Of Strawberries and Chocolates: Top Picks

Hi, I am The Spoiled Mummy and I am a foodie. I love food. No actually make that – I am passionate about food! Yes, I love to cook but more importantly, I love to eat! I can eat almost anything that’s edible and of course anything that tastes good excites me!

I love good food and I know one when I see and taste one. When it comes to food quality and taste, no one can fool me. 🙂

Bragging aside, I think I can pretty much identify almost all the ingredients used in a dish the moment I take that first, momentous bite. And I can tell you right then and there, if the quality was good, so-so or bad. After which, I can formulate my own recipe similar to that dish that was just served…and it doesn’t matter whether that food was good, so-so, or bad, I just know I can recreate them simply based on my taste.

Speaking of being a foodie, for those of you who know me or who have been reading my blog for some time now, you probably can tell that more than anything, I am a big desserts person! Yes, I love my sweets! I love anything with sugar for that matter. You can count me as one of those weird people who can skip their main course but not their dessert!  Whenever I walk in a restaurant, I immediately ask for their dessert menu before anything else…that way, I can work backwards and plan what my main dish will be 🙂

Being a desserts person, I am also biased with anything that has Chocolate! Yes, Chocolates are my first love, my biggest passion among all my other foodie passions and honestly, I can talk about them as much as I can eat them! 🙂 In fact, one of my very first posts in this blog is about my undying love for Chocolates! (Click here to read about that post!)

Aside from Chocolates (and being a self-proclaimed foodie), I have other favorite foods as well. And I’m proud to say that my next favorite thing in the world is actually a fruit! Yes, this time, I’m talking about something healthier and more natural; something that’s fresh and organic even. As the title reveals it, I am in fact, a Strawberry girl too! 🙂 I am in love with this beautiful fruit! I love how it looks so red and plump on the outside and then it tastes so sweet and juicy on the inside! I also love how Strawberries just evoke love and romance (they’re red and heart-shaped too, right?) And don’t even get me started about its health benefits, the vitamins and minerals it contains, and all the anti-oxidants it gives, because otherwise this will even be a longer post than it already is!

When I think of Strawberries, the first picture that comes to my mind is that very popular (especially come Valentine’s season): Strawberry dipped in Chocolate! I guess I can’t help but think that these two are such a good, romantic pair, a perfect combination, a match that is made in foodie heaven! To show you how much I really love these two together…just take a look at The Spoiled Mummy’s logo, and there you’ll see a big fat Strawberry dipped in Chocolate! Yes, I chose this image to become my blog’s logo, because they are in fact, the symbol of the two things I love most…

Here, I have compiled just a few of my favorite Strawberry and Chocolate desserts that I’ve had recently. Good thing, I love taking photos of my food – especially of my desserts!! (Who doesn’t do that these days anyway?!)

My favorite strawberry and desserts around the world:

Red, plump and juicy, fresh strawberries from a supermarket in Tokyo

As you can see, Japanese strawberries are beautiful! They are perfectly sweet with just the right amount of sourness. Their only downside? They are also one of the world’s most expensive Strawberries!

Yoku Moku, Tokyo: Strawberry Shortcake with Chantilly cream from 

This cake is one of the best if not the best Strawberry Shortcakes I’ve ever tried. It is made of the sweetest, freshest Japanese Strawberries then layered with the softest, lightest chiffon cake and then topped with the most delicate tasting Chantilly cream!

I’ve tried so many delicious cakes in my life (and believe me when I say that!), but this is really the only one I can put my name on and vouch for its perfection. This is the only cake I can say that is TO-DIE-FOR!! Yes, The Spoiled Mummy will literally faint (hopefully, not die yet :)), if someone traveling from Japan can bring this home for me!

(An added bonus is when you order any of Yoku Moku’s cakes and pastries from their cafe menu, they give you their best-seller Cigare biscuits for free! Notice those three rolled crepe-like biscuits on the side of the cake? These are the biscuits that are widely popular for their being so light and crispy delicious – a perfect accompaniment to any sweet dessert!)

Yoku Moku, Tokyo: Warm and Molten Dark Chocolate Cake with Fresh Strawberry Sorbet

Of course, since we were already in one of Tokyo’s most popular cafés and dessert places, we weren’t happy with ordering just one dessert…we had to order another! The one on the left is Yoku Moku’s Warm and Molten Dark Chocolate Cake topped with their homemade Fresh Strawberry Sorbet.

By ordering this second dessert, I just wanted to prove my point to the Hubby and my 9 year old son, that indeed, Strawberries and Chocolate are a perfect combination! I taught them how to savor these two desserts “efficiently”; taught them “the trick” – when having Strawberries and Chocolates at the same time, you must eat them alternately, starting with the lighter and fruitier in taste then going to the richer, darker one. 🙂

So that’s exactly what we did…we ate one forkful of the Strawberry Shortcake first, followed by one forkful of the Molten Chocolate Cake, and then refreshed our palates by a forkful of the Strawberry Sorbet… so it’s basically, Strawberry – Chocolate – Strawberry (get it?)  Of course, we repeated the pattern until we finished both desserts – in like 2 minutes flat! And I’m telling you, the Hubby, my son and I were fighting for the last bites of these cakes! No judgments here, but it was definitely something worth fighting for! 🙂

Otto y Mezzo, Hong Kong: Wild Strawberry Mille-feuille 

Loved the perfectly crisp puff pastry here which proved to be the perfect base for the Wild Strawberries and cream! The one beside it is a concoction of Vanilla panna cotta cream topped with some more Wild Strawberries, Strawberry sorbet and then Vanilla meringue.

