Easter’s Over – Cacao Easter Egg Masterclass

Australia, Melbourne, Other April 3, 2013 Comments: 29

Greetings everyone Hope you’ve all had an amazing Easter and have indulged in too much chocolate (if that’s even possible!). I didn’t have time to blog during Easter because my parents and sister (Win Win) was here to visit. But unfortunately, Win Win had to leave after a week, while my parents are still here for another 2 months yay!

Humpty Dumpty displayed used over 40 kgs of chocolate!

Even though Easter’s over now…I still wanted to blog about the Cacao Easter Egg Masterclass I was invited to by Cacao and Tink PR a week before Easter ~ It was like a mini reunion for us bloggers because most of us had attended the Pizza Competition at Grosvenor Hotel a couple of weeks before. At this event I was joined by Shellie, Cherrie, Ashley, Lianne, Peach Water, Brunch Addict Agnes and Amy. So good to see everyone again Special thanks to Lianne for letting me use some of her photos xox

The class was held at the Cacao store in St Kilda, which is actually their first store and everything use to made here until the demand outgrew the capacity ~ I’ve driven past this store many times but never visited and was surprised to see that they did not have their delicious macarons and chocolates, but also a range of cakes. I’m definitely going to come back and try them sometime soon.

Dark Hot Chocolate

Cacao was very generous and offered us a drink to start the night ~ After seeing photos of the ice-cream chocolate Shellie and Cherrie had, I was so tempted to get it. But it was getting a bit chilly that night so decided to go for the dark hot chocolate instead, it was deep, rich and smooth everything I imagined ~

Canapes

They were also very thoughtful and provided us with some savoury canapes such as mini quiches and mini salmon rolls Great as most of us had gone straight from work and hadn’t had the chance to grab dinner, while I had been working from home and grazing on snacks all day ~

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Julia then introduced us to Tim Clark one of the co-owners and creator of Cacao Fine Chocolates along with Laurent Meric. I was quite flattered when Tim actually recognised me as I have visited the Cacao store in Doncaster before and had tagged him in my Instagram posts ~ he immediately said “You have a sweet tooth don’t you?” LOL how awkward…everyone knows!

Tim Clark

We were then led into the kitchen where it had a large marble bench, Tim explained that we were going to make a very special Easter egg that had a tiny sphere inside that was filled with salted caramel and chocolate. Even thinking about it makes my mouth water

Spread spread spread ~

First things first, tempering the chocolate which it an incredible shine and also that ‘crack’ sound when breaking into it. To temper the chocolate Tim melts the chocolate, then spreads it over the marble bench top and uses a bench scrapper to push it back into the middle and then spreads it out again.

Swish Swish Swish

He repeats this a couple of times until the chocolate cools to around 28 degrees. Tim said the best way to check this is with your lip as it is around body temperature or with a thermometer if doing this at home

Easter egg moulds & salted caramel crystals

Once the chocolate has been tempered it is now ready for use and can be used to make the egg shells AKA molding. Note it’s important to polish the molds with some cotton pads before using them to ensure it gives a shine to the eggs shells. Using a ladle fill the molds to the brim and then using one swift move tip it over and scrap it clean with the pastry scraper.

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Before it sets, we sprinkled the Salted Caramel crystals Tim had previous made for us ~ so pretty like brown diamonds hehe

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Now that the shells are done, we had to make the salted caramel chocolate spread that will be used to fill the chocolate spheres also going into the Easter Eggs. I have bought this salted caramel spread before and still have a jar at home, it is so delicious and addictive, I’m warn you not to make it unless you have very good self control. I clearly don’t hahhaa If you’d like the recipe let me know and I’ll email it to you ~ Tim said it’s ok to share if not I will try and blog about it soon ~

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Once the spread was made it was time to pipe them into the pre-made chocolate spheres, we first filled it with salted caramel, then topped it with melted chocolate then closed them together. This keeps getting better!

