International Cakes

185 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 3000
Date visited: 20th July 2012

We dropped by International Cakes today for some afternoon tea.  We've passed by a few times and seen the alluring display of chocolate goodies on the window display and made a note the last time that we needed to try it one day.

They have a huge range of glistening, tempting treats, slices of sponge cakes, chocolate-covered goodies and whole cakes. 

MerlinFan and I picked out the three gorgeous looking goodies below:

From left: Kataifi, Turkish Delight, Pistachio Baklava

What the heck is Kataifi, you may ask?  I never heard of it before today too.  It's actually a Greek/ Turkish/ Middle Eastern dessert made from long thin noodles like shredded wheat with a nutty centre and is baked and soaked in a sweet syrup and sprinkled with pistachios.  Although Mum enjoyed the flavours, she had to admit it was insanely sweet.

The Turkish Delight is a cubed gel flavoured with rosewater and dusted with icing sugar.  I actually liked this Turkish Delight much better than other Turkish Delights I've had elsewhere.  It was soft and gooey, with a slight crunch to the edges, although one bite was enough to send you into a diabetic coma.

The last is the pistachio baklava, which is a sweet pastry made of layers of filo pastry filled with nuts and sweet syrup/ honey.  It was actually really yummy too, covered with extra honey and pistachios.  It was the least sweet of the three, but still sweet enough to make any tooth cavity scream for mercy.

Despite our sweet tooths (or sweet teeth?), and the nice flavours of the goodies, the three of us couldn't finish the desserts between us and had to save the rest for later. 

Verdict?  I think desserts from these regions are traditionally supposed to be sweet, but it was just way too sweet for my palate.  And avoid at all costs if having a Glucose Tolerance Test in the very near future.


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