Sparkle Cupcakery Gets Ever So Sexy

Leading up to the release of Sex and The City 2, and available right through June, Sparkle Cupcakery has let loose the sexiest cupcakes to hit Sydney City. A strawberry pink velvet cupcake with chunks of real berry, coated in cream cheese frosting and, in true Carrie Bradshaw style, decorated with a silver stiletto!

It’s hard to believe that once upon a time cupcakes were merely the food of children’s birthday parties and the kid’s treat when mum stopped in for a coffee. Now, this has all changed thanks to the like of Sparkle, the swish Cupcakery on Foveaux Street, Surry Hills.

Bored of the usual chocolate and vanilla varieties popular in New York, Sparkle owner, Kathryn, treats Sydney to far more adventurous flavours such as “Green Tea & Bubbles”, a maccha cake filled with tapioca bubbles and lime frosting, and “Lavender & Honey” a soft scented lavender cake with honey frosting. With their more mature selection and fully licensed premises, Sparkle Cupcakery has redefined cupcakes for the adult market.

When asked which her favourite was, Kathryn maintained that it changed daily based on her mood but she always loves the coconut and the white chocolate and strawberry; especially when they’re a couple of minutes out of the oven - hot and without frosting. “I’m not a frosting girl” she insists.

The Sparkle Kathryn says was inspired by Sydney itself. She’d been travelling for 10 years and returned to the sparkle of Sydney Harbour and the mardi gras, “Sydney is a sparkly city” she says. At Sparkle, the sparkle is carried through from the décor, with its bright lights and reflective surfaces and the cupcake patties, a metallic silver, to the shine in your eyes as you bite into a Sparkle cupcake for that much deserved sugar hit.

Available in both the standard size and increasingly popular mini-cupcake, each Sparkle cupcake is marked by a coloured dot to identify its flavour. Of the sixteen flavours that Sparkle produces, 12 are available each day. I was lucky enough to sample the white chocolate and strawberry, and the pure sparkle cupcakes.

White Choc & Strawberry is a sure treat; a sweet white chocolate cupcake with slivers of fresh strawberry baked through the cake. The cupcake is topped with a generous layer of icing and the telltale pink dot. Yum! Sometimes cupcakes, especially larger ones like Sparkle’s standard size, can be slightly dry in the cake department but the strawberry pieces provide that extra moisture.

Pure Sparkle is a vanilla cupcake, once again topped with a thick layer of icing and this time, a silver spot. The vanilla flavour is not too overpowering, which is nice and the cupcake works as simple treat when you’re not in the mood for anything too fancy when it comes to flavour.

Sparkle Cupcakery allows you to enjoy their cupcakes in store, at cafe style tables – a warmer environment than say Cupcakes on Pitt offers. Further, you can purchase a hot beverage or a glass of bubbly to complement your four bite indulgence. In this sense, Sparkle Cupcakery is less of a take-away cupcake store and more of a cupcake break experience.

Lastly, Sparkle offers a bake class! This is truly something unique to the cupcakeries that have popped up all over Sydney in recent years. You’re invited in to Sparkle kitchens (a behind the scenes look at how they’re made) for a group cooking class where you’ll leave with your own batch of freshly baked cupcakes.

Where

132 Foveaux St, Surry Hills

Pricing

Classic - Standard Sized Cupcakes: $4.50 each, $25.00 ½ dozen, $50.00 dozen

Mini Me - Mini Cupcakes: $2.50 each, $15.00 ½ dozen, $30.00 dozen

Cupcake baking classes: 2.5 hours $89.00 adults, $65.00 kids

Which includes the baking, a short bubbles break, an icing class, your own box of cupcakes and a Sparkle apron.

Individuals can join one of Sparkle’s already organised themed classes (Mothers Day, Valentine’s Day, SATC 2 etc) or can do a private party for a minimum of eight people. The area can take up to 20 people. Private classes are great for companies or a bit of girly fun.

Stanley Street Station

Hearing a lot of great things about this place, I've been meaning to try it since it recently opened.

