2:30pm- 5pm daily (Yes we were there for the whole duration and then some) $47.00
Phone: (02) 6269 8815
Vegan friendly
Ladurée Launches its First Australian Store in Sydney
France’s famous macaron makers arrive in Sydney later this month to bring us a little taste of Paris. By Charlotte Callander, 4th July 2012
Macaron porn #food #yumy #foodporn #foodstamping #macaron #colours #macarons #sweets #dessert (Taken with Instagram)
You would be nuts not to stop by @ Gumnut Patisserie
——-13/06/2012——-
As nice as lunch was at Caffe Rosso, we skipped dessert just so I could go to The Gumnut Patisserie afterwards. I would have rolled out the car when we drove past it the first time if the main street wasn’t so busy.
If all the awards wasn’t convincing enough, the nearly empty shelves when there was still at least 2 hours of trading left would let you know that they were doing something right.
Too full to try their award winning pies, but their sweets looked tempting.
Macadamia tart– Wow this was AMAZING! I know people go nuts for macadamias, I’m not that fussed either way but even I had two slices of this tart. Think macadamia nuts encased with a rich caramel like custard.
Ok I guess it wasn’t a good start when even the girls in the shop didn’t know what flavours the macarons were. They said one might be strawberry and would have to guess lemon for the yellow one. Even when we bit into them we still had no idea what flavours they were, although there was just the ever so slightest hint of passion fruit after taste with the yellow one. Bland and basically no taste – very disappointing and they obviously didn’t win awards for their macarons.
Now I’m not the biggest fan of croissants but when I bit into this my eyes widened. YUM! Perhaps the best croissant I have ever eaten!
Not a hollow interior but a flaky rich buttery network inside.
A bit unfair that there are so many delicious cafes/patisseries/restaurants to eat in one area so far from Canberra. I will definitely have to come back to Bowral and see what other gems are yet to be discovered, eating more from this patisserie will definitely be on my list!
Venue: The Gumnut Patisserie
Address: Shop 7 Grand Arcade Bong Bong St, Bowral, NSW 2576
Phone: (02) 4862 2819
Website: http://www.gumnutpatisserie.com.au/
Opening Hours: Everyday 8am – 5 pm
Adriano Zumbo
——-13/06/2012——-
Not long after leaving Pancakes on the Rocks…
Of course if we were going to be so close to Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier I figure we may as well go and take a visit, even if they only just opened for the day.
So many choices, hmmm what to get?
The had me at dulce de leche…
Dulce de leche eclair– sable a choux, ducle de leche creme pastisserie caramel and caramel glaze ($9.00) Just imagine a beautiful flowing caramel inside a pastry with more caramel on top. Amazing for the taste buds and different textures to delight the senses. A bite at first seems to too much and too sweet with all the different textured caramels but when all that subsides, all you want is another bite.
And of course we couldn’t leave without getting some Zumbarons~
baby powder, banana, blackened vanilla, passionfruit and tonka bean, salted buttered popcorn and salted butter caramel.
Oh so good, the only thing I was disappointed with was ‘baby powder’ tasted like musk, boo for me but that meant extra for Timmy.
Forever delighting the senses and breaking the rules of what can be a macaron flavour, Zumbo continues to amaze me and has a good rotation of flavours so there is always something to new try. At the moment they have flavours such as peach ice tea, chocolate doughnut, pancake & maple syrup and custard crunch, which I would love to try.
Raspberry and salted caramel macarons #food #pretty #foodporn #dessert #pink #sweet #macaron #macarons (Taken with instagram)
A dream come true
——-10/04/2012——-
With most people dreading the thought of work this morning (Monday-itis regardless if it isn’t Monday), I woke up feeling excited like a kid waking up on Christmas day. It’s here- finally! The grand opening of the Dream Cuisine Patisserie store!
Although I wasn’t a keen bean early riser like some (with Owen getting there at 5am to start the day), I still had a big smile on my face when I walked through the door just after midday.
From their pamphlet and website:
“Dream Cuisine is take no prisoners, make no compromises sweets and pastry. We use organic ingredients and we make everything fresh by hand. Everything is made in our Canberra kitchen from the freshest natural ingredients. We use organic whole flour, free-range eggs, farmhouse cream, organic milk and fresh seasonal fruit.”
A cute petite store with very lovely colour detailing from the walls to the lights even the chairs.
What did we leave with?
A sampler of a ‘mini macaron’- double chocolate, all 6 available macaron flavours ($3.00)- lavender and honey; salted butter caramel; strawberry and champagne; pistachio and lime; passion fruit and double chocolate
and two flat whites (I don’t drink coffee so I badgered my two friends to try it, they said it was good coffee but not outstanding).
So what have I sampled from Dream Cuisine previously from accidentally/on purpose bumping into them all the time at the markets?
A break down: there’s only so many ways you can say amazing and wonderful so just assume that description for all of the following flavours.
Coffee (although I don’t drink coffee I still liked this and didn’t find it bitter), strawberry and champagne (tasted more like white chocolate and strawberries but I still liked it) and salted butter caramel (one of my favourite flavours).
Passion fruit(an amazing burst of passion fruit flavour), ‘Real Chai‘ (I Real Chai and this is very true to the flavour), lavender and honey (you can definitely taste both flavours and they go so well together) and raspberry (my first l
ve- yep it’s the first flavour I had from Dream Cuisine and I’m always sad when they don’t have it). Not shown: double chocolate (a pure chocolate indulgence) and pistachio and lime (they don’t win awards for this for nothing).
