Luxe vs Less

So yesterday I posted the 3100 pound ($4915AUD) Oscar de la Renta dress. Today, we have the slightly less expensive version. Meet the Collette by Collette Dinnigan summer lace dress:

It's available at David Jones for $320. A smidge over 6% of the cost of the Oscar Frock. Not exactly cheap but certainly cheaper. More cost effective, if you will. Mr K would be glad of me saving money (if indeed I were to buy it).

It's not quite the same shape as the Oscar dress but I like the look with the similar lace fabric over contrasting underskirt. It would make for a fantastic Summer party dress - dressed up or down.

Collette has some other lovely lacey options that are really pretty for summer:


Although I have to say it does seem very weird to be posting about summer clothes when it's 11 degrees outside. I might hold off on the summer fashion postings until we see some more sun!

Kitty

Oscar!

Oscar de la Renta always makes the most sensational frocks. I've been watching the third series of the Rachel Zoe Project this last week and it included the episode where Rachel is dressing celebrities for the 2010 Oscars. She chooses this amazing Oscar de la Renta dress for Cameron Diaz and she looks stunning.


Not quite in the same league but eminently more wearable is this gorgeous Oscar cocktail frock from Net-a-Porter. At 3100 pounds, it's a little out of the price range at the moment but I'll be on the look out for a similar dress with a black guipure lace overlay once summer comes around and the baby is wearing it's own fashion statements.

The fifties silhouette is so flattering and the scoop neck tends to suit me well. I'd see Carey Mulligan in something like this for sure. I have so many pearl necklaces to wear with a dress like this. Completely trans-seasonal, you could wear it with a fitted blazer in winter or a pair of sandals in summer. Princess Mary could totally rock this look. It's a classic style that is ageless - so very classic Oscar.


Kitty

Burch & Purchese, Melbourne

I first heard about Ian Burch and Darren Purchese last year during Masterchef when they made a spectacular fruit carnival dessert for a Masterclass episode. Ever since, I have been itching to find more out about them and their fabulous creations.

In April, they opened their first Sweet Studio on Chapel Street in South Yarra. The studio is a multi sensory retail space specialising in sweet creations, desserts and treats perfect for spontaneous indulgent moments through to that very special dessert extravaganza for an event or dinner party. Selling individual and multi-portion cakes as well as jars of curd, jams, chocolate spreads, bars of chocolate, fudge and honeycomb, there is something for everyone in this purveyor of sweet treats.

Formally from the UK, pastry chef co-owners Ian Burch & Darren Purchese have built a reputation worldwide for their dessert wizardry; they fuse science and art with sugar to create an exciting and individual array of delicious tastes and textures.

Walking into Sweet Studio off the bustling craziness of Chapel St is a real treat. It's unlike anywhere else you've been, a place where you can always expected the unexpected. There is almost a serene tranquility to the studio combined with the crazy whackiness of Alice in Wonderland. The day we were there they had the most amazingly light lemonade marshmallows on tasting - now I'm not a marshmallow fan but these were incredible. Soft, light puffy clouds of sherbetty goodness. I almost went back for a second.

I was initially very keen to taste their desserts but after walking in, I had to take home some of their condiments, jams and sweet treats for my pantry. I knew Mr K would grumble about how much I bought but I couldn't resist.



First to the cakes!


Our first choice was the Chocolate, mandarin, salted caramel. Made up of Kendari 60% chocolate
mousse, Murray River salted caramel, burnt mandarin cream, St Clements marmalade, aerated
chocolate shortbread and chocolate mirror glaze this creation was simple but sublime. The textures were wonderful and the mousse, the hero of the dish, was gorgeous. I would have loved a bit more of a mandarin hit to the dessert but it was a small small thing. So delicious.


Our second choice was the coconut, passionfruit ginger mint. It was my favourite of all the desserts we tried. It was sweet, luscious and tangy, reminding me of hot summer tropical holidays. The dessert is described as coconut mousse, passionfruit curd, coconut caviar, passionfruit jelly, salted oat and ginget crumble, white chocolate mint wafer, ginger macaroon and brilliant white chocolate spray. It's simply delicious. This is a must try if you are in the area and it's worth travelling for.


Our third and final dessert was described as a rhubarb apple crumble cheesecake. It suffered somewhat in comparison to the coconut and passionfruit dessert that came before it - the lightness and delicacy overwhelmed by the tangy freshness of it's predecessor. However it was stunning in it's own right - the sharpness of the rhubarb perfectly complements the supple unctuous cheesecake. The crumble was a great textural foil for the softness of the other elements of the cake.

All three desserts were fabulous. Our problem was that with only the two of us, we had to limit ourselves to the number we could try. It's a very small first world problem, let me tell you. Everything was phenomenally good and we'd have no qualms about giving up dessert in a three hatted restaurant for a chance to eat more of the selection at Burch & Purchese.


