Cafe Berlin is located on the eastern end of Darling Street in Balmain and is renowned for it’s big breakfasts and light lunches – but the extravagant display of home-made cakes in their window is what makes them a specialty cake shop. If you love an afternoon banter with friends over coffee and cake, this is the place to be.
They have a decadent array of home-made cakes, scones, cupcakes and sweet slices available for eat-in or takeaway. Despite the selection, I always end up ordering their bread and butter pudding. It’s always good to bring some friends along so you can try each others cakes!
Cafe Berlin is a hit with the locals in Balmain, and my all-time favourite is the oh-so-indulgent bread and butter pudding. To make it