LOL at Iron Chef Shellie

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Tim had placed our Easter eggs into the fridge to help them chill and set, but he said that ideally it should be left in room temperature for 24 hours to allow it to set naturally to create the shiniest finish ~

Rub Rub Rub

Once the Easter eggs were removed from the molds, we placed one of those salted caramel spheres and placed it in the middle of one shell. Then this step surprised me, I had always wanted to know how the egg shells stuck together, and it’s actually done by placing a baking sheet into the oven and warming it. Then gently rub the egg shells onto the warm baking sheet and as the edges have slightly melted, gently place on shell on top of the other. And if all works well…they stick together

Assembling the Easter Eggs

There you go! That’s our finished product! Milk Chocolate Easter egg with a secret salted caramel surprise! I am so proud of us Team work! Also I am never ever going to take an Easter egg for granted ever again! It’s a long process and requires a lot of skill, which I don’t have yet But I have promised myself that I am going to practice and next year I am going to make my own Easter eggs to give out to my family and friends!

Finished product

Unfortunately, I don’t think you can buy this Easter egg anymore since but you can still buy Cacao’s other chocolate goodies and if you haven’t tried their macarons, you definitely have to go try! The pisatchio flavour is my favourite.

Cacao’s macaronsl

I would like to thank Tim and everyone else at Cacao as well at Julia for inviting me to such an interesting, fun and chocolate-filled class

Daisy@Nevertoosweet attended this event as a guest of Cacao Fine Chocolates and Patisserie and TinkPR

Easter’s Coming – Lindt Gold Bunny Giveaway WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Other March 27, 2013 Comments: 99

Easter’s coming actually it’s just around the corner! 2 days left! YAY! Out of all the holidays during the year Christmas is definitely my favourite and then followed closely by Easter:) Even though I’m not religious I think it’s very meaningful for Jesus Christ to sacrifice and Easter is to commemorates his resurrection. Another reason would be the abundance of CHOCOLATE and Easter Eggs

I was really lucky this year and got an early Easter present from Lindt Australia and Tris Nicol ~ They sent me the Gold Bunny pack which came with a large bunny and 3 mini bunnies they’re sooooo cute! I wanted to save the mini bunnies for my nephew…but Mr Bao had already all of them before I could stop him! So in return i made him style and be responsible of taking the photos for this post hahaha

I always love giving my family and friends Easter Eggs because sharing is caring That’s why I’m super excited to be able to giveaway 3 Lindt Gold Bunny packs to three lucky Readers! But I’m sorry you may not receive until after Easter because the Post office is closed >_<

Good Luck and wishing you all a Happy and Safe Easter!

To enter this giveaway:
- Leave a comment and tell me what do you do with leftover Easter Eggs?
- For more entries please ‘Like’ me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter ~ If you’ve already done that please let me now! Thank you!
- Giveaway ends on the 1st of April (Monday)
- You may reenter daily, one entry a day
- Winners will be chosen by random.org and announced on this blog and notified via email
- Open only to all Australian residents (Sorry International Readers!)

Winners Announced

Congratulations Aaron, Rebecca and Julia you are the winners of this giveaway. You will receive an email from me shortly

This is a sponsored post from Trish Nicol and Lindt. Daisy@Nevertoosweet sampled the chocolates for free, however, review and opinions are honest and based on personal taste and preferences.

New With Potential – Miss Frank

Australia, Melbourne, Reviews March 25, 2013 Comments: 43

You have probably heard me complain again and again, that there aren’t enough good cafes around the Doncaster area where I like >_< We have plenty of Chinese restaurants and a great shopping centre but some how we just don’t have any decent cafes. That’s why I always get super excited when a new cafe opens up near our area. Miss Frank is the newest cafe to open up in the quiet streets of Surrey Hills, I found out about it from Winnie (Eat Play Shop) Instagram and immediately put it on my list.

Miss Frank

Julz and I visited Miss Frank on a very hot day, we arrived at Through Rd and quickly found parking across the cafe. Upon walking in, I was surprised to see that Miss Frank was a relatively big cafe taking over two stores with 2 large communal tables and other smaller tables.

We both liked the decor and ambience of Miss Frank, it was clean, simple and bright, we particularly liked the little hole in the table where the cutlery is placed and menus rolled up like newspapers ~ Along with the pretty bottle with coffee beans and a some flowers How much I wish I could keep our home so clean

Espresso Milkshake $6

Given that it was a super hot day, I couldn’t make myself order my usual ‘mocha’ so decided to go for something cold, was intrigued by their Espresso Milkshake because I haven’t had one before. I was quite impressed with the strong coffee flavour and thickness of the milkshake, I didn’t expect it to be so strong as it looked quite pale If you like coffee and milkshakes, you’ll definitely like this!

