Attractive Patisserie from Carousel

I first saw the nice box picture in facebook. Next in the album was a very nice piece of cake, a few more pictures showed me pictures of more cakes, all done in a delicate manner. All these cakes are from Gourmet Carousel, the bakery from Royal Plaza on Scotts.

Faced with such beautiful cakes, I made a trip down to the hotel and look at the cakes and to try them, however I bought the cakes back home as they only serve the cakes in their lounge which is very dark. Their lounge is a place to drink some beer and chill so there are not much lights.

The cakes were decorated with some fine details that it has become an eye candy, to look at rather than to eat it. Each of the cakes comes in either the small size, which is just enough for 1 person, or the bigger size which can be shared by a party of 4 or 5 person.

Patisserie Naranja (S$7.00)

Presentation:
Naranja is a layered cake with blood orange and pitted orange with Manjari chocolate 64%. The bottom layer is the dacquoise, topped with the Manjari chocolate, followed by the orange mousse. Compared to the other cakes, this cake is much simpler.

Taste:
The first bite into the cake gives me a fragrant pistachio nuts and blood orange flavour. The chocolate adds a slight thickness to the cake, while not overpowering the core flavour. If the description is not known, the cake can easily be passed off as an apricot cake layered with pistachio nuts. I am not really a fan of orange cakes so I would not recommend this one.

Not Recommended Cake


Ispahan (A La Pierre Herme) (S$7.00)

Presentation:
Ispahan is a patisserie that comes with bisquit macaroon a la rose, crème au beurre a la rose lychee and fresh raspberries

Taste:
This cake is a very refreshing and light cake, though slightly on the sweet side because of the macaroon, which is notoriously known for being sweet. The lychee creme comes packed with the rose fragrance and it hits on you the moment it enters your mouth. The 2 flavours are gives a very comfortable feeling especially after you had taken 1 or 2 chocolaty cakes. It gives the palate a break.

Recommended Cake


Sunset (S$7.00)

Presentation:
Sunset is Gourmet Carousel's signature cake. It is a dark chocolate mousse with a orange crème Brule, a nougatine of sesame, chocolate sponge.

Taste:

This is a heavy chocolate cake. The best description would be so chocolaty till your drop. The choc mousse is very rich however once you hit the center of the cake, it contains a different type of filling, which is the sesame nougatine. Nougatine is usually in the hard solid form however this one is different in that it like just like creme. This nougatine has a relatively smooth texture. This sesame creme in the middle gives an unique twist to the chocolate taste and both goes well togehter. No wonder it is their signature cake.
Though overall the cake is very nice, it is a heavy and relatively sinful cake, though not the most sinful one that i had tried elsewhere.

Recommended Cake


Tart Praline (S$7.00)

Presentation:
This is a tartlet that consist of pecan nut and almonds, with a custard of hazelnut praline. There is a chocolate ball that is supporting the layer of nut based 'plate'.

Taste:
The crust of the tart is very nice, though it is not soft. The praline inside is the core that is holding the crust together. In fact the praline is so hard that it takes quite some strength to chip off a part of the tart. The praline uses thick caramel to hold the almonds and peacons together, and is full of the almond and peacon taste. With the thick caramel and the nuts, it is very easy for them to stick into the teeth gap and i hate this type of feeling.

Not Recommended Cake


Royal Jasmine (S$7.00)

Presentation:
Royal Jasmine, a beautifully designed cake, is one that contains infuse Jasmine chocolate cream with hazelnut rice krispie and chocolate almond sponge with manjari chocolate mousse. Flanked on the sides by the white jasmine macarons, this piece of cake gave a very balanced look.

Taste:
Royal Jasmine is more of a chocolate cake. The chocolate mousse is very rich. There is only a slight tinge of jasmine flavour, and that only happens in the jasmine macarons. The cake itself taste only of the chocolate. Deep inside the center of the cake are the hazelnut rice krispie. These krispie goes well with the chocolate. The white macarons though sweet gives out a fragrant jasmine flavour when melted.