A few months ago we were on the same premises hoping to try JAR, a modern Australian restaurant I'd read some great reviews about. Unfortunately the restaurant had been taken over and was now an Indian place (a cuisine I'm not too fond of). Now back in the Modern Australian cuisine, Stanley Street Station had great appeal with its sharing dishes, mains, cocktails and board games. I thought I'd be in for a treat.

Unfortunately they were having an off night and what I hope can be put down to teething problems. We booked for 7:30 on Saturday night and arrived promptly. The waitress seemed confused and looked around for a table before telling us where she thought we could sit. The table was in front of the main door (there are two doors which creates a little confusion when entering the restaurant in the first place). The main door has no handle from the outside, so you push to enter. This however means that you can't close the door behind you when leaving. It also gives the illusion that the door is spring loaded and if entering, the door will close by itself. It won't. This resulted in our party yoyoing throughout the meal to shut the door and avoid the cool draft.

After seating us, the waitress zoomed off without asking if we'd like any drinks or even leaving any menus. Already the night was nose diving. I hate to say it didn't get much better.

Fifteen minutes later we finally got the attention of the waitress and called her over. She proceeded to pull out her pad to take our orders. Obviously she didn't care to look up at us or she would have seen we still didn't have any menus! We had to state the obvious and she hastily apologised and zoomed off to find us some. She returned with two menus (we had a table of four) and told us she'd have to "find more". She later returned with three more (a total of five menus for four of us...). Again her numbers seemed to be off as she poured water for three. The fourth glass was on the opposite side of the table, so to make life easier it was pushed towards the others. She ignored this and left again.

Reading great things about Stanley Street's varied menu, I was looking forward to seeing it (not spoiling the surprise by reading it on their website). Well, I was disappointed again. The menu was not only split into strange sections (placing chips under "smalls" instead of having a 'sides' section) but was also very limited. So much so that it took us a fair amount of time not to decide between the great dishes, which is usually the case, but to actually find one dish we wanted to order each. I was also surprised to note there wasn't a single chicken dish on the menu. Quite strange as this is often a popular choice. Perhaps I am nitpicking now but I believe that menus should have an element of consistency and this one did not, referring to both "steak fries" and "potato frites" - aren't these the same thing??

We elected to share the crispy spicy squid with mango coulis -$14.00 as an entrée. The spice was distributed over two or three pieces of squid, leaving the rest bland and the mango coulis, whilst very nice, did not go at all with the flavour of the squid. The sweet mango and salty squid flavours clashed rather badly.
When it came to ordering mains, one of our party enquired as to which "grilled vegetables" were featured in the penne. The waitress was unsure, which is fine when there's a large menu but shouldn't be the case with a menu this small. She asked the other waitress who didn't know either, before asking the chef. FYI it was eggplant, zucchini and capsicum. I was fine with this and so ordered the penne - $22.00. After a 30 minute wait, the mains arrived.

For a grilled vegetable pasta there weren't many grilled vegetables. What was there was sitting on top rather than mixed through. The prawns, whilst lovely and meaty couldn't really be called "garlic prawns" and probably shouldn't have been garlic prawns in the first place as the tomato flavour was quite strong anyway. Apart from this, the pasta was tasty and filling and the rocket and slices of parmesan were lovely.Deciding against the pasta due to a dislike of zucchini, my guest chose the steak - a 300g New Yorker for $24.00. She commented that she would have preferred a sirloin or fillet steak but was happy with her choice. When the steak arrived it looked great. Nicely marinated and served with chips (but note no sauce or none offered to go with the chips). She was not given a steak knife either and so was stuck carving into her New Yorker with a standard knife. This made things a little difficult, especially considering the steak was very chewy. Without a steak knife, it was harder to cut many smaller pieces so she was left chewing away at large long lasting mouthfuls. She wasn't too impressed! Her partner didn't think his own meal was much better (sampling both and commenting that of the 300g steak, 15g was tender!) He ordered the Roast Atlantic salmon with puy lentils, vege broth and balsamic jus - $24.00. What he was served was a very small piece of salmon (bear in mind he's a personal trainer so rather large but health conscious). The salmon, being small and very bland didn't quite cut it for him as a meal. He also doesn't like rocket. Poor guy!
My partner ordered the braised beef cheek, pea & shitake pie with sauerkraut and Saskia beer beetroot jam for $20.00. Our table oohed and ahed as pies were brought out to other tables. Their crust popped out beautifully over the rims of the pots and looked flakey and delicious. Needless to say, my poor partner looked as deflated as his pie crust when his own pie arrived!

