Canele's Charlie Brown

It's christmas in a few days and I happened to pass by Canele. So I went in and this cake caught my eye. Canele named it the charlie brown, what a name. It was the thick layer of goody caramel on top that made me buy this cake. It wasn't cheap at $9 dollars. It's even more pricey that Canele's shiokness-10 star cake, the Le Royale. However, this cake wasn't a good cake. I wouldnt't like to say it was a bad cake, but I didnt finish it. My girl friend took 2 forkfulls and left it alone. I tried to get the staff to swap it for another cake but the manage said no. In my restaurant, if I had one, the answer would always be a yes. I would only be happy with a satisfied guest, and sell what I truly believe in.

To my brother, this cake would be perfectly fine, because he isn't a discerning eater and says nice to everything. But me, I demand perfection and look forward to michellin star meals. If I made this cake, I would be embarassed to serve it to pastry chef Sadaharu Aoki. The caramel on top had very poor flavour impact for its sweetness level. By comparison, Sadaharu's caramel eclair uses just a thin layer of caramel fondant, but the taste of the caramel is superbly strong and very pleasant. Canele's caramel on the Charlie Charlie brown, had barely detectably hint of butterscotch, with a weak tasting and mediocre flavour profile with some off-notes. It's not something I would like to eat plain. And, and, and, there was a whole lot if it on the cake! If only the chef that made this cake had tasted a Werther's original sweet, then he would know what a good caramel is like. With a really good flavour, only a thin layer would suffice, and the cloying sweetness that plagues this cake would have been resolved.




Then next, the ground nuts in the caramel layer were exeedingly soggy, and felt like they were "lao hong". They stuck to my teeth and made the eating experience very unpleasant. Then there was a ganache layer, a salted and very thick and crunchy peanut butter fuelletine layer, and a pretty ordinary chocolate sponge below.



Overall, the poorly done caramel and sticky-soggy peanuts made cake feel somewhat like a snickers bar, which I can get for a mere $1.50. What's worse is, I would rather eat the snickers bar, because the snickers bar is much much more shiok, and much much less sweet.



Canele, your chefs are ruining the luxury image of the brand! Send your chefs to paris, make them taste Pierre Herme's pieces, and show them whats the standard for a luxury brand!

Shiokness Verdict: 3/10

$10.60 after 10% service charge and 7%GST.

Canele's Gateaux Chocolat

My girlfriend bought me this beautiful cake today from Canele after school. Full marks for the presentation. It was so georgeous that I forgot all about not finishing the questions in my chemistry test today. The moment the cake came to our table, my girlfriend kept hurrying me to faster snap my photos so that she could start attacking the cakes :P

There was a description of this cake at the counter, "64% darl chocolate mousse, almond succes hazelnut feullitine, chocolate genouse with rum." Wow. What's 'succes'? Nonetheless, it makes the cake sound high class.

The roof of this cake was a square tile of tempered chocolate, ingenously embossed on one side with the surface texture of handbag leather. I think it was the reason why we chose this cake.

Naturally, the first thing we did was taste that shiny black droplet atop the entire cake. Unlike its attractive appearance, this thick black fluid was acrid, and thoughts of industrial tar came to my mind. My girlfriend even said out, apparently without careful thought: " Very terrible leh, not nice!" The chef who did this should be punished by making himself eat 5 whole tablespoons of that black stuff. What an introduction this posh looking cake!

Then we took off the leather patterned chocolate tile and tasted it alone. Chocolate, but with the subtle flavour of mothballs! I remember clearly what mothball vapour smells like because as a kid, they used to fill my auntie's cupboard. If I'm not wrong, the molecule that causes the characteristic smell of mothballs is napthalene, and whatever is in that chocolate could be having similar olfactory properties to the reagent. We didn't finish the whole leather chocolate roof. I think that as a luxury chocolate brand, Canele should seriously start benchmarking their chocolate aganst other good brands like Valrhona. Certain off-tasting notes are just not acceptable for the flavour profile of chocolate, a problem which has also plagued the cakes of Chocz.


