The royaltine is a predominantly mousse cake by Sweet Secrets. Their cakes are wrapped in transparent acetate plastic which you have to peel off before eating. From far you will instantly notice it from its shiny dark mirror glaze. The white chocolate curls on top enhances the lustre of the glaze because you can see their reflection on the glaze surface.
Upon removal of the plastic wrap, a beautifully patterned sponge was revealed. I thought it was rather brilliant to make the mousse sit nicely atop the edge of the sponge in an undulating sinosoidal wave pattern =)
And then *chop* I went inside the cake. Well, despite the beautiful appearance, the encircling yellow sponge layer was harsh with dryness. It surrounded the whole cake, so almost every bite was bound to have sponge. When sponges get too dry, they stick in your throat and gives quite an unpleasant feeling. The mousse on the other hand, was pleasantly light and airy, moderate in terms of chocolateyness, but even so, the dryness of the surrounding sponge was plain overwhelming. The mirror glaze on top and white chocolate curls both had coca cola flavor molecules in them. I don't know how it got there, but their other cake Etiole had it too. I wish the shiny glaze tasted more of chocolate to an intensity that would match its dark colour. At the very bottom of the cake, theres a liquid soaked genoise, but I couldn't make much out of its flavour.
There was also an almost hidden chemical-like flavour within the mousse, a very familiar and characteristic note that I think I came across before in Poon-Huat. An off- flavour, not conspicuous, but still detectable.
Nonetheless, the petite royaltine boasts an outstanding coffee feuilletine layer thats is delicately crunchy and robust in coffee flavour. I think Sweet Secrets has accomplished a tremendous technical feat by designing feuilleine that stays crispy in a cake with high moisture content. A big thumbs up to their feuilletine layer!
Actually, I would consider the royaltine a coffee-chocolate cake rather than a pure chocolate cake because of the strong coffee notes.
It's important to eat mousse cakes at 5 degrees C or straight from the refrigerator because the lipids in the mousse are solid and gives the right eating texture. Once you thaw mousses to room temperature, they become fluid and the cake collapses into mess. When this happens, you'll feel egg white bubbles popping on your tongue when you eat the mousse. When I review mousse cakes, I always eat them at refidgeration temperatures. Also, because light and volatile flavour molecules diffuse around in the air fairly quickly, you want to keep your cake in tightly sealed containers away from other strong smelling foods. These molecules can adsorb onto the surface of the cake. Such might be the origin of the coca cola flavour, or it could well be the natural flavour profile of the chocolate ingredient.
In all, I think that without the dry sponge and this cake would have released more dopamine in my brain. If you are eating the larger version of this cake, make sure you get a centre cut without any sponge. For less discerning cake eaters, this is an affordable chocolate cake that can satisfy sweet cravings.
Shiokness Verdict: 5/10
This cake costs $2.50, the quivalent of 1 canteen meal from school. Will you skip 1 meal at school in exchange for the Royaltine?
Sweet Secrets
Bishan Branch
Junction 8
Tel: 63534714
http://www.sweetsecrets.com.sg/
No comments:
Post a Comment