May 2009

I have been so excited about going to see Adriano Zumbo’s new collection of cakes and macarons since I heard about the launch 3 weeks ago and got even more excited when I saw a sneak peak preview on Not Quite Nigella!!! Lucky Lorraine!! (I’m secretly [or not so secretly] very jealous! 😉 ).

I have never been to Zumbo’s before and have been reading great reviews about it for the past year. This is also my first time in meeting some fellow food bloggers and my first review of a café. A big thanks to Reem for organising this lovely get together, it was great to finally meet everyone: Reem, Lili, Steph, Chris and Tim, Belle, Trina, Simon, Karen and Susan.

I not only love cakes, biscuits, chocolate, macarons, cream and all other things sweet, but I also love when people present their dishes in a gorgeous way, so I was in for a treat!

After seeing the preview I had an idea of definite cakes to try, the chocolate ‘popcorn’ stack and the Mille Feuille … and don’t forget the lovely range of macarons.

Adriano, Rachel and the other lovely staff at the café had a spread of the new collection of cakes out for us to photograph and after choosing a few to buy and take home, we were able to share the remaining cakes there.

At Adriano’s I tried a beautiful lime and passionfruit marshmallow cake. There were two sections to this cake, one with a slightly crunchy coconut layer on the outside, with layers of marshmallow and cake and the other covered in luscious mousse. I would have this again – and have been craving it since! 🙂

Adriano also bought out a few different cakes that were sliced up on the spot. A carrot cake wrapped in seaweed along with a marshmallow cake which had marshmallow in the top of the cake, with a distinctly smoky flavoured cake and glaze, which was topped with marshmallow and ‘coal’-like pieces on top.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to try the chocolate popcorn stack, but heard it was lovely, this means I’ll have to travel back there 😉 Anyone interested?

I decided to buy two cakes to take home for my family to try. One was the Mille Feuille, which consisted of layers of pine nut mousse, fresh and cripsy puff pastry and chocolate crème. There were a few flavours I couldn’t pick in this dish and most people enjoyed this one.

I really enjoyed ‘V’. After hearing the numerous amounts of ways macadamia were incorporated into this dish and seeing its gorgeous presentation, I thought both my family and I would certainly enjoy this tremendously. It was certainly one of the favourites with the vanilla chantilly working wonders with the macadamia layers, and the pear tatine cutting some of the creaminess in the dish.

I took four macarons home to try as well. The rice pudding was my favourite with a lovely vanilla flavour and rice texture. The chocolate macaron was lovely, slightly bitter with rich dark chocolate. The baklava macaron had a big hit of what I thought was cardamon? But I’m never good at picking flavours and the toffee apple had a hard and (beware for those with loose fillings) chewy outside toffee shell, with a soft apple interior.

Thanks again to both Adriano and Rachael at the café for all the hard work they put into making sure the food bloggers had a great range of cakes to try. They were both lovely, friendly and very helpful. Thanks again and I look forward to my next visit. Thanks also to all the food bloggers!! 😉

Adriano Zumbo
Café Chocolat
Shop 5, 308 Darling St Balmain
Ph 02 9555 1199
Open from 8 to 4 Monday to Friday, 8 to 5 on Saturdays and 9 to 5 Sundays

Pâtisserie
296 Darling St Balmain
Ph 02 9810 7318
Open 8 to 6 Monday to Saturday and 8 to 4 on Sundays

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