Pine Garden's Cake's Lychee Martini Cake is ranked 12th on ST's Top 50 Yummiest Cake. I finally had a taste of it after all the wishing and hoping and dreaming of it all day and night! Fairy Godfather R decided to surprise me with a 500gsm cake no less...Triple hurray for that.
Being a self-confessed huge fan of lychee martinis (the more potent, the better!), I've been looking forward to a cocktail baked in a cake!
It came in a see-through box, for you to steal a peek at it before you get down to polishing it. My hands were trembling with delight as I unveiled the pink beauty. No whiff of alcohol fragrance when I first opened the box. I gingerly took out the pink cake. Funny that it's coloured baby pink, I figure it's just the colouring.
It's layers of sponge cake sandwiching fresh cream and juicy lychees, to end it off it's coated with pink fresh cream all around. The cake's a very light cake in many ways, the fluffy sponge cake (though deemed dry by the parents) and light fresh cream (it beats butter cream in terms of calories!). The lychees are scattered throughout the cake. Surprisingly, the pink fresh cream wasn't just coloured, it's rose flavoured. Even writing this makes rose and lychee martini a wrong combination. Tastewise, it seemed mismatched. The hint of rose got progressively stronger and I concluded, rose and lychees don't go at all. As for the martini bit, it's probably so mild I couldn't taste it. The sis who doesn't touch a drop of alcohol managed to discern it between bites.
I had it for breakfast and the stomach still growled ravenously. For after meals dessert, this serves great; almost as if you're eating nothing. It's that light!
Certainly no where near a desired potent lychee martini more like a mocktail! It'll probably taste better without the rose hint. It's akin to having XO Fishhead Bee Hoon when the XO is nowhere in taste.
Fast forward one week, the rose flavouring has gotten so strong, it ends up tasting like a rose cake.
$26, 500gsm. $36, 1kg.
Pine Garden's Cake
529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10
01-2369 & 01-2329
rose and lychee does go perfectly well together, which is why the picasso of pastry, pierre herme came up with the ispahan which is made up of rose, lychee & raspberries =) now, everywhere is using that combination!
ReplyDeleteNot alot of places does it well for lychee martini desserts... I do like 7th Heaven's lychee martini ice-cream...
ReplyDeleteYea, the alcohol is almost undetectable but it is a unique combination for a cake.
Actually lychee and rose are classic combinations, isaphan is a classic example and according to my small chat with the pastry chef at CentrePs, this is a combination that is well-received over the years. Put it short, it is a long-lost recipe and Pierre Herme revive this combination via the introduction of the isaphan.
I haven't try the cake one week later but I find it hard to like their sponge... alittle too powdery to my liking...
evan: hello! I've seen your gorgeous looking macarons..haven't had the chance to try them though. Guess Pine's rose-lychee martini cake just didn't work for me..have yet to try any isaphan..hence my averse reaction to that!
ReplyDeletefen: Shall take note of 7th heaven. I just don't get the huge fuss about this cake, slightly overhyped imo. I've really nothing towards rose and lychee, just that Pine's didn't work for me. :P
I understand where you are driving at... Pine Garden's winning factor is its pricing but to compare with mega players such as BakerZin and Canele, there is a difference...
ReplyDeleteI like their combination of flavours but their cake sponge is just too sweet and powdery to my liking... I prefer a good and light chiffon...