Melbourne’s Sweet Treats

For my Husband and I’s one year wedding anniversary, we decided to visit Melbourne for a few days. I was so super excited to eat my through all the great dessert places that Melbourne has to offer, unfortunately we were only there for a few days.

Here a few of my favourite places that I discovered whilst in Melbourne:

Cupcake Central

I was very excited to hear about Cupcake Central’s awesome cupcakes from my Twitter friends. I was advised that I must try their Red Velvet Cupcake, and of course this is exactly what I did.

I was quite impressed with the look of the shop. All the cupcakes looked so delicious in the display cabinets, that I could’ve eaten them all. Alas, I decided that I must try one cupcake first. I ended up buying one Red Velvet Cupcake and one Salted Caramel Cupcake for my friend.

The Red Velvet Cupcake was so delicious. The cupcake part was so super moist and the cream cheese frosting was so creamy. I was really super impressed. My friend said she loved the Salted Caramel Cupcake too.

Visit Cupcake Central’s website for store locations and baking schedule: http://www.cupcakecentral.com.au/

Brunetti

After a really bad dinner experience in Chinatown, my husband and I were really craving something sweet. I suggested we try Brunetti, because I have heard so many great things about this place. Unfortunately when we got there, it was quite late and there were not many cakes left. Nevertheless, I managed to choose two types of cake. I ended up choosing the New York Baked Cheesecake and the Nutella and Ricotta Cake.

The New York Baked Cheesecake was really delicious. I loved the fact that the New York Baked Cheesecake was slightly dense and creamy and did not taste like gelatine.

The Nutella and Ricotta Cake was really nice too, the ricotta cheesecake was smooth and creamy and the Nutella gave the cake a delicious hazelnut hit. I just wish I had a bigger slice!

Visit Brunetti’s website for store locations: http://www.brunetti.com.au/

Koko Black

Koko Black was probably my first sweet love when I first visited Melbourne. To this day, I still love Koko Black and try to visit their salons every time I visit Melbourne.

Usually when I visit Koko Black, I always order the Belgian Chocolate Mousse and the Hot Chocolate. This time when I visited Koko Black, I decided to be different. This time I decided to order the Caramel Delice and of course the Hot Chocolate.

The Caramel Delice was amazing, I swear it literally melted in my mouth. The Caramel Delice is basically caramel chocolate mousse cake with a biscuit base. I actually ended up liking the Caramel Delice more than the Belgian Chocolate Mousse, because it was not as sweet.

The Hot Chocolate was delicious as always, so chocolatey,  but is no longer my favourite Hot Chocolate in Melbourne.

Visit Koko Black’s website for salon locations: http://www.kokoblack.com/

Cumulus Inc.

Cumulus Inc. is the cafe in Melbourne that makes the best Hot Chocolate I have ever drunk.

My Husband and I decided to visit Cumulus Inc. for the purpose of ordering drinks only. We were not in the mood to eat. I decided to order the usual Hot Chocolate.

 

The Hot Chocolate from Cumulus Inc. was as usual, absolutely divine. The Hot Chocolate was so creamy, frothy and chocolatey. The only fault of the Hot Chocolate, was that the cup it was served in was too small, and for this reason I drank two cups.

Whilst at Cumulus Inc., I received a comment on Instagram from my friends from Twitter. They suggested that I order the Lemon Curd Madeleine. I took their advice and ordered one. The Lemon Curd Madeleines are freshly baked and usually take 15 minutes to bake.

So 25 minutes later and attitude from staff member, I received my Lemon Curd Madeleine.

The Lemon Curd Madeleine was so delicious, even more so because it was fresh out of the oven and it was still warm. The Lemon Curd Madeleine was so soft and fluffy and the oozing lemon curd filling was slightly tangy.

Visit Cumulus Inc.’s website cafe location and further details: http://cumulusinc.com.au/

 

 

La Belle Miette

A visit to La Belle Miette to buy their delicious macarons, was definitely high on my sweet eating agenda. I must confess, I visited this place three times when we were in Melbourne.

I absolutely love their macarons. I love their range of flavours, my favourite ones are the Mango and Coconut, Caramel a la Fleur de Sel and Strawberry and Vanilla.

 

La Belle Miette’s macarons are so well made and the flavours are amazing. The macarons shells are so perfectly soft and chewy and the macaron fillings are so creamy. Together, these make a match made in heaven.

