Monday, October 10, 2016

Zumbo Treats from Zumbo's Just Desserts


Zumbo's Just Desserts was a TV reality show about every day people making patisserie, being judged by Rachel Khoo and the master himself, Adriano Zumbo. It wasn't scintillating viewing - until towards the end, when there were fewer contestants and more crazy Zumbo tests, I found it quite slow and either skipped it or just watched bits and pieces while I channel surfed.

However, as you can imagine in a show featuring Adriano Zumbo, there were some amazing Zumbo creations that were set as Zumbo challenges in the elimination contests.  Miniature versions of these challenge creations were sold in Zumbo stores from Friday to Sunday following the show on which they were featured.   It was too expensive to buy all of them - these special creations cost from $11 to $15 a pop - but I couldn't resist trying a few when I was in the vicinity of a Zumbo store.  I wasn't greedy - I shared every single one of them with a friend.  That is why all of my photos were taken out and about - no styling here, and for one of them, I cut it in half with the cover off a magazine as that was the best I had.

At the top of this post is my personal favourite, the Golden Ducky, on cuteness factor alone.  This one comprised steamed gingerbread sponge, passionfruit peanut caramel, honeycomb mousse, peanut crumble sable, peanut butter cleam, passionfruit gel and honeycomb - oh, and a chocolate golden ducky!  It wasn't as impressive as the full-sized one on the show which bubbled with coconut bubbles created with dry ice, but it was still pretty impressive.

For week one of the show, I tried two of the three desserts. 



This one was called "Just a Stones Throw Away".  It was comprised of yuzu mousse, caramel hazelnut bavaroise, hazelnut dacquoise, yuzu caramel cremeux, salted mandarin caramel crème and mandarin gel.  These were the layers:


My second week one dessert was the Frankenzumbo:



This one comprised lemon tart, baked into a brownie, topped with a raspberry jam filled donut, all baked inside a pavlova, topped with vanilla chantilly and fresh strawberries, passionfruit and a macaron shell:


This one was pretty hard to cut in half, even with a plastic knife on a park bench, so it looks a little messy, but you get the idea.

And of course, I had to get the finale dessert, the Sugar & Spice: 



The fault in the glaze was not there in the shop - wherever it touched the box, the glaze came off.  This was comprised of brown sugar sponge, black tea muscovado brulee, 5 sugar mousse, coconut sugar & tonka rice pudding, maple caramel, soft honey nougat, spiced pear mousse, burnt butter panela, honey pear compote and a white glaze with a cinnamon friable pastry:


It was as light as a feather to eat - hoping that means it had no calories!  The chocolate petals and butterfly on top were a nice touch.

All of these desserts were pretty tasty, but as I said, I loved the Golden Ducky best because it was just so darn cute.

Hats off to Adriano Zumbo, who is amazingly creative to come up with all of these wacky, attractive and delicious desserts.  I don't have the patience to make such things, let alone anything else (umm, like actual talent), so it was fun to experience a slice of the Zumbo's Just Desserts action through Zumbo's stores.  

6 comments:

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Ooh they do look rather special but they are quite expensive too. I guess a restaurant dessert is around that price but you get to eat it in. But perhaps they aren't as detailed too! I have never watched the show.

2paw said...

Thanks for sharing the real life tiny desserts. I tried to watch the show, but it was just so slow and I think as a TV presenter Zumbo should keep to the kitchen where he has amazing skills!! I love the sound of the sugar and spice cake. Yum.

Johanna GGG said...

that ducky is so cute - I saw a bit of the kids party which was fun but otherwise it passed me by - had had enough of commercial tv after the olympics - though i would have loved to have tried some of the these desserts - maybe one day I will get to zumbos

Mardi Michels said...

Oh my word! I love all things Zumbo but yes they are not cheap. Thanks for letting me live vicariously through you!

Sassy said...

Could you post the recipes especially for the frankenzumbo

Cakelaw said...

Hi Sassy, unfortunately they never shared the recipes.