In one word: Balanced
Beatrix Cakes in North Melbourne came up on my radar a little while ago with images of their freshly baked vanilla slices posted on Twitter. The place is obviously much loved, with a queue coming out of the door early on a Saturday morning. I managed to get one of their slices and was not disappointed. You can tell they love baking, using great ingredients and recipes to create delicious, fresh cakes and pastries. The vanilla slice in question was of a decent size and proportion, with a thick layer of eggy custard centered around two dark layers of golden flaky pastry. Neatly iced on top was a squidgy, soft layer of passion fruit icing that was not overly sweet, but ever so tasty. Not only was the custard eggy, but it also had vanilla bean running through which gave it a lovely vanilla flavour. The pastry was also divine; rich, buttery and a perfect thickness and crumbly texture. This was much needed after a few rather poor efforts on my recent travels.