The official term is potluck, some called it an outing. You can also see it as a pre-xmas celebration. Whatever, it is just a bloody excuse for the dessert enthusiast to get together, have fun and eat! Everybody brought something along, for those experts in baking, a chance to showcase their amazing skills, while the rest of us brought it from elsewhere.

Macarons, the speciality of Evan. She made hazelnut praline, rose, and pistachio flavours this time round. You might be think that i’m biased, but her macarons are one the best i tried so far. And we got some of the strictest dessert authorities who tasted them. Her macarons are available for sale on her site, do order some and give it a try!

Well, i tried rose flavour macarons from Canéle before, and i must say i wasn’t too impress with the rather artificial rose flavouring. While Canéle’s one was subtle in flavour, Evan’s rendition was fulsome in rose flavour. The shell was crispy, not the brittle type. The innard cream fillings were moist and light, and the aroma of the rose spread through, and was contagious like happiness.

Bright green in colour, the pistachio macaron was easy to spot among the desserts. I ain’t a big fan of pistachio, but this one was good enough, with the use of pistachio and almond. Personally, I felt that the almond taste was a tad strong though, and sort of covered the pistachio nut.

The hazelnut praline macaron, was clearly the best among the three. Everybody love hazelnut, who doesn’t like nutella? The strong hazelnut flavour was very nice, with the shells chewy and the whole taste simply blew me away. Everybody had one, while i couldn’t help myself and secretly took two! And do you believe this is actually Evan’s first time trying out with hazelnut for her macaron?

Next up, Vicki’s Swedish cinnamon rolls. Warmed up in the oven, sprinkled with icing sugar, the pretty cinnamon roll wasn’t as soft as i thought, but i enjoyed eating them round and round. Only the mountain of desserts behind stopped me from taking second helpings.

If we were to give out the best actress award for the event, it’ll definitely be the marshmallows. Her sweet looks deceived us completely, as she didn’t turn out to be as sweet as we thought it would. And that’s a good thing, most marshmallows are usually too sweet, but this one was just nice, and there was the hint of peppermint within. Another of Vicki’s creation. Her first time.

The Macha sponge cake ($20) was brought from Minamoto Kitchoan in the basement of Takashimaya. Some felt that the macha flavour wasn’t strong enough, and the sponge cake tasted more like our Chinese Fa kueh. Quite a disappointment actually.

There was rum, and there was nutmeg. The eggnog cheesecake was all about the liquor, and a hint of cinnamon. With the decoration of the pretty strawberries, the cheesecake was simple, and pretty enough. But i ain’t a big fan of liquor desserts, so this one didn’t make it for me. While others thought the liquor level was still acceptable and enjoyed it. Brought to you by caicancook.

Being the novice baker i am, it’ll be very embarrassing to bring my amateur bakes along for potluck. Therefore, i shared the Goodwood Park Hotel traditional Christmas chocolate log cake ($53 before 15% discount) with Fen.

How can Christmas be without the iconic log cakes? Goodwood Park’s one was very chocolatey, with rich layers of chocolate mousse, in between the home-made chocolate sponge. I haven’t had a proper log cakes for years, and to share it with friends who appreciate desserts, it was even more significant.

I wasn’t sure what the cake was initially. With some explanation from Sinny, who made the dessert. I googled the term, and here’s what i got. The bundt cake identity attributed from its ringed shape, it is pronounced “bunt” with the ‘d’ being silent. And guess what again? This was Sinny’s first time making this cake. The bakers were all like, “oh this was my first time making this and that“, when all of us were enjoying their desserts thoroughly!

We ended off our meal with some awesome pepper crabs by Claire’s father. There was also chicken wings, prawn rolls too! What are you thinking? We didn’t just ate desserts for the whole day!

Claire’s dog come out to play

Our first-ever potluck outing was a blast, and i believed everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We spent like two hours taking photos of the food, and there was laughter the whole day. Thanks claire for hosting us at her house, and there’s definitely gonna be more potluck outings in the future!

Check out the rest of the dessert enthusiast entries:
Fen @ sgcake.com
Evan @ bossacafez
Sinny @ Fundamentally-flawed
Vicki @ herlittleblackdress

Until our next dessert enthusiast outing then! Happy Christmas everybody!

While co-owner and partner Mac excel in decorating the desserts, June enjoyed researching the use of new flavours instead. Perhaps it is the unique combination and strength in the partnership that gave Obolo Patisserie its success. ladyironchef decided to organise a dessert outing there and it went on smoothly with the support that the partners provided.