Latte $3.8

Can’t believe Julz still ordered a hot coffee, she stuck with her usual latte and commented that it was rather watery and wasn’t very strong. I’m not sure what roasters or coffee beans they use but I’d like to go back again to try their mocha

Julz and I studied the menu and wasn’t sure what to order, we found the menu a bit restricted for instance in the breakfast section, they had the oats and muesli items and a big breakfast. But they didn’t seem to have any eggs benedict or florentine items which are quite common for brunch. Instead they had a DIY option where you get eggs-of-your-choice and then you add the items you would like. However, we found that to be quite expensive making the dish to be over $20 as items like avocado were around $5.

Maplenut crunch cereal topped with fresh fruit with milk and yoghurt $9.5

Eventually, I chose the maple nut crunch cereal with fresh fruit milk and yoghurt I was quite happy with my decision, I really liked how the plated it. The cereal was delicious with a lovely maple flavour and super crunchy, just the way I like it ~ Only complaint was there wasn’t enough cereal, I was still quite peckish after finishing the bowl, even though they had a good amount of yoghurt and milk to accompany it.

Beef and Mushroom $7.5

Julz decided to go to the lunch menu instead which just started at 11:30am, she chose the beef and mushroom which came with a tomato relish. It looked quite rustic, Julz commented that the filling was quite good with a peppery taste

Rapsberry Pistachio butter mini cake $5

Even though we were satisfied with our brunches, we still had room and I obviously wanted to try their sweets and cakes I was too lazy to go check out the counter hehe but Julz did and said they had a good range of muffins, mini cakes and biscuits. We settled for a raspberry pistachio butter mini cake, I thought it was going to be like a muffin, but it definitely had the texture of a cake. It was light and fluffy and had a gloriously buttery taste with little pieces of raspberry through the cake. But I couldn’t really taste the pistachio which was a shame as I love the taste of pistachio.

As a whole we enjoyed Miss Frank and believe it to have a lot of potential in becoming a fantastic local cafe in the area, but we found the menu a little limited and some items to be slightly overpriced. Having said that we enjoyed the dishes and drinks we ordered and that little cake definitely put a sweet end to our brunch ~ Looking forward to revisiting Miss Frank in the near future and hopefully see some more brunch items on their menu

Melting In The Heat – Tutto Premium & Yo-Chi

Australia, Melbourne, Reviews March 22, 2013 Comments: 18

For us living in the Southern Hemisphere, we have officially entered into the Autumn season, weather should be cooling down and trees should be turning brown with leaves falling off…But that did NOT happened We’re half way through March but temperatures in Melbourne was still over 30 degrees Celsius and last week I parked my car under the sun for half and hour and when I returned…the themometer inside read a crazy 46.5 degrees!

Hot weather

I don’t do very well in the heat Give me cold winds and snow ANY DAY over the scorching sun. And because of the heatwave, I have been eating icy cold desserts every day sometimes twice! One of the new places Mr Bao and I checked out was Tuttu Premium Frozen Yoghurt & Desserts in Carlton. Even though I went primarily went to Tutto for the Froyo, I was also interested because they offered other desserts such as macarons and cupcakes

Cupcake and Macarons

Tutto wasn’t a self-serve froyo bar, there were pre-made parfaits with one or two flavours of froyo and then toppings that to match. Or you can pick your own froyo flavours and 3 toppings were $2.50.

Toppings

We decided to go DIY because Mr Bao is quite picky with the toppings. Ended up choosing the original and Tiramisu froyo topped with mango pearls, vanilla almonds and a Pocky chocolate stick.