Trying to forget the eyebrow twitching introduction that the cake gave us, we moved on to the body below. It was like a 3 storey flat, with 3 layers of cake alternated with 3 layers of ganache. The ganache was quite thick and dense in texture. The flourless cake too was on the dense side, such that the whole cake when eaten toghether was thick and dense, and also smooth and chocolatey. But chocolatey in a heldback sense because somehow the ganache was slow to melt, giving a percieved texture quite akin to soft candle wax. It tasted like lots of chocolate went into the cake, but the flavours of which were kept captive within the ganache and not released during the chewing process.

The leather chocolate tile did not go well with the ganache and cake layers because hard chunks of it remained in the mouth long after the ganache had melted and the cake chewed to pulp.



Despite the reserved comments on certain aspects of this cake, it was still quite chocolatey overall and will give you dopamine.

Shiokness Verdict: 6/10

$7.15 after GST ($7.55 after service charge)
Will you skip 3 meals at the school canteen to gather enough cash to buy the Gateaux Chocolat?

Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie
Shaw Centre
1 Scotts Road
Tel: 67389020
http://www.canele.com.sg/

Canele's Le Royale

In today's outing with my girlfriend, I chanced upon Canele's Le Royale. This cake had a stunning resemblence to the reknowned long cakes produced by Sadaharu Aoki. I can imagine Sadaharu Aoki frowning at the boss of Canele after seeing this cake, and saying: "kore watashi no design jia nai ka!?" :P In Singlish, "isn't this my design!?" Anyway, that long black streak stretching across the cake looks like one of those from the bamboo.


I was terribly hungry when the cake came to our table, so immediately after taking these photos I whisked out my fork and began attacking the cake.

Naturally, the first thing that I tried to taste was that reddish brown powdery stuff on top. Alamak, it had a medicinal taste, somewhat artificial in nature. But then, if you eat it with the other layers, it doesn't really affect the overall flavour because its only a small part of the cake. I think Canele should cut this unpleasant tasting powder coating and replace it with something else. Usually, pastry chefs use a fine spray of warm chocolate droplets to cover a cake surface with this powdery texture. Or they can simply dust the cake in cocoa powder for a similar look.



Canele's description of the cake was " 64% dark choc mousse, almond succes hazelnut feullitine, chocolate ganache."

This cake melted nicely in the mouth, had the perfect density, a wide array of textural variation, and very strong and pleasant chocolate and caramel notes. Hidden somewhere inside the feulletine layer in the middle was the unique flavour of caramel, the kind that you can only get when you heat sucrose above 180C for a brief moment. It was pure shiokness. Very very very shiok. If you need to fly to heaven for a few minutes, this cake has enough power to provide you the wings.



Crunchy in the middle, smooth on either side, this cake was packed with the intense flavour of chocolate. Its designed to release a torrent of flavour molecules with every bite you take. To create such a sensation, you need to craft layers that weakly bind to the flavour molecules such that they get desorbed from the cake surface upon slight agitation. I'm guessing the brilliant chef that came up with this cake must have had some insight into the chemical interactions taking place at the molecular level within the cake. He deserves a promotion!

The crunchy feuilletine brought a new dimension to the smooth and rich chocolate layers, adding lots of extra shiokness. We humans have evolved to appreciate crunchy textures in foods, especially when the crunchiness comes alongside soft and smooth textures. When we were still monkeys, this innate sense had helped us pick the ripest berries, crunchy on the outside, and soft and juicy on the inside. The Le Royale has successfully mimicked this 'crunchy berry' effect so it will naturally appeal to the brains of all humans. You will smile with your very first mouthful of this cake.


So, this is pure chocolate goodness with a hint of burnt caramel. I think it beats many of Sadahu Aoki's own pastries, and even many of those found at Le Maison du Chocolat. Perfect, except maybe for that wierd tasting powder on top.

Shiokness Verdict: 10/10

Very very shiok. Possibly the best chocolate cake in Singapore!

$7.70 after GST ($8.20 after service charge). It's totally worth it skipping 3 canteen meals in exchange for the Le Royale!!


Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie
Shaw Centre
1 Scotts Road
Tel: 67389020
www.canele.com.sg