In addition to the wonderful desserts, Burch & Purchese also make wonderful confectionery. I purchased a very small selection of items.

Not sure what I am going to do with the raspberry and white chocolate clay I bought - if anyone has any ideas please let me know!


How FABULOUS are these gold ingots? Made from real gold dusted dark chocolate, they are filled with salted caramel. Now that's my idea of heaven.


Or perhaps this is - salted caramel in a jar. Me + this + spoon = one amazing afternoon. Maybe I might share with some vanilla ice-cream.


Passionfruit curd was an absolute must buy, especially once I tried the coconut dessert above. I see me using this in a fabulous pavlova with berries and softly whipped cream. I'm not sure what I will do with the chocolate hazelnut spread with raspberry jam, but I'm thinking a baguette and I should just give it a whirl. I know it will be unbelievable.

All in all an amazing trip to a purveyor of sweet goodness. Highly recommended for a visit.

Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio
647 Chapel Street
South Yarra

http://www.burchandpurchese.com/

Kitty

The great Melbourne Macaron Chase: part 3

In my research for my Melbourne trip, I stumbled across our next and final stop on the great Melbourne Macaron chase: La Belle Miette. Recommended by numerous blogs around the traps, it was high up on my list of things to do while we were in town. On Thursday morning I made a brief trip into town to collect macarons from Cacao for morning tea and La Belle Miette for a gift for a dear friend, the lovely Mummy from Homemade Heart. The macarons come in such beautiful gift boxes it's just hard to pass them up as a sweet and simple hostess gift. Very Laduree.


I arrived shortly after opening (10am) because I wanted to get a large selection of flavours for both myself and The Mummy. The shop is on Hardware Lane and is very reminiscent of a gorgeous Parisian boutique, decorated in gorgeous icy mint and pastels. The decor is very soothing and pretty.

How pretty are the gift boxes?

They had 15 flavours to select from and their beautiful gift boxes hold 12 which is a nice number for a gift. The flavours currently on sale include 72% Cocoa Single Origin Chocolate (Venezuela),‘Bastille’ – Moet et Chandon and Blackcurrant, Caramel a la Fleur de Sel, Cherry Blossom & Sake, Hazelnut Belle Miette, Lemon, Mariage freres earl grey tea, Olive Oil & Vanilla, Pimm’s & Pomegranate, Pink Grapefruit, Pistachio, Raspberry, Rose, Strawberry & Vanilla and Violet & Blueberry. They also have Ginger & Macadamia which is currently unavailable. I love that the flavours are mostly traditional or have traditional leanings.


The feet on these marvellous beauties are consistent and ruffled, the contrast between biscuit and filling is absolutely perfect for me. They were easily the best of the macarons we tried in Melbourne and were just as good the following few days.

In terms of flavours, all were fabulous but there were some definite stand outs.

The Caramel a la Fleur de Sel is the best of that variety I have ever had. Ever. Fabulous balance of salt and sweet and the sticky unctuousness of the filling is absolute perfection.

The raspberry is like a mouth explosion - the delicate zingy fruitiness is so sublime it defies description.

The chocolate (72% Cocoa Single Origin Chocolate from Venezuela) is like the best chocolate brownie you have ever eaten. The bitterness of the chocolate is a perfect foil for the sweetness of the almondy macaron shell.

The Mariage Freres earl grey tea is sublime - the contrast of the floral tea flavour and the chocolate ganache filling is fabulous.

The Hazelnut Belle Miette is sweet and rich and redolent of nutty goodness. It does remind me of nutella but in a very, very good way. Delish.

The lemon is sherbetty, light and fresh and the Bastille is just gorgeous - the contrast between the Chandon and the blackcurrant is beautiful.

The other flavours are all good, but these were the ones that stood out to me as being the best of the best. I thought La Belle Miette had such good macarons that we went back on Saturday morning and I bought more. More!! Fabulous.

La Belle Miette is located at 30 Hardware Lane, Melbourne, just around the corner from Bourke Street. It opens at 10am Monday to Saturday and closes at 6pm Monday to Friday and 4pm on Saturday or until the macarons run out.

Kitty

The great Melbourne Macaron Chase: part 2

Our next stop on the great Melbourne macaron chase was Cacao, a Melbourne fine chocolatier and patisseur. They have outlets in a number of shops across Melbourne, including the GPO (where I purchased my selection), Little Collins Street, Doncaster and St Kilda.

Cacao is winner of the 2010 award for best macarons, according to Melbourne Macaron, a student initiative which was judged by Macaron King Adriano Zumbo and Melbourne eating aficionado and Epicure writer and food critic Larissa Dubecki. I purchased a selection of 12 to take to morning tea with a friend, and another 4 to devour with Mr K, not wanting to leave him out of the process. I have to say I didn't try all of the macarons this time around - I stuck to a smaller selection, so apologies in advance for the less than comprehensive reporting.