Large Frozen Yoghurt $6.5 + 3 Toppings $2.5

The original frozen yoghurt had a good tang but not too sour and had a very similar texture to Cacao Green for those who have visited you will know what I mean While the Tiramisu was also smooth with a good coffee hit to it, I think I still preferred the original as the tanginess didn’t really work with Tiramisu in my opinion ~ Toppings were nice but nothing too fancy, I just felt that they could have been a little more generous with the vanilla almonds, there were so little I couldn’t really see or taste them >_<

Red Velvet Regular cupcake $4

I think tried their Red Velvet cupcake which was rather nice, with a spongy and moist cupcake then topped with fluffy cream cheese frosting. If I wanted to be a cupcake-critic hehe I would say the cupcake was slightly dense and frosting could be sweeter. But overall, it was yummy

Mr Bao was quite full but I insisted in trying the macarons lol I don’t think Tutto make the macarons themselves but I’m not too sure who their stockists are. I was talking to Vien (We Dare Food) the other day and she suggested Cacao as they look the same, and I think she might be right hehe

Macaron $2.5 each

I picked my two favourite flavours, salted caramel and pistachio. The shells were more on the chewy side and I liked the pistachio macaron more as it had good flavours. While Mr Bao commented that the salted caramel filling needed a little bit more salt ~

I think Tutto Premium is a good addition to the Froyo community in Melbourne I also like how it closes quite late every night and not only on the weekends. Perfect for when you want to do a late night froyo run and can also grab a cupcake on your way out

Yo-Chi Frozen Yoghurt

Another Froyo store we went too was Yo-Chi in Balaclava I’ve been meaning to visit for the longest time, but it’s quite out of our way and when we dine around that area, I usually get dessert at the cafe or restaurant we’re going. But finally on the weekend, it was another 35 degree day we made it to Yo Chi ~ I’ve heard so many good things about it!

It was quite busy when we got there as everyone was trying to cool down with some froyo, I was super excited because Yo Chi was a self-serve frozen yoghurt bar, meaning you can try as many flavours and toppings as you want! LOL I felt like a child again.

The system is simple you start at the very end of the store, with all the froyo flavours, when we went they had – Original, Soy (Lactose and Gluten Free), Coconut, Chocolate, Hazelnut, Passion fruit and Mixed Berry. You pick what size you want – small, medium or large and off you go, put as much or as little froyo as you want into your paper bowl

LOL Mr Bao went a little crazy and tried 5 different flavours, original, chocolate, hazelnut, passion fruit and mixed berry I wanted coconut but then they ran out damn… now to the toppings.

Toppings – pearls, jellies and fruit

Toppings – Nuts, dried fruit and chocolate

I think Yo Chi probably has the largest variety of toppings compared to any other froyo stores in Melbourne.They had the usual nuts (almonds, hazelnuts) and fruit (strawberry, kiwifruit) but then they had some impressive toppings such as almond crumble, dried figs and most importantly whole pot of caramelized bananas! Not only that hot chocolate sauce and caramel sauce, seriously I’m in HEAVEN!

Caramelised banana

This is our creation with 5 different flavours of froyo topped with strawberry pearls, green tea jelly, almond crumble, dried figs, desccinted coconut AND caramelized bannaa It cost us a total of $12 because at Yo Chi you pay according to weight and they charge $2.80 per 100grams. I think it is reasonably priced and probably cheaper than Tutti Frutti but with a lot more flavours and toppings to choose from.

Our finished product $12 ($2.80 per 100grams)

Mr Bao and I really liked Yo Chi! So much that I was tempted to go back and grab another frozen yoghurt when we finished it…but kind of felt guilty so we drove home instead Even though Yo Chi is kind of out of the way for us it’s worth the effort! As a matter of fact, I have already planned to come back to Yo Chi next week!

MFWF Express Lunch – Gingerboy

Australia, Melbourne, Reviews March 19, 2013 Comments: 32

Hello everyone Do you remember a week or so ago I told you about the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival that is on right now? I really wasn’t intending to go to any events but after the World’s Largest Yum Cha event, I had so much fun, I thought it’ll be great to go to a few more ~ Every year during the festival many restaurants will participate by offering customers an “Express Lunch” menu for $40 dollars which includes 2 courses, a glass of wine and tea or coffee. This is a pretty good deal given that most of these restaurants are usually quite expensive with mains that cost $35 or more This is a great way to try some of the restaurants signature dishes at a lower price.

