Last post, I mentioned that N and I were on a quest to find pretty cakes to eat before we got side-tracked. We did end up finding cakes pretty enough to tickle our fancy at Princess Coco. The interior of Princess Coco is very luxurious and princess-esque with purple cushioned, gold-framed wooden couches, seats and stools, and marble-like table tops.
N had the earl grey hot chocolate.
The passionfruit tart ranks amongst that from Croissant D’Or Bakery, which is the best passionfruit tart I’ve had.
I was expecting a slice from a larger, round tart, but no, it was a self-contained tart made to look like it came from a bigger tart! And the passionfruit was perfect parts tangy and sweet. The most delightful thing though, was the dried lychee on top. First, I’ve never considered lychee and passionfruit as a pairing. Second, dried lychee! How novel! It was crunchy like a rice husk but with mellow flavours of lychee.
A couple of weeks later, C, N, and I met up for a long-overdue catchup at Princess Coco because C had gift vouchers that were about to expire, and it’d have been such a waste not to exchange it for some pretty cake!
C had the the passionfruit tart, while N had the Raspberry Delice (above), a flourless chocolate sponge, raspberry ganache and compote, with Valrhona mousse and almond streusel base. This is a cake that’s definitely not for the faint at heart – it’s very rich, but I love rich chocolate cakes! The tartness of the raspberry ganache stops the richness of the chocolate from overwhelming.
I had the Petit Fours, which are great for cake lovers like me because they give you lots of variety in super cute miniature form. I enjoyed the raspberry mousse (left) immensely and probably the most out of the four. Its lightness and sweet-tanginess was very refreshing for a hot afternoon. The berry and vanilla custard tart (right), I liked for the custard and the berries, but wasn’t so sure about the random piece of orange flesh. The tart base was also a bit soft (not crisp like the tart base for the passionfruit tart I had there), which made me think the custard tart was a bit old. It still tasted fine, though!
The chocolate brownie (left) did not taste like a chocolate brownie to me – I couldn’t taste the chocolate at all, but it did resemble something like a denser/drier sticky date pudding with walnuts. It wasn’t the best of the petit fours, but that wasn’t helped by my confusion over why a chocolate brownie didn’t taste like one. And finally, the choux creme (right). I saved this until last because it looked most simple. By now, though, I’d had enough of the whipped cream that they used to decorate the raspberry mousse and chocolate brownie. The 50:50 whipped cream:choux ratio was a bit much. I prefer custard over whipped cream too. The choux was softer than I expected, which also made me think it was a bit old.
Princess Coco is located at Shop 124, 158-166 Day Street, Sydney NSW 2000.