What better way to welcome spring than with spring-inspired desserts? The Galeries evidently thought the same with their Spring Social event from 24-27 September featuring a host of pop up shops and events. The collaboration between n2 Extreme Gelato and Black Star Pastry particularly interested me – I was hoping for a revisit of n2 Extreme Gelato’s take on Blackedtar Pastry’s famed rose watermelon cake. That wasn’t to be, alas.
Instead, they had a Strawberry and Sakura Cream: ‘strawberry gelato topped with whipped sakura cream sprinkled with freeze dried strawberry powder’. Nothing speaks springtime quite like sakura (or cherry blossoms).
I found this strawberry gelato refreshing with some pastry crumbs throughout to give it a nice crunch. The sakura cream was light and fluffy, with a noticeable yet subtle sakura flavour. It’s always easy to tell when people have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to sakura because they say they can or can’t taste ‘cherry’ flavour when sakura tastes nothing like cherries! It’s a distinctly unique floral flavour with just the slightest hint of saltiness. The sakura went well with the light strawberry gelato, and the freeze dried strawberry powder gave it a good kick.
Two pop up stores down, Grumpy Donuts had three flavours on offer: chocolate peanut butter oreo, raspberry lime grumpy, and maple bacon ring.
The illustrations for each donut are just too cute. These were the two that N and I tried – bacon was too heavy for post-lunch dessert (and N hates bacon).
The Chocolate Peanut Butter Oreo ($5.00) donut was very rich and sweet. That’s an understatement – the peanut butter drizzle and dark chocolate glaze was tasty, but I’m not sure I’d have been able to finish the whole thing myself in one sitting. The Oreos gave a nice crunch against the gooey chocolate and peanut butter icing on the fluffy donut.
The Raspberry and Lime Grumpy ($5.00) donut was very much like candy. The raspberry flavoured icing was sweet but the handmade lime sprinkles gave just enough zing to break through – I’d have enjoyed lime sprinkles all over the donut, not just half! This was probably my preferred donut of the two for a post-lunch dessert, being less rich.
The Spring Social was held between 24-27 September at The Galeries, 500 George St, Sydney NSW 2000