Visit La Belle Miette’s website for store locations: http://labellemiette.com.au

 

There are so many other great sweet places to discover in Melbourne, but we ran out of time.  Overall, I really loved my sweet eating experiences in Melbourne. I cannot wait to come back again soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Apple Crumble Pie Zonuts from Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier

When I heard that Adriano Zumbo was going to make his own version of Dominique Ansel’s croissant-doughnut ” Cronut”, I was very excited. Then when I found out that he was going to release them on Friday, which was my day off, I thought it was fate.

Adriano Zumbo’s version of the croissant-doughnut is called  ”Zonut”, keeping with the existing Z theme. The Zonut comes in a variety of flavours, that may change weekly. The first Zonut that was released was the Apple Crumble Pie Zonut.

The Zonut is essentially a croissant-doughnut in one. The concept of this combination is simply genius.

On Friday, I left home really early in the morning, so I could go buy my Zonut and hopefully not line up. I had imagined that there would be this crazy frenzy and extremely long queues. When I arrived, there was no queue, in fact there were only three customers in store.

I immediately made my way to the counter and my eyes were drawn to the delicious looking Zonuts that were sitting on top of the counter. The Zonuts looked flaky and golden brown, I was literally drooling.

 

When it was my time to be served, I ended up having a conversation to the guy working there about the Zonuts. He told me that they had already sold three trays of the Zonuts. He also told me that the Zonuts tasted amazing.

I decided to buy only four Zonuts. I also decided to buy some Zumbarons as well.

When I turned to have a look at the store whilst the guy working there was boxing my Zonuts, I spotted Adriano Zumbo. I was so thrilled that I decided to say hello to him and have a chat. Adriano said he is very excited about the Zonuts. He said he plans to change the flavours weekly. I found Adriano Zumbo to be quite a nice person and easy going too.

For some strange reason, I did not feel like eating the Zonut when I left the shop. I actually did not eat the Zonut until I got home late in the afternoon.

The Zonut was very delicious, the taste reminded me of those sugar egg puffs that you get at yum cha. The Zonut was essentially layers and layers of goodness that melts in your mouth. On the top of the Zonut is icing and apple crumble pie topping and on the bottom is the apple pie cream.

Of course the Zonut is not something you would eat on a regular basis, but it is still good for a occasional treat.

I think I am officially obsessed.

Zonuts are available from Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier’s Rozelle shop:

114 Terry Street, Rozelle NSW 2039

 

 

My Favourite Icing Recipe

As you may or may not know, I have a love hate relationship with making icing. Actually, I do not have any love for making icing, I hate it. Making me make icing and icing a cake is the equivalent of making me clean out of my rabbit’s toilet box.. therefore torture.

However, whilst unpacking my books onto my new book shelf, I came across my Masterchef Australia The Cookbook Volume 1. Whilst I was flicking through the cookbook, I came across a butter icing recipe that looked really easy to make.

One night, I decided to give it a go. I was quite surprised with the great result I got from making the icing for the first time using this recipe. The icing was not too sweet, smooth, easy to spread and tasted delicious. I think I may have gotten so excited, that I jumped for joy.

The recipe is so easy to make:

Butter Icing

125 grams of unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups of icing sugar

approximately 1 tablespoon of milk

Method

Use electric beaters to beat the butter until light and creamy. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, beating constantly. Add half the milk and beat until combined. I added a little bit of thickened cream to make the icing more creamy.

So simple!

To confess, I did not fully follow the method step by step. After beating the butter, I tossed the rest into the bowl and then mixed it with my electric beaters, until it was all combined. Unfortunately, I became impatient.

My next goal is to master the art of piping icing onto cake. I am so hopeless at piping icing, that it is tragic.

 

 

 

 

Buttermilk Chocolate Cake

Just like eggs, buttermilk is a regular food staple in our fridge. Every Sunday, my husband will wait until I am awake, and he will cook me Buttermilk Pancakes. Unfortunately every week, the remaining buttermilk would get thrown in the bin. I decided that I would find a recipe online that uses buttermilk, so the buttermilk would not go waste again.

I spent twenty minutes searching online for a recipe that was easy to make, looked delicious and did not take a long time in the oven to make. I finally found a recipe for Buttermilk Chocolate Cake and the recipe looked quite easy to make.

I was considering being lazy, by making the Buttermilk Chocolate Cake into cupcakes, but decided that this time, I would not be lazy and make it as a whole cake. This decision to make a whole cake was not an easy decision to make, because I hate making whole cakes. I will confess, though out the mixing process, I may have changed my mind a few times.

The Buttermilk Chocolate Cake was really straight forward to make. I did not find it difficult at all. My only concern was that I may over mix the cake mix, but in the end it worked out fine. I decided to change the recipe by cooking the cake at 150 degrees Celsius as opposed to the recipes suggestion of 180 Degrees Celsius. I decided to do this, so the cake would not burn.

