Sweet Street Festival 2015

Another year of Sweet Street, this time went with Dandelion. It was a bit different to last year's one. This year was more expensive, $75 for 8 tokens, while last year was $55 for 10 tokens. Most desserts this year was 1 token each and bigger portions (compared to last year, but smaller than if you were to have it at the actual store), but last year they were smaller portions for more amount of tokens...It was more well organised this year in terms of the ticketing of the event, and the set out. It was spaced over 2 levels and the foyers rather than everyone being crammed inside the Shangri-La ballroom. There wasn't a stage this year, so more space to walk and to accommodate ~750 people compared to ~500 from last year. There were also some more dessert people this year, which I guess may explain the increased price in cost. Major difference was that there were no goodie 'show' bags handed out at the entrance...

Not going to go into detail for everything, just some highlights. I was too excited for most of the desserts, so some of them I didn't bother focussing/check if the photo was focussed on my phone...

Black Star Pastry-Strawberry Watermelon Cake

graffiti, they also did some ink-iron pressed cloth bags (2 tokens)

first ones in!

Katherine Sabbath! (awesome looking cakes on Insta)

Lux Bite: all the way from Melbourne. Loved how they showcased their actual cakes from their current menu, saves me from flying down there. Their desserts sound sweet, but they are probably the least sweet of them all, and perfectly balanced yet interesting flavours.

 

Endless love-Inspired by Pierre Hermé’s Ispahan: Lychee ganache, rose cream, lychee, fresh raspberries (my favourite)

Blue Calpis-Cheesecake with a twist: Calpis & mascarpone mousse cake, white chocolate sponge, blueberry jelly, blueberry cream, topped with blueberry meringue and crumble (calpis is so yum)

Bernard Chu

came back for seconds

Kuma: cookie, mork hot chocolate, strawberry, banana, white chocolate milkshake mousse, caramel, chocolate tart

Epic Chocolate Cravings: rich Callebaut dark chocolate w/ hazelnut crust and salted caramel sphere

This is actually dark chocolate with minimal amounts of sweetness. It's quite dense in texture, but eating it doesn't make you feel bloated. The sphere reminds me of Lindt's salted caramel Lindors, but this is more well balanced and the salt more well incorporated.

N2 Gelato

N2xBlack Star Pastry Watermelon Cake

A cream sort of gelato is not really my kind of gelato, didn't really find a lot of watermelon in it, and not enough chunks of the cake...Flavour of the cake was more on the subtle side...

DJ

Savour School (from Melbourne): 'Pipa' in 3 flavours, managed to try 2 (1 token each but they gave me 1 for free)

 

Kirsten Tibballs

Olive oil sponge w/ sea salt, caramel cremeau and vanilla mousse chocolate
Lime-centred sponge w/ citrus crumble, passionfruit curd and caramelised chocolate creme

Cacao Fine Choc: a new set of eclairs this year. One token each, usually they retail for $6 in Melbourne

flavours

 

Tim Clark

Torching 'smores'

 

 

Mi-So Fancy: also loved that massive miso-salty hit you get in this eclair

  

berry flavours balanced well                           yep, definitely had the iconic graham cracker of a Smore

Gelato Messina, new this year but didn't think it was worth it and didn't look that appealing

Anna Polyviou!

berry yogurt: it was average, probably too much yogurt and not enough berry flavour

got all 3 for free! Berry, Passionfruit (featured last year), and Carrot Cake Terrine (from the Carrot Cake featured on MasterChef)

Andy Bowdy: never had the time to go to Newtown to try his creations...and he's new this year so really wanted to try it.

fixing the sign...

this cake is over $200

 

Milo Malteser Cake-2 tokens

This cake was worth about $20 and was the only thing we lined a while for...We were in line for around 20 min, then turns out the person in front of us got the last piece of cake. I saw there was still a tray of cakes behind them but apparently they fell on the ground and couldn't sell them, we me being a persistent dessert eater awkwardly stood around, until they released 4 cakes which were in the middle which didn't touch the ground, yes a little deformed (well most really since it was stuck with a pool of chocolate), but I really wanted to see what the cake tasted like. 

I'm not a massive chocolate fan but I have a sweet tooth. Even in saying that, the two of us sharing this cake could hardly finish it. It was superrrr duper rich, heavy and decadent. There was a super salty short crumb biscuit base on bottom, but it was stuck onto the cake board and couldn't cut into it whilst eating the sweet cake, so we had a salty after taste....looks good but I know this isn't my type of cake.

I also have a feeling that lining up for this cake upstairs meant I missed out on winning a kitchen appliance, since I didn't hear any announcements about giving away prizes even though I stayed in the main ball room for the whole night except when lining up for this cake...

tarts which we didn't get...

some savouries (didn't get any)

Adriano Zumbo

selfie this year! oops, didn't check the lighting...

As much as I love Zumbarons, I have to say the cheese and lime zumbaron was so weird it was kind of displeasing to taste...Get that cheese flavour than a super lime aftertaste, so salty and sour and not trace of any sweetness...The Cereal Killer flavour was more of a milky taste.

freeee

First time trying a chouxmaca: choux bun filled with cream and topped with a macaron.

 

Toffee Apple and Salted Popcorn Choc Top Chouxmaca

yumm...normally these are $6 so might go buy one when I next go past...choux bun so soft and the filling isn't too sweet, and who doesn't love a macaron shell?

free

freeeee, over $100+ worth of desserts

Since State of Origin finals was on the same night, many people arrived there early and left early, it was almost empty at around 8.30pm, where as many people stayed till 9.30pm last year. This year every single chef )except Andy Bowdy) made heaps of desserts, and everyone had leftovers, so me being Asian and a dessert lover decided to ask them if they were giving out desserts, and after some persistence, they did! Cacao Fine Choc were the most generous, and gave without really asking whereas I personally asked Zumbo and he told me to ask the ladies...I guess that might be why you get females to run part of your business, since they tend to be more strict with their food/pricing...like the lady from Andy Bowdy who wouldn't give us a discount on a deformed cake...but I managed to try all of the eclairs and most things from that night of desserts so it was a success! 

Loved how they donated all the leftover desserts of Oz Harvest the next day, rather than just sharing them among the dessert people/their companies.

Looking forward to next year's dessert festival! (Please don't increase the price)