As a starting point, I didn't think the appearance was as good as those from Luxbite - the feet and biscuits were a little flatter but the taste was definitely better across the board. The texture was the chewiest of all the macarons we tasted.

I selected what I thought would be my favorites for tasting: passionfruit chocolate, lemon, salted caramel and raspberry. I also tried vanilla, earl grey and rose.


The passionfruit chocolate was sensational: velvety and fruity. The lemon was beautifully zingy and the salted caramel highly successful - using real salted caramel in the filling. Salted caramel is the flavour I judge all macaron makers on and this was a fantastic specimen indeed. Raspberry was also lovely and sweet redolent with authentic fruit flavour. Rose was a tad bland - not light, floral and fresh as I was expecting, more sweet and nothing... The earl grey was fine but nothing special.

The highlight for me was the vanilla. The filling was speckled with real vanilla bean and the biscuit retained it's crispness beautifully. Just Delicious. If you only want to try one macaron at Cacao, this is the one. I'd go back for the vanilla one alone. Seriously good.

Coming up soon, our final stop on the Macaron Chase - La Belle Miette!

Kitty

The great Melbourne Macaron Chase: part 1

I am an absolute lover of Macarons. To me, there is likely nothing better than a beautifully formed morsel of crisp, chewy almondy meringue filled with ganache or fruit. Not all macarons are good. Some are downright terrible. But as part of our travels to Melbourne I had investigated ahead of time and found what were supposedly some of Melbourne's best purveyors of macaron-y goodness.

Now, I am making this disclaimer up front: everyone likes different types of macarons. Some prefer them to be crisp or firm, others favour a more yielding version. Some like lightly flavoured sweets, others prefer flavour to hit them in the face with a great socking punch. But there are some areas in which everyone agree:

1. The feet should be beautifully formed and the biscuit well risen (not too flat)

2. There shouldn't be too many air bubbles or pockets in the biscuit, and

3. The biscuit should be neither too dry nor too soft and the ratio of filling should not make the biscuit too wet

Most people agree on the above. The rest is subjective preference. For example: I believe salted caramel macarons should have a proper salted caramel filling, not a buttercream filling. I judge all those with a proper salted caramel filling to be superior to the buttercream filled versions. No matter what. Others might disagree with me. I say that's ok. But for me, there are some hard and fast things that work and don't.

But enough with the theory - let's get started on the practical element!


Our first visit was to LuxBite, a patisserie on Toorak Road in South Yarra. An up and coming establishment, they are known for their macarons and their fancy desserts and cakes.

We bought a selection of eight macarons. They usually have a selection of 16 but in an attempt to preserve what is left of my figure (can I state for the record that it's not much) I opted to try just a sample with Mr K as my accomplice and a few had sold out given we were there late in the afternoon. We chose salted caramel, kaya toast, kaffir lime, choc cherry, rose and lychee, passionfruit, strawberry cream and mandarin and saffron.


Uniformly, the feet were good and the texture and appearance were consistent, if a tad on the wet/sticky side. Our favourites were the passionfruit - deliciously tangy and light with a zingy curd centre, and the kaya toast with it's smooth sweet buttery coconut flavour. Rose and Lychee was delicate and pretty. Strawberry Cream was sweet and unctuous with a strong strawberry hit in the filling.

The others were a little more disappointing. Choc cherry was a bit boring, and we had to search long and hard for any cherry elements, the macaron being almost overwhelmed by dark sweet chocolate. Kaffir lime was a tad odd - the main element of the lime leaf added to a dark chocolate ganache filling. I see where they were going in theory, but the combination for me did not work. Sad because I LOVE kaffir lime and I was really looking forward to this one. The aftertaste was somewhat soapy.

Mandarin and saffron was a little too sweet, lacking the tang I would normally associate with mandarins. It tasted a little like sweet generic citrus. The salted caramel was buttercream based (so not a winner from the start with me) and I managed to get a whacking great hit of salt in my first mouthful. The rest of the macaron wasn't as salty but the first mouthful ruined the taste for me.

So a bit of a mixed bunch I have to say. I'd go back for the passionfruit option though, and perhaps to try the chocolate freckle and raspberry white chocolate which had both sold out when we were there.

Stay tuned for two more posts on Melbourne's macarons!

Kitty

BACK.

We - Miss Kitty and Mr K - are back from our trip to Melbourne. We had a wonderful time, ate and shopped ourselves silly. Well, I shopped myself silly... I think Mr K may bave bought a magazine...

Some of the highlights which I will blog about over the next week include shopping at Twiggy Winkle in Toorak, the great Melbourne Macaron hunt and lunch at Innocent Bystander on Sunday (and meals at many other wonderful places).

Stay tuned for the debrief.

K xx

PS: my Babi delivery arrived while I was away. Everything is as amazing as it looks on the screen. I am super impressed.