The interior of Obolo is very small, and could only fit in 15 people. Mac and his team rearranged the tables and did the settings for us, with the print of our dessert degustation menu, Obolo’s christmas catalogue, and a small gift in the form of cookies.

Our dessert degustation menu consisted of 12 desserts platter, namely 7 petite cheesecakes & entremets, 2 petite tartlets, 1 dessert shooter, and 2 les macarons. As always, i requested sampling portions for the menu as it’ll allowed us to try a variety of the desserts available at Obolo. Therefore, the pictures that you’ll be looking at are all mini-size, and does not reflect the actual size of the desserts.

Tartlet filled with milk chocolate & passion fruit ganache. The chocolate-passion was a sourish petite tart, mainly from the passion fruit used. Most of us found it too sour for our liking, and the sourness from the passion fruit completely overwhelmed the milk chocolate. I preferred it sweet.

Dark Chocolate ganache mousse, cassis ivoire mousse, praline feulletine base and moist dark chocolate-almond biscuit layers. Having tried Le Cassis before, i still enjoyed the contrasting taste between the slightly sour blackcurrent and the sweet of the chocolate ganache. I’m a big fan of the crunchy praline feulletine, but i thought that the layer was too thin, and not enough! Nonetheless, Le Cassis is definitely a hit with most of us.

Baked cheesecake infused with mango and passion fruit. While i didn’t really fancy passion fruit as i found it too sour, but in this instance the mango actually provided a better balance in the overall taste. The layer of biscuit crumb base would be nicer if it was thicker. The Mango-passion cheesecake had mixed reactions, with some finding it too sour, and some giving a thumbs up for the creative use of flavours.

67% caramel chocolate mousse, dark chocolate ganache, pecan chocolate fudge cake base. We were debating whether the nuts at the base were walnuts, but it’s actually pecan. The caraibe was one of my favourite of the night with the velvety chocolate mousse, dark chocolate ganache and chocolate fudge base. It was all about contrast and layering, really.

Tartlet filled with dark chocolate ganache. One of the few real chocolate of the night, the Chocolat Noir was better than the one that i had at Cova. One of the main feedback from the rest was, there was more sour than sweet dessert for the night. Mac explained that for decoration purposes, they liked to add in berries. But it ain’t the season for berries, and those that looked nice actually taste sour.

Some would prefer her to be drenched with liqueur, but the purist certainly say no! If you asked me, I’m on the purist side. The light mascarpone creme, dark chocolate ganache & chocolate genoise infused with coffee. Pull-me-up, of sugar and espresso. The tiramisu au chocolat.

Remember Pineapple tarts? You reminded me of Chinese New year, even though its only two months away. Pinada cheesecake, despite given a make-over, I still missed my pineapple tarts. The rum-soaked raisins didn’t help also.

Looking at the pistachio ivoire mousse, your eyes must be green with envy. Not to mention there’s still the cherry-raspberry gelee to deal with. I never like jam, definitely not the gelee in between the way of the dark chocolate ganache mousse, and the chocolate almond biscuit with kirsch. Almost prefect, the Nikta.

All the way from the states, there’s the New York cheesecake. Smooth, creamy, with a hint of lemon. At the pinnacle, seats the stunning strawberry. She’s the one that teased me all right, during our precious encounter. And now that I’ve conquered you, what do you have to say?

Appearance is secondary, they say inner beauty is more important. Nonetheless, the outer beauty sure makes a good impression. Sprinkle with gold dust, the ginormous strawberry garnished the top. There was tangy mascarpone mousse, and there was red berry gelee. Add in some kirsch-mixed berry compote, and i give you Summer Berries.

Miss macha was a last minute substitution, simply we got sick of Mr passion fruit. By common consensus, the shell was very thick, chewy, and a tad sweet. It’ll be better if she was lighter. But you couldn’t deny the fact that the macha macaron’s filling was prettily done.

Always a safe choice, the pairing of hazelnut and chocolate. Certainly a crowd teaser with that fulsome filling. Once my favourite, always my favourite. I don’t care what they say, i’m in love with you.

I’ll like to thank everyone who attended the dessert outing last night, and hope you all had a great time. There were old friends, and new faces, but everybody’s welcome! Also my thanks to Mac and June who supported and hosted us, for without them, this outing wouldn’t be possible.

For the rest of you folks who missed out on this dessert outing, not to worry. Details for my next food outing will be out tomorrow! So do let me know ASAP if you can make it for the lunch.

ps: read fen’s detailed review at sgcake.com
evan’s beautiful photos at bossacafez.com
jia xin at foodies queen

Cheers,
Brad