In less time than stated in the recipe, my Buttermilk Chocolate Cake was ready. I will admit, the Buttermilk Chocolate Cake did not look one bit sexy, it had “rustic” cracks in it. But as my lovely Twitter friends said, it is not about how it looks, it is about how it tastes.

I allowed the Buttermilk Chocolate Cake to cool down and I started making Buttercream icing to cover the “rustic” cracks.

Once the Buttermilk Chocolate Cake was cooled down, I iced the cake. The icing did not look like a masterpiece, but it did look delicious.

I decided to cut a slice of the Buttermilk Chocolate Cake and have a taste. The Buttermilk Chocolate Cake tasted so delicious. I was really impressed with the texture, it was moist and fluffy and the chocolate was just right. The icing was a perfect match for the cake, but next time I may make chocolate icing instead.

Overall I was extremely pleased with the result.

The Buttermilk Chocolate recipe can be found here:

http://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/dairy-food-and-recipes/recipes/recipe-detail/buttermilk_chocolate_cake.aspx

Note: I used my own icing recipe

Anzac Biscuits

With every great recipe, there is usually a lovely story behind it. When I read my Twitter friend @thestickysweet’s blog post about Anzac Biscuits and the history behind it, I felt inspired to bake Anzac Biscuits.

To be honest, in the last few weeks I had been book marking many different Anzac Biscuit recipes on my iPad. I did intend to bake them at some point, but I was too busy going through a cake baking obsession. But last night, I felt empowered to bake these biscuits, and who could not after reading @thestickysweet’s blog post.

I had never baked Anzac Biscuits prior to last night. I always became lazy and resorted to buying them from the store. Now that I have discovered a great recipe, I shall be baking Anzac Biscuits for myself more often.

The Anzac Biscuit recipe was really easy to follow. The steps were really straight forward, definitely my kind of recipe.

The end result was lots and lots of delicious golden brown crispy Anzac Biscuits. The Anzac Biscuits were so delicious and moreish, that I could not stop at eating just one, and surprisingly nor could my Husband who does not like sweet things.

 

 

I think I will have to add this Anzac Biscuit recipe into my baking journal, because it is definitely my new favourite biscuit recipe.

The Anzac Biscuit Recipe can be found here:

http://www.thestickyandsweet.com/anzac-biscuits/

 

The Ultimate Chocolate Cake from Zokoko

For some strange reason, I have not felt like eating chocolate mud cake. I cannot explain why and my friends were thinking I must be unwell. But today when I went to Zokoko to buy some cocoa powder, I could not help eyeing off the The Ultimate Chocolate Cake from Zokoko.

Seeing this cake, was like love at first sight. My eyes were mesmerised by this delicious creation. The chocolate cake looked so chocolatey and the ganache looked so perfect. I was so mesmerised that I forgot what I had gone into Zokoko to order in the first place. I ended saying goodbye to my diet and  ordered a slice of the Ultimate Chocolate cake.

When I got to my car, I had to take a look at the cake slice. The chocolate filling inside was so thick and looked so rich, I was drooling.

As soon as I got home, I took a bite of the cake. With that one bite, I seriously thought I had died and gone to chocolate heaven. The Ultimate Chocolate Cake was so rich, dense, moist and delicious.

A few more bites later, I was defeated. I could not eat the whole slice of cake, it was too much for me to eat. I actually ended up drinking two large cups of Pu-erh tea afterwards because I was feeling guilty about the chocolate that I had consumed.

Overall, I was very impressed with the Ultimate Chocolate Cake from Zokoko. I really think the use of good quality chocolate, makes  the difference.

Zokoko is located at:

3/84-90 Old Bathurst Rd  Emu Heights NSW 2750

Phone: 1300 965 656

Website:

https://www.zokoko.com/

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

It is amazing how quickly food items expire, or maybe it is because I buy too much of one thing and forget about it. If there is one thing I have learnt from my trip to Africa, is do not waste food.

This morning when I was looking through our pantry, I noticed that we had one bag of nearly expired Cadbury Chocolate Chips. I really wanted to use them up by baking something simple. So after much thought and procrastination, I decided to make Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.

All I had to do to make the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, was to use the usual Banana Bread recipe I use and then add 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. Simple.

When the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread was cooked, it looked and smelt divine.

I contemplated eating this Chocolate Chip Banana Bread for breakfast this morning, but I felt like it would be too much sweetness for the morning.

The standard Banana Bread recipe can be found on this website:

http://food.ninemsn.com.au/recipes/ibanana/8336571/best-ever-banana-bread