Gingerboy

There were plenty of restaurants to choose from but I found that most restaurants only offered the “Express Lunch” menu Monday to Friday and not many offered the weekend. This made it very difficult those working to try these “Express Lunches” as they often take at least 1.5 hours including travel time. I scanned down the list and given that I could only ‘sneak’ out for one or two lunches we had to make the right choice I gave Mr Bao a few options and I expected him to choose a French restaurant like PM24 but he wanted to try Gingerboy an Asian-fusion restaurant quite well-known in Melbourne

I was rushing from work and I made a booking for 1:30pm but was held up in a meeting and knew I wouldn’t get there till at least 1:45pm, so I called and told them. A girl picked up and said “That’s fine but the kitchen closes are 2pm it’s up to you”. I was devastated I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it there in time to order food and also eat…Mr Bao was very understanding and said he’s happy to do anything but said we should be able to get there before 2pm and asked me to call again. This time a man picked up and was very friendly and said “Oh no…our kitchen closes at 2:30pm that’s last order…so as long as you order before that it’s fine, besides we’re not going to kick you out just because the kitchen is closed” PHEW! Gingerboy was back on! I felt the first person I spoke to wasn’t very helpful >_<

The unnecessary pic of Mr Bao lol he was starving :P

The unnecessary pic of Mr Bao lol he was starving haha

We got to Gingerboy just before 2pm and was very lucky to find parking right in front of the restaurant ~ upon walking in we were greeted by a few waiting staff and then shown to our table in the back of the restaurant right in the corner. I’m not sure if tables were usually this placed this ‘close’ to each other but we felt rather cramped.

White Wine part of Express Lunch

Starting with a glass of wine white, I’m no expert but we found it to be a little dry and would have liked a lighter tasting wine to pair with the spicy food.

Grilled wagyu beef in la lot leaves with sour chilli vinegar

Wasting no time, we decided to get 1 entree, 2 mains and 1 dessert to share between us. Starting with the entree Grilled Wagyu beef in la lot leaves with sour chilli vinegar, they were like two little beef dumplings, which reminded up of the steamed beef balls you can get at Yum Cha. But the quality of the beef was definitely better and we liked the flavour of the Wagyu beef and the sour chilli vinegar. Mr Bao’s only compliant was they were quite small and we only had one each

Cone bay barramundi, lemongrass and ginger curry, coconut salad

There were 3 options for the plan a fish, pork and vegetarian I chose the barramundi with lemongrass and ginger curry topped with a coconut salad. I was quite impressed with the barramundi as it was very well cooked with a crispy skin very important to me ~ And the lemongrass and ginger curry tasted similar to the one we tried at Ezard, which is another restaurant from their group. I think all elements went very well with this dish but I think it would have been better if it came with some rice for the curry sauce and make it more filling.

Sweet and sour pork belly with peanut, cherry tomato and coriander salad

Mr Bao’s sweet and sour pork belly was rather small with only 4 to 5 pieces scattered on top of the cherry tomato and coriander salad. The pork belly had good flavours but we found it to be a little dry and not as moist as we would have liked, but I really liked the salad which was quite spicy and the lovely texture from the crushed peanuts

Steamed ginger pudding with palm sugar ice cream

There were two dessert options a ginger pudding and a tapioca fruit salad. We chose the ginger steamed pudding because we didn’t know that we could pay more and get the other dessert and the waitress wasn’t very patient… so we just got the one. I was really impressed with the steamed ginger pudding, it was soft and moist, however, I would have preferred a stronger ginger flavour. The palm sugar ice-cream and syrup was also another win ~ It was super sweet but wasn’t overbearing when paired with the pudding. Now I’m inspired to try and make this at home, I have the Gingerboy cookbook and hope the recipe is in there

Our first Express Lunch and Gingerboy experience was nice but neither of us really enjoyed it I’m sorry to those who like Gingerboy. For starters, staff at Gingerboy had a ‘lukewarm’ attitude especially the waitress who served our table was very impatient. Tea and coffee comes with our Express Lunch but it never came, even though we asked them about it twice. Eventually we decided to leave because I had to rush back to work. Food wise flavours were good but I’m not sure if it’s because it was an Express Lunch, portions were very small and I’m not saying this on behalf of Mr Bao (he was still staving ) hahaha I am saying this from a girl’s point of view. I think I could have easily finished an Entree and Main and will still have room for more food. After trying both Ezard and Gingerboy we think Teage Ezard is a very talented man but we have also came to the conclusion that we’re not fans of Asian-fusion and prefer more traditional dishes. Having said that though if you haven’t tried I think Gingerboy is still worth trying at least once

Mr Bao Special – HK Style Swiss Chicken Wings

Other, Recipes March 17, 2013 Comments: 24

I haven’t had a Guest post here at Never Too Sweet for quite a while, so I am very excited that someone very special has finally decided to make his debut and that is the one and only Mr Bao! Hahaha I have been asking and bugging him to do a guest post for me for the longest time, but he always declined…but finally he agreed He’s actually posting a savoury recipe which is also a first time for my blog ~ Hope you will enjoy this post!