Recommended Cake

Ratings
Presentation: 4.5/5
Taste: 4/5
Value for money: 3.5/5
The cakes are very nice and while some of them i do not like the them, its a matter of preferences. The cakes are full of flavour and since i am a dessert kind of person, i will be back to grab more of the cakes. I do wish that their lounge can be brighter so that i know what i am eating.

Recommended

P.S. I am in a nice Cafe

PS Cafe, a chain that has multiple branches across Singapore, is a place that serves comtemparary food with a nice ambience. The branch that i went to was in Palais Shopping Centre. Though it is located inside a shopping centre, it provides both indoor and outdoor dining.

The cafe is setup to be as those during the british colony period, with the furniture as such. It can be easily forgotten that this place is actually inside a shopping centre along orchard road.

The cafe offers a wide spectrum of items, ranging from salad to burgers to stew to curry. The desserts offered are also very impressive. The moment you step into the cafe, you can see all the cakes being lined up on round plates that are placed above the counter. The size of the cake is also quite huge as compared to those coffee places.

As i reached the cafe during their tea break, the range of items that were provide was not as much as during their lunch and dinner. I had just ordered 3 items: Caesars salad, Earl Grey Tea and Chocolate Crunch Doorstop Cake.


Food
Caesars Salad (S$18.00)

Presentation
The caesars salad comes in a huge bowl, which surprises me. It was totally out of my expectation that the salad would be that huge. The bowl of salad comes with poached egg, smoked crispy bacon, baby coz, croutons and shaved parmesan cheese, mixed together with the caesar salad dressing.

Taste
The leaves of the salad are quite huge, making it difficult to put into the mouth. The leaves had to be cut into bite size using the knife provided. The salad is just like any caesar salad and there is nothing too special about it. For the price of S$18.00, it is not really worth the price.

Not Recommended Dish


Chocolate Crunch Doorstop Cake (S$15.90)

Presentation
As if this 3 inch tall, gigantic choc cake is not sinful enough, it comes together with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The cake consist of 3 layers, the bottom being chocolate cake base and the middle layer is walnut and peacan mixed in caramel. The top most layer is chocolate mousse with chocolate malt balls on the top.

Taste
If you take the 3 layers all at 1 go, it will warrant a butter of chocolate swimming in your mouth. The walnut gives a unique twist to the caramel , reducing the caramel taste. This dessert is a very filling dessert, with richness in chocolate taste.
Chocolate lovers will simply adore this dessert. It all choc, choc and more choc. The vanilla ice cream helps little to give additional flavour to the cake. In fact the vanilla ice cream melted after i had only finished 3/4 of the cake.
This cake is so filling that i am not able to finish the cake and i only had just a tea and a salad before attempting this cake.

Recommended Dish (for Choc Lovers only)


PS Cafe Service
I would be giving mixed reviews to the way that customers are treated. Firstly, when i arrived at the cafe, which is at about tea time, there wasn't any waitress standing to check guests in. The counter staff did see me but they are busy with they preparation work and only smiled back at me. It would have been better had they called out to the other available staff to attend to me. I had been standing there for about 5 minutes before a waitress came, only with a phone in hand, taking the reservation, i presume. I had to wait for about another 3 minutes before i was attended.
Finally gotten my seat and my order for warm water was missed out, and i had to request for it again before the waitress says that she had forgotten about it.
While these 2 incidents reflected rather negatively, the same waitress knowing what i had ordered and upon me finishing my salad, replaced my utensils for me so that when my dessert comes, i can start eating it. At least this brings back some positive light to their service.

PS Cafe Cleanliness
I would not consider the cafe to be very cleanliness conscious even though their utensils, cutleries and were sparkling clean. The staff were actually sweeping the floor while guests were still eating. One thing that the staff didnt notice is that the place where they were sweeping actually had air current that is leading into the cafe. Even though the place is air conditioned, little dust particles that are everywhere were stirred and could possibly land onto customers food.
It is good to keep the floor clean but not when customers are still eating and with the air current bringing dust to customers food.

Rating
Presentation: 3.5/5
Taste: 3.5/5
Service: 3/5
Cleanliness: 3/5
Value for money: 2.5/5
If i were to be back to the cafe, i would be going back because of the cakes. They look really tempting. The ambience is also a good place for friends to chat and hang out with each other.

++Recommended++ (only for the cakes)