Destination dessert
Six pastry chefs demonstrate that the world is indeed sweet as they celebrate International Cake Day
AUGUST HAS long heralded the arrival of super-sweet treats and this year is no exception with International Cake Day 2014 being celebrated all this month in the Ratchaprasong area.
Pastry chefs from six top hotels are once again doing dessert disciples proud with cake creations on the theme “the world is sweet”.
The Grand Hyatt Erawan, Novotel Bangkok Platinum, Centara Grand at Central World, the St Regis, the InterContinental and the Renaissance hotels are taking part in the campaign, which, as ever, is organised by the Ratchaprasong Square Trade Association.
A slice of cake with a drink is priced at Bt199 through the St Regis has chosen to add some of its creations to a Thai Tea Set for two, which goes for Bt650.
Over at the Erawan Bakery in the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Ryan Dunn blends the very best ingredients with his passion for French patisserie to offer the Three Continents.
This five-layered sponge is designed to resemble a colourful suitcase and adorned with several destination stamps.
The icing-coated cake is filled with cheese and different mousses made from Australian raspberries, French chocolate, local organic passion fruit, vanilla from Madagascar and served with iced Lychee tea.
There are three colours from which to choose, with each representing a layer – yellow is the passion fruit, brown is the chocolate and red refers to the raspberry.
“Our suitcase-like cake takes you around the world with each of the stamps representing our properties like the Hyatt Park, the Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt,” Ryan says. “We’ve used the finest ingredients from around the world because we want to offer a cake that is truly global. And you don’t have to stop at a slice. We also have one- to three-pound cakes starting at Bt800.”
Chocoholics should make a beeline for The One, the New York-style cafe attached to the Renaissance Bangkok and feast on the Criollo Grand Cru Chocolate cake created by executive pastry chef Dech Sangsrijan.
His three-layered mousse cake has pistachio as the base, white chocolate mousse in the middle and dark chocolate mousse on top and is served with a cup of hot chocolate. Both cake and drink are made of Grand Cru Maracaibo chocolate from Switzerland.
“The Grand Cru Maracaibo chocolate is from a rare cocoa bean grown in Venezuela and is really unique with a tangy aroma and a rich flavour that has bite but isn’t too bitter,” Dech says.
“Almost everyone loves chocolate and I’d like to educate dessert lovers about this unique flavour.”
At the St Regis Bangkok’s Drawing Room, Somjai Boontang adds his Thai Tea Mousse Cake to the hotel’s Lanna-style Thai Recipe Tea Set.
The three-layered cake is an interesting combination of Thai tea mousse, crunchy Red Bull macaroons and a tom yum mousse that makes the tongue tickle.
“The idea comes from my childhood memories of watching people buy plastic bags of iced Thai tea. Thai tea is strong, sweet and creamy and I keep all these flavours in the mousse,” Somjai says.
“A layer of macaroons is filled with sour Red Bull mousse to create the different texture, while the tom yum is based on an original Thai recipe, which sees powdered galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime blended with chilli.”
The tea set also offers several kinds of sliced mango with sticky rice, sandwiches, scones, pana cotta topped gold egg yolk thread and a choice of teas and refreshing drinks.
Burn off some of the calories by walking to Novotel Bangkok Platinum’s lounge where Anutin Trivutti offers his Tom Yum Cheese Cake with a refreshing Peachy Delight.
Decorated with white chocolate in the kanok motif, the bite-sized cheesecake contains crispy biscuits on the lowest layer and has a lemon cream filling. The cream cheese is blended with ginger, lemongrass, kaffir lime and chilli and comes with a sweet mandarin and sour lemon sauce.
“I want to introduce the uniqueness of Thai culture and cuisine so tom yum is an obvious choice, Anutin says.
SPICE OF LIFE
>>The Erawan Bakery in the lower lobby of the Grand Hyatt Erawan. It’s open daily from 7am to 8pm. Call (02) 254 1234.
>>The One is in front of the Renaissance Bangkok and is open from 7am to 8pm. Call (02) 125 5111.
>>The Drawing Room is on the 12th floor of the St Regis and serves tea daily from 2 to 6pm. Call (02) 207 7777.
>>The Platinum Lounge is on the sixth floor of the Novotel Bangkok Platinum and is open daily from 8am to 1am. Call (02) 160 7100, extension 8704.
>>Zing Bakery is on the first floor of the Centara Grand and open daily from 7am to 9pm. Call (02) 100 1234, extension 6485.
>>The Deli is on the ground floor of the InterContinental and open daily from 8am to 7pm. Call (02) 656 0444.