The pie at the table next to us

My partner's pie

The pie too, was apparently bland with only two pieces of beef inside and the rest mainly peas. He did comment however that the beetroot was very nice.

Overall, the restaurant was very noisy and though the waitress was constantly apologetic about neglecting our table, the service was not good. The tables were metal (the sort of thing you'd find outside a cafe) which created a bit of a sterile environment

When the bill arrived, we noticed that the pad they'd taken the order on (and that the bill was on) still had the JAR header!

Stanley Street Station had great potential. Unfortunately none of this was evident at dinner on Saturday night. The place was busy - a good thing. But the left hand side of the restaurant looked over-crowded and the right hand side, where we were seated was often neglected. Our table, facing the kitchen was lit up and then dimmed every few minutes as the bench, where the chefs placed ready dishes had overhanging lights that would turn on when dishes were ready to go out. It would turn off again when it was empty. This seemed to change the lighting on our entire side of the restaurant!

I won't be back to Stanley Street Station but I think in a few months, when they sort themselves out, and perhaps improve their menu and throw down some tablecloths, it may just be a good restaurant!

Do you prefer going to new restaurants or restaurants that have successfully stayed open a few months/years?

African Queen

African cuisine is new to me so I'm intrigued when invited out to African Queen in Marrickville for a birthday dinner.

It wasn't a birthday of someone I knew personally so I was unsure if we had a restaurant booking or how many people were coming. When we arrived at 7pm it was evident the host was equally unaware! The restaurant was possibly the smallest I've seen with around eight tables of two-four spread around the counter.

We were seated by the very friendly host (and only person in the restaurant at this point) and handed menus. I was curious as to why there was pen writing next to some dishes saying 'couscous' or '1'. I later found out that the host took orders using one of the menus and wrote down how many of each dish was required next to the name of the dish itself! Interesting idea but perhaps a felt tip marker would be a smarter choice as this can be wiped off!

The rest of our party arrived between 7 and 7:30 and we ordered at 7:30. I had read reviews of African Queen, being unfamiliar with how an African restaurant worked (whether dishes were individually ordered or shared). Through my research I learnt that this place was known for it's excellent food but recognised as having slow service. I did not expect it to be this slow! Our entrées did not arrive until after 9pm!

After much confusion with the menu (dishes were explained in terms of what they were served with but not what they actually were ie chicken, lamb, fish etc) my partner and I ordered the Ontoko Wings (chicken wings) for an entrée and the chicken soup and safari beef for mains with a side of Foofoo.

The rest of the party ordered the mixed entrée (enough for five). Five mixed entrees arrived with our chicken wings! Whilst my partner loved the chicken wings, I took the wing without the lumps of sauce and so felt it left a lot to be desired in the taste department. The savoury banana on the mixed entrée (the excess of plates meant there was enough for me to try!) was yummy and the sweet potato was fab!



It wasn't until after 10pm that our main courses arrived. Unfortunately each plate arrived separately with large gaps in the middle. By the time most of us had finished eating, the last plate still hadn't arrived. So the slow service reviews were not kidding! The chicken soup was filled with chicken pieces which was great but the vegetables (broccoli and carrot) sitting on top were stone cold, which led me to believe they came from the freezer. The soup itself was mild and tasted wonderful with a bit of foofoo. Three or four spoonfuls was enough to get over it though; so perhaps sharing mains is the best option for African cuisine.



The safari beef arrived later and it was at this point I realised that African cuisine was not for me. I was somewhat unimpressed with the 'house speciality'. The dish consisted of small pieces of beef and some mixed vegetables sitting on a bed of couscous. The flavour wasn't amazing. Again, I had had enough of it after two or so spoons.



By this point it was quite late for a Thursday evening and we headed off without dessert. I can now say I've sampled African cuisine. Perhaps I shan't have it again but luckily for me there are a multitude of other cuisines to sample!