An experience of what I j'adore ♥

Not too long ago, I was fortunate enough to experience the lovely Gâteaux and Torte class at the famous The Agrarian Kitchen out in Lachlan. For me it was an exciting new experience as I got to learn from Gordon Ramsay's ex pastry chef and owner of  Hobart's fine patisserie Sweet Envy, Alistair Wise. Alongside working with Alistair, I was also luckily enough to work with owners Séverine and Rodney Dunn - former food editor of Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine.

Image - Courtesy of Luke Burgess and Amanda McLauchlan

"Photo of the kitchen at The Agrarian Kitchen"

At this experience I've learnt many things and really enjoyed it as I have a passion for cooking especially sweets. At the course we got separated into pairs and was given a choice of what to cook. In my pair, we picked to make the Gateaux Opera. In the course I'd completed apart from the Gateaux Opera, it included other gateaux and torte such as the Framboise, the Chunky Monkey, Sacher Torte and the Lexington.

And for my best friend's birthday I was in charge of making her birthday cake, as she knew I'd completed the course. As she's a huge raspberry fan, I'd decided to make her the Framboise. So here's a lil sneak peak of what it looked like...

My version of the Framboise - unfortunately it's winter time down here, I couldn't get hold of some fresh raspberries. So it bled a bit.

After talking to Alistair Wise for a bit and getting to know him more, the reason why he has his shop painted all white it's because he wants the treats in shop to stand out with their vibrant colours. The two things that really stood out to me when I entered the shop apart from their display of wedding cakes, were the macaroons/ macarons and their cupcakes.

Image - Courtesy of little glowing lights @flickr

"So many things to pick from and they all look so yummy"

Another the thing that stood out to me was how this little shop can give someone a vintage feel to it. As you walk into the shop on the walls they have a display of painted retro radios. For some it gives them a 60's feel. Not only that but for me, an inspiration of colour co-ordinations comes from macarons. So basically macarons are coming back in fashion for me.

Image - Courtesy of Sweet Envy

"The lovely painted retro radios"

In the front window of Sweet Envy, they have lovely painted white ladders and the one in the middle reminds me of a similar English Folding Library Ladder that's available at The Drill Hall Emporium but the differences is that the one at The Drill Hall is bigger and not painted.

Image - Courtesy of Sweet Envy

"Shop front - The ladder in the middle"

Image - Courtesy of The Drill Hall Emporium

"English Folding Library Ladder - similar to the middle painted ladder at Sweet Envy's shop front"

So no matter what I love whether it's sweets or antiques, I can always manage to relate them together.