B&P takes the cake

If you're a sweet tooth with an appreciation for premium, and you live in Melbourne, then I assume you are well and truly familiar with Burch & Purchese. Ian (Burch) & Darren (Purchese), a pair of tres tres talented Poms with serious culinary pedigrees, have worked together for a number of years. Under the B&P label they have taken the architecture of sweets, and the idea of what a dessert could be, to new design heights. Infusions and reductions, clays and crumbs make their way into intense flavoured jellies, jams, slabs and sorbets which, when combined, create some seriously sensational sweets. Customised cakes for all sorts of celebrations are a speciality. Well respected Australian chef Cath Claringbold (& wife of Darren), manages the front of house (and a zillion other things). Cath is the perfect hostess. She will have you stop by and sniff/taste/touch all sorts of wonderful textures and sometimes unexpected flavours to devise a cake that reflects you and your occasion.  I don't think I am doing them justice ... really just go and taste it for yourself (the Hendricks Gin Marshmallow, the freeze dried Raspberry & Choc Eclair, the Avocado Mint Cucumber Apple Yoghurt & Lime number that was sublime, the gingerbread and ... really I could go on for hours) Burch & Purchese, 647 Chapel St South Yarra (opposite the Como Hotel).