Next Stop – Pastry Gems

So glad everyone has liked my dessert posts 🙂 Wasn’t sure if you were going to get a little sick of just seeing cake and desserts 😛 I’m sorry that this post is a little late and you may have noticed I’ve been a little quiet on Twitter and Facebook ~ Dad had surprised me with a graduation trip to Taiwan again so I have limited access for the next couple of days, promise to get back to comments and emails as soon as I can ~

Taking you to the Pastry Gems at the Ritz Carlton with me today, be prepared this post is going to be full of pictures of desserts YAY!  I love eating desserts with anyone, but particularly like going with dessert-lovers and bloggers because they understand why we need to take so many photos of a cake and alway orders more cake. That’s why I was thrilled when Ah Ling from Chocolate Mui Mui asked if I wanted to check out the cakes at Pastry Gems with her. It turned out to be tasting event but I’ll tell you more about that later ~

Heaven ~

Pastry Gems is the cafe near the entrance of the Ritz Carlton hotel, and even though I’ve gone pass the cafe many times, I didn’t know they had so many cakes. Freshly made every day, they have around 6 to 7 desserts for customers to choose from, and of course we got every single cake they had 😀

Never ending desserts 🙂

It was basically a never-ending story of desserts 🙂 I was super excited about trying every single one of them ~ they’re all so pretty 🙂

Let’s start with the light and fruity desserts ~

Mango Verrine $48HKD ($5.86AUD) +10% service charge

The Mango Verrine, a nice simple dessert with a few layers, first a layer of diced mango, then mango mousse, mango pudding topped with some more diced mango and finished with a thin sugar crisp. I was surprised the mangos were so sweet as they aren’t in season right now here in HK.

Green Tea and Raspberry $48HKD ($5.86AUD) +10% service charge

Next was the Green Tea and Raspberry ~ I’ve noticed many pastry chefs in HK like moulding their cakes into ‘spheres’ 😛

More of a mousse cake ~

Basically a mousse cake with a thin layer of green tea sponge cake as the base, then green tea mousse, a very thin layer of raspberry jelly then more green tea mousse. The whole cake was then sprayed with green tea powder 🙂 I love matcha flavoured desserts and especially those with a strong punch of green tea flavour. The green tea mousse was very delicious, however, the raspberry jelly was quite sour and with the slight bitterness of the matcha, I didn’t really like it.

Now to the chocolatey and rich desserts 🙂

Pot de Creme $48HKD ($5.86AUD) +10% service charge

Started with the Pot de Creme, it had a very silky texture and was definitely very chocolately, as her blog name suggests Chocolate Mui Mui really liked this dessert, one of her favourite ~ I don’t particularly like Pot de Cremes, but thought this was nice too very rich and comforting.

Jivara Apricot $48HKD ($5.86AUD) +10% service charge

Not quite sure why it’s called Jivara ~ couldn’t find an answer online either, it’s basically a chocolate mousse with an apricot compote as the base and the little tube of ‘toothpaste’ is in fact fresh Apricot jam 🙂

I’ve never really had a dessert that has both apricots and chocolate, and instead of being really rich…this dessert was surprisingly light ~ It also had a taste that resembled yoghurt, I think it’s because the slight tanginess of the apricot which balances out the sweetness of the chocolate. Perfect dessert for those who don’t really have a sweet tooth hehe

Chocolate Passion $48HKD ($5.86AUD) +10% service charge

This was my favourite ~ because I really like hazelnut flavoured desserts, it had a hazelnut sable as a base, a thin layer of caramel or vanilla mousse (sorry don’t remember), a layer of chocolate mousse, then covered in a thin layer of chocolate and garnished with a little macaron ~ The whole cake made sense to me hahaha the flavours all matched really well and I loved the crunchiness of the base ~

Mont Blanc $48HKD ($5.86AUD) +10% service charge

Unlike the one I had at Ariel Le Cafe, the chestnut puree here was delectable and light 🙂 and I enjoyed eating it ~ but still not my favourite, sorry to all those Mont Blanc fans out there .

Chocolate and Banana $48HKD ($5.86AUD) +10% service charge

Sorry everyone, not sure of the name of this cake, when I went back to write the names down they had sold out of this cake and removed the label.

Banana puree yum ~

Once again a mousse type cake with thin layers of chocolate cake layered in between and in the middle they placed banana puree, yum yum ~ definitely love chocolate and banana cakes 🙂 Very soft and velvety in the mouth and this was slightly richer and sweeter than the other dessert which is perfect for me~

That was the 7 cakes 🙂 but that’s not it hahaha they also had macarons! You never say no to macarons 😛

Assorted macarons $20HKD($2.5AUD) each +10% service charge

They only have 5 flavours – (from the left) chocolate and orange, orange, black truffle, pistachio and raspberry ~ we both had one each hehe these macarons were the firmer type with a thick layer of filling. My favourite would have to be the chocolate and orange, adore jaffa flavoured sweets and the filling was delicious! My next favourite would have to be pistachio ~ and it was the softest macaron and again melts in your mouth. It wasn’t really my least favourite but the black truffle was definitely something unique and I’ve never had a savoury macaron. The taste reminds me of a ‘cream of mushroom’ soup hahaha don’t get me wrong the black truffle itself was very fragrant…I’m just not sure I like it in a sweet macaron~ but a must-try for those who dare 😛

We’re not done yet ~ because Pastry Gem also has an assortment of pastries which they also bake every day, they have things like croissants, danishes and muffins.

Assorted pastries ranging from $18-$22HKD ($2.2-$2.8AUD) each plus 10% service charge

I was pretty stuffed after all that cake and macarons, but it was Ah Ling’s first meal so she was still a little hungry so she couldn’t help but get a triple chocolate muffin ~ I think prices here are quite reasonable given that it is a 5 star hotel and most cafes now charge $25 to $35HKD for a muffin.

Tripple Chocolate Muffin $20HKD ($2.5AUD) +10% service charge

I’ve tried this last time I was at Pastry Gems and we both agree that this muffin was definitely full of chocolate ~ only downfall was the waitress had forgotten to reheat it before serving it 🙂

This was supposed to be a quiet get together between Ah Ling and myself, however, it eventually became a tasting event because Bonnie and Peggy from the PR department at Ritz Carlton, which we know show our Facebook check-in and decided to pop down to come say hi to us. Unbeknownst to us, Peggy had settled the bill for us without telling us! Would like to say a huge thank you to Peggy for treating us and that you didn’t need to do that~

Daisy@Nevertoosweet and Ah Ling dined as a guest of Ritz Carlton Hong Kong.

Pastry Gems Ritz Carlton Hotel
9/F, The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong,
International Commerce Centre,
1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui 

香港麗思卡爾頓酒店9樓
1號環球貿易廣場(ICC)
尖沙咀柯士甸道西
PH: 2263 2230 

Tagged: Cafe, Cakes, Chocolate, Dessert, Hong Kong, Macaron, Review, Travel