Burch & Purchese

Burch & Purchese have a lovely store off the quiet end of Chapel St, where you will often be rewarded with slivers of the latest cake or chocolate, and tempted by the mounds of meringue clouds, or freshly prepared chocolate blocks lining the walls. Darren Purchese is often seen, concocting his latest creations at the back of the shop, and sometimes serving with a smile. I however, am largely distracted by their cake cabinets, often wanting to try all flavours, all at once, all the time.

Pistachio, Green Tea, Yuzu, Blackcurrant, White Chocolate ($8.0)

I was drawn to this cake as I love green tea, and the Japanese inspired flavours seem to be quite popular these days, with Yuzu used as an alternative citrus flavour to traditional mandarin/orange/lemon/lime. This cake was quite delicate; with the hint of green tea sponge and cream so subtle I almost missed it. The yuzu jelly and curd and pistachio cake were the most prominent flavours which I tasted. Even the blackberry cream, which I expected to dominate the cake, was in the background of flavours, along with the white chocolate mousse.

Beetroot, Strawberry, Rose, Vanilla & White Chocolate ($8.0)

This multi-layered cake is made up of beetroot sponge, strawberry & rose jam, rose vanilla cream, yoghurt sponge, strawberry cream, crunchy almond meringue, vanilla pastry cream, white chocolate & vanilla cream, strawberry gel and topped with a micro beetroot sponge. The beetroot sponge was quite dry and not as spongy and moist like the pistachio cake base. The rose flavours came out quite strongly, but this cake was more balanced and cohesive than the Pistachio/Green Tea. I enjoyed the clear jelly-like layer on top of the cake, but unfortunately the crunch almond meringue was lost amongst the other layers.

Raspberry, Laurent Perrier Champagne, Peach & Lemon (Gluten Free, $7.0)

The tubes from B&P are constantly changing, and I think this was one of my favourites. It featured raspberry jam, lemon curd, blood peach cream, raspberry compote, white chocolate & raspberry blondie sponge, champagne & white chocolate mousse and a pink velvet spray which is quite signature to B&P. Though this tube is extremely sweet, and I couldn’t finish it in one sitting, the smooth mousse was combined very well with the more tart tasting curd and compote.

Explosive Raspberry Milk Chocolate (Nut Free, $7.0)

A heavier tube compared to above, the raspberry cream and marshmallow, fresh compote, choc chip cookie crumb, red chocolate velvet sprayed raspberry and milk chocolate mousse and chocolate popping candy made for deeper, more rich flavoured tube. Again, the raspberry was used to bring out some tartness to the dessert, but overall the best part was the popping candy!

Chocolate, Mandarin, Salted Caramel (Nut Free, 18cm cake, $49.0)

This cake was made from aerated chocolate shortbread, orange & lemon marmalade, mandarin cream, Murray River salted caramel cream, dark chocolate mousse, shiny chocolate mirror glaze and freeze dried mandarin. This mousse cake was a deep rich chocolate, highlighted with salted caramel notes. However, the orange and lemon marmalade made the cake quite sour and bordering on salty, which didn’t get balanced adequately by the chocolate mousse. Not my favourite choice from B&P, though it is visually pretty spectacular. 

TL;DR Burch and Purchese are one of my favourite, consistent cake shops!