Tarts:
Crème brûlée tart, raspberry tart, roasted hazelnut and honey tart, crème brûlée tart, crème brûlée tart (approximately $4.00-$5.00 from the markets).
A break down:
Raspberry tart (the burst of fresh delicate raspberries and vanilla bean custard how could you go wrong? I think this is my favourite! Oh Owen, why didn’t you have this today? ), Crème brûlée (yes you might have noticed the multiple pictures, I also enjoy this tart very much. It stays true to its name and has a crunchy top and a velvety custard texture), hazelnut and honey (a great marriage of flavours and not too overly sweet).
If my memory serves me correctly the prices of the macarons have gone up (even though Adriano Zumbo macarons are just $2.50) but if other people around Canberra (and Melbourne for that matter) are charging the same if not more for no where near the quality (texture, flavour and quality of ingredients), I’m ok with that, it might just mean I only eat 3 macarons and not 4.
Being the first day, they didn’t have all the fabulous flavours and tarts that I wanted, but they assured me during the up coming weeks there’ll be more variety and even hot food! I guess I’ll just have to come back real soon.
Venue: Dream Cuisine Patisserie
Address: 9/18 Whyalla St Fyshwick
Website: http://www.dreamcuisine.net.au/
Opening Hours: 6:30am-4pm Monday – Friday (except public holidays)
you can still find them at EPIC farmer’s market on Sat and OBD markets on Sunday.
Melbourne Series – Lux bite
——-29/10/2011——-
… So less than 20 minute after leaving the Dainty Sichuan restaurant (being very full mind you), I couldn’t resist going into this gorgeous little sweets store after spotting it across the road. I convinced Timmy that we were only ‘browsing’.
Walking in I see everyone eating these gorgeous little cakes, but my head turns to the macaron counter where I see ‘ribeana’ as a flavour which made me squeal! Pandan, PB&J, mandarin and saffron, it’s not every day that you see these flavours.
If I hadn’t JUST finished eating lunch I would have ordered at least two cakes from the cabinet. They all looked so beautiful and had interesting flavours.
Love the Halloween themed cakes! Such unique flavours.
As we narrowed our choices down to 5 (yes I just had to try some), they packed our selection away in a cute box topped with a paper ribbon.
To my surprise Timmy opens the box and starts munching away. I thought he was full?
$11.00 for 4 macarons (from top to bottom)
Rose and lychee– a delicious fusion of floral and fruit. I was only allowed one nibble as this was Timmy’s favourite.
Salted caramel – very delicious though very buttery at the same time.
Creme brulee– flecked with vanilla bean speckles, this did taste like a delicious baked custard (but my favourite part of a brulee is the sugar toffee layer).
PB&J– a smooth peanut butter filling, not much in the way of jelly though but I really liked it (because I PB).
not pictured sorry~ Ribeana ($2.00 special)– slightly disappointing as it could have passed for a blueberry cheesecake flavour.
Their macarons haven’t gone unnoticed.
I will be back to try some cake and grab a few more macarons flavours while I’m there!
Venue: Lux bite
Address: 38 Toorak Road, South Yarra, VIC, 3141 Australia
Phone: 0398 675 888
Opening Hours: 8am – 8pm (closed Tuesday)
Website: http://www.luxbite.com.au/
Melbourne Series – Queen Victoria Markets
——-29/10/2011——-
I always manage to make to time visit the Queen Victoria Market when I’m in town, more specifically the cake shop and borek stand @ the QVM! I love the colour and taste of their bubblegum flavour macaron that I haven’t seen anywhere else and Timmy likes the Turkish delight one.
We bought 4 for $10.50
Bubblegum: it’s as beautiful as it is delicious and the flavour and is spot on!
Tiramisu: very strong coffee flavour though I did find a patch of chocolate filling in my last bite.
Turkish delight: if you love Turkish delight, you’ll love this! It’s incredible when a macaron filling mimics another sweet so similarly but with such a different texture it makes your was think twice.
Salted caramel: Okay, not one of the better ones that I’ve had.
Usually afterwards I need a savoury snack, so I head to the adjacent stall where they make fresh hot boreks on the premises. A lamb borek- fresh, hot and slightly chili- YUM!
Melbourne Series – macarons at Ala folie
——-28/10/2011——-
While we were waiting at the airport, Timmy asks me if I had planned out all the meals for the weekend. Quite the opposite in fact! I had planned nothing, no ‘out of the way’ bakeries (which I did in Sydney) or go searching for tucked away ramen places (which I have done previously in Melbourne), this time I was just going with the flow. But as it turns out, you can’t turn a corner without finding somewhere with macarons in Melbourne CBD. Just like fashion trends, food also has an ‘in’ thing, a few years ago it was cupcakes (which I gladly followed and made hundreds of) and now it’s macarons (which I have gladly followed and eaten hundreds of).
After checking into the hotel, we go for a little stroll and we loose ourselves amongst the cute lane ways and arcades filled with cafes and boutique stores. We walk past Ganache chocolate, the Lindt cafe and Haighs all within a few metres of each other, then we finally find ourselves in the Royal arcade with our noses pressed up against the glass of a cute stand alone stall of Ala folie.
Flavours we chose (@ $3.00 a pop)
Jasmin and white chocolate- tasted like a delicious jasmin tea infused filling
Dulce de leche- tasted like a wafer biscuit, a bit dry
Vanilla- you could see all the vanilla bean speckles- YUM!
Caramel- it was nice, but not the nicest I’ve had
Raspberry- not very memorable
TALES OF A CONFECTIONIST 