PS. Please do not believe everything he says, because it’s not all true
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello everyone! It is my honour to guest post for Daisy here at Never Too Sweet, you may know me as Mr Bao, I am actually the co-founder of this blog as I came up with the name “Never Too Sweet For Me”. Great name don’t you think? Would like to thank all the readers who have supported this blog and I hope you will continue supporting us.

HK Style Swiss Chicken Wings

Photo courtesy of Lianne Thank you!

The reason why I decided to do this post is because, a couple of weeks ago, we were invited to a pot luck at Lianne’s, where we were asked to bring a dish, there were a lots of good dishes such as the Kong Ba Bao and sticky pork ribs…all the great food you name it!! As an international student, once in a while we miss home, having these Asian dishes inspired me to make our HK Style Swiss Chicken Wings.

I wonder how many of you are curious about why this dish is called “Swiss” Chicken Wings? Let me tell you a little story about Swiss Chicken Wings. In 1860, there’s a HK style Western restaurant called Tai Ping Koon Restaurant (太平館餐廳). The founder invented a sweet soy type of wings. A tourist tried it and adored it. He asked the waiter about the name of the dish. The waiter’s reply was “Sweet Wings…”. Due to confusion of Chinglish, the tourist mistaken it as “Swiss Wings”. Therefore, the funny name has since lasted until the modern days.

Here I’d like to take this chance to share this recipe. This recipe is super simple as I’m such a lazy person, it only took me about half an hour. Meanwhile, I could go play my PS3 while the chicken is cooking =)

Preparation time: 10 mins Cooking time: 30 mins Serves: 4

Ingredients:
- 8-10 Chicken wings (full wings or middle wings), rinse and bloat dry with kitchen paper
- Half a bowl (small Chinese rice bowl, roughly 125 ml) soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons Shao Xing wine
- One big bulk of rock sugar (preference depending on sweetness)
- 3cm ginger, roughly chopped into 3-4 pieces
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 cup of water (may vary, just enough to cover all wings)
- Garnish: 1 stalk of spring onion chopped finely (optional)

Method:
- Boil chicken wings with cold water to remove fat and any impurities. Drain well, bloat dry and set aside for use.
- Heat a large heavy based saucepan adding vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic until fragrant followed by the wings. Stir fry the wings until the skin is slightly golden brown.
- Stir in all the ingredients, set to boil and cook for 10 mins. Frequently turn the chicken wings to make sure they absorb as much soy mixture as possible (this step is very essential).
- Turn the heat to low. Cover the saucepan and let the wings cook for another 20 mins.
- At this time, you may taste the mixture and see if more rock sugar or salt is needed.
- Cover the pan again and turn the heat up. Let boil for another 3 mins. This allows the final favour to be absorbed by the chicken wings.
- Turn the stove off and let the saucepan rest on the stove for 10 mins before serving.

So there you go my simple and delicious swiss chicken wings, I hope you will like it . Finally of cause, I would like to specially thank the real founder of NTS for letting me to post this. Cheers guys, you may see me haunting this blog very soon in the future again!

Macaron Maddness – Ladurée VS Pierre Hermé

Other, Paris, Reviews, Travel Adventures March 15, 2013 Comments: 35

I think it would be a crime if I went to Paris and didn’t try the macarons from Ladurée and Pierre Hermé I have heard so much about these two patisseries and even though I have tried macarons from Laduree quite a few times as they recently opened in Sydney and Hong Kong. It’s the first time I tried macarons from Pierre Hermé so excited! Just wanted to do a little comparison between the two macarons masters

Laduree in Paris

Starting with Ladurée, I’ve had their macarons from their store in New York, Sydney and also Hong Kong. Even though their macarons are quite delicious, I found there to be inconsistencies with the texture of their macarons.

Laduree macarons from NYC

Laduree from NYC

Like the macarons, I had in New York to be more on the softer side, with a softer shell and the ganache in the middle was also creamier. I really enjoyed these macarons from the Laduree in NYC, I think they’re the best ones I’ve had even better than Paris

Laduree macarons from NYC

I was very excited when Laduree opened in Sydney and when I found the chance to visit I was over the moon But then I realised the macarons were very expensive $3.2 take away and $4 dine in wow…

Laduree prices in Sydney

But then I found these macarons in Sydney to have a much tougher texture and very very chewy. I have heard that this may be because, they freeze the macarons and import them from Switzerland. I’m not sure if this will change the consistency, but I wasn’t too impressed with them. Even though flavours were fantastic especially their salted caramel and pistachio macaron.

Laduree in Sydney

I’m not sure if this will change the consistency, but I wasn’t too impressed with them. Even though flavours were still good especially their salted caramel and pistachio macaron. They are my all time favourite!

Laduree macarons from Sydney

I have heard from HK Epicurus that only the macarons in the Paris Laduree is actually made there, the rest are made from a factory in Switzerland and both HK Epicurus and Tina both agreed that their macarons are best in Paris. So I was quite excited to finally get to try the ‘real’ deal I actually didn’t get to try that many Laduree macarons this time, as I was going around too many patisseries hahaha but I did get to try a few when I visited their Laduree restaurant on Champs-Élysées.

Laduree macarons from Paris

My sisters and I tried these macarons as part of the Brunch set we had there, which I will blog about another time We could choose 3 macarons of our liking, so we got the salted caramel, chocolate and dark chocolate flavour. I immediately found a difference once again in the texture in the macarons, they were definitely softer and more delicate than the ones I got in both Sydney and HK. But they were slightly firmer than the ones in New York. In terms of flavours they were slightly sweeter and probably the best, I really liked their salted caramel it was sweet, salty and just heavenly! I suspect its the use of the French butter There wasn’t a vast difference between the chocolate and dark chocolate macaron, except one tasted slightly more bitter.

Pierre Herme in Paris

Now moving onto Pierre Hermé macarons, there are quite a few Pierre Hermé stores around Paris, but I failed and only got to their store in the Galaries Lafayette deparment store on our second last day. I was slightly disappointed as it was a rather small store with only macarons and other dry packaged goods such as chocolates.

Pierre Herme macarons

From memory I think Pierre Hermé had a more diverse range of flavours for their macarons and ones that I found most interesting was the chocolate and foie gras Yup I tried it and I’m not sure whether I like it or not lol it had a rich chocolate ganahe but then the foie gras flavour. The rest of the macarons I chose more traditional flavors such as dark chocolate, salted caramel, rose water and of course pistachio

I found flavours of the ganache simply too hard to resist, once again just like the macaron shell they had the perfect consistency and also balance of flavours. I think it is safe to declare ‘Pierre Hermé’ makes the best macarons I have tasted! Now I just wish I could take a whole cargo ship full of them back with me…and I really wished that they would last longer so Mr Bao could try Oh wells… I guess that’s just a good excuse and reason to go back to Paris don’t you like?

Pierre Herme Macarons

Clearly in this battle ‘Pierre Hermé’ has won just everything about them size, texture and flavour was all spot on! While Laduree had some good flavours, overall, I was quite disappointed by the ones I have had in Sydney and Paris and surprisingly found the ones in New York to be better. Now my lovely Readers I would like to ask have you tried Laduree and Pierre Hermé before? Which one do you like more?

Laduree
75 Champs-Élysées 75008 Paris, France
PH: +33 1 40 75 08 75

Galeries Lafayette
40 boulevard Haussmann 75009 Paris
PH: +33 (0)1 43 54 47 77

Never Too Sweet

Easter’s Over – Cacao Easter Egg Masterclass

Easter’s Coming – Lindt Gold Bunny Giveaway WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Winners Announced

New With Potential – Miss Frank

Melting In The Heat – Tutto Premium & Yo-Chi

MFWF Express Lunch – Gingerboy

Mr Bao Special – HK Style Swiss Chicken Wings

Macaron Maddness – Ladurée VS Pierre Hermé

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