(On a side note, this restaurant is hailed as the best Italian restaurant outside Italy and is one of only four 3-starred Michelin restaurants in Hong Kong. More about that in my future post.)

 Since we were already in this highly acclaimed restaurant, I thought it might be a good idea to order another dessert platter! And what better pairing with the Strawberry Mille-feuille than this Chocolate Trio dessert made of Dark Chocolate ice cream, Chocolate Creme Brulee and Warm Chocolate Molten Cake (again). Of course, we did the whole Strawberry – Chocolate – Strawberry eating pattern again, to produce the best taste more efficiently! 🙂

Makati Shangrila Hotel, Manila: Strawberry Cheesecake. 

This hotel is widely known in the foodie circle as one of the hotels with the best dessert and pastry team. I’ve tried a lot of their cakes, and this Cheesecake is really one of their best ones.

Bizu, Manila: Rudolph and Romance Cakes

In another birthday dinner that we hosted in the same hotel, we had 3 of my favorite Strawberry – Chocolate desserts. From left to right : Makati Shangrila’s ultra -moist Chocolate Cake, Bizu’s Rudolph, and Bizu’s Romance cake. The hotel’s Chocolate cake has always been a favorite of The Spoiled Mummy, so that’s always present in almost all my events that are held there.

But since I’ve also wanted to try something new, I ordered two of Bizu’s most popular cakes…The Rudolph proved to be a very interesting choice as it is made of a red Chocolate ball filled with a very dense cheesecake inside lying on top of a dark chocolate-hazelnut praline rice crisp.

Then I also ordered Bizu’s Romance cake – just because I think it is one of the most beautiful cakes I’ve ever seen in Manila! Well, let me tell you this – it wasn’t just beautiful, it was very rich too! So if you like your chocolate cake rich and dense, then this is your best bet. It is made of several layers of chocolate ganache for its base and then topped with some of the most beautiful, fresh strawberries. (Honestly, with this cake, I ate more of the strawberries than of the chocolate base!)  I have to say though that they could not have chosen a better name for this Romance cake…look, it’s even heart shaped! How romantic is that? 🙂  This is definitely perfect for Valentine’s day or Anniversaries!

Impressions Maxims, Resorts World Manila: Strawberry Cheesecake from Impressions

This is something worth every calorie too. I love the smoothness of the cheesecake – it’s not too heavy nor is it too light and the sweetness of the Strawberries on top just perfectly complimented the cheesiness of the cake.

For those of you who may not know it yet, Impressions is one of Manila’s newest restaurants that serves excellent French / Fine Dining Cuisine. They are located in the only 6-star hotel in the country, Maxims in Resorts World Manila. Definitely, worth a visit! More on that in my future post.

Impressions Maxims Hotel, Resorts World Manila: Strawberry Shortcake

There are very few Strawberry Shortcakes in Manila that I consider to be good. The other one would have to be the famous home-made Yulo’s Strawberry Shortcake from Forbes Park, and the second one would be this Shortcake from Impressions. I love its presentation too…very traditional, imperfectly perfect, if I may call it that. You can see the beautifully sliced layers of pound cake and sandwiched in between them are Strawberry preserves and fresh whipped cream. On the very top of course are its crowning glory, some good, sliced fresh Strawberries.

Impressions Maxims Hotel, Resorts World Manila: Moist Chocolate Cake

This time, this is an ultra rich Chocolate ganache cake topped with Strawberry preserves. If you prefer the sweeter version of Strawberries (instead of the fresh ones) lying on top of your Chocolate cake, then this would be your perfect choice. 🙂

Caprice, Hong Kong: Wild Strawberries in a Chocolate Basket

Another 3 Michelin starred restaurant that not only provides good food but exceptional service. They know exactly when The Spoiled Mummy’s birthday and wedding anniversary dates are and whenever I’m booked there, they just know what to give me to make my day even more special 🙂 Of course they know it can only be the purest, highest quality of French Dark Chocolate mixed in with some of  the sweetest, freshest Strawberries for me.

Paul Bakery, Singapore: Fresh Strawberry Tarts 

This was good too, perfect with my cup of double espresso!

Some good news about Paul Bakery…heard from the grapevine that this famous French Boulangerie / Patisserie is coming to Manila soon!! I can’t wait to get my hands on their freshly baked breads, delicious cakes and pastries! I will definitely be the first in line when they open! 🙂 Watch out for that here in The Spoiled Mummy!

Sky on 57, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore: Strawberry and Chocolate Dessert Platter

Last but not the least,  another beautifully presented combination of my two favorite things in the world, Strawberries and Chocolates – that simply evoke love and romance. (Yes, I am a romantic at heart! :)) The best one here was the Chocolate pudding on the far left that was topped with some crushed Dark Chocolate biscuits, followed by the Chocolate Hazelnut crispies in the middle. Of course, I ate them alternately with the Strawberry sorbet on the far right. 🙂 Meanwhile, the Marshmallows and the Passion Fruit jelly in the middle proved to be a good break in between the rich Chocolate and the fruity Strawberry sorbet.

Looking at all these delicious – looking photos of my past desserts is just making me crave for my sweets again!  The Spoiled Mummy is now on the lookout for the best Strawberry – Chocolate Dessert in Manila! If you have any suggestions or know where I can find them, please share them with me. I would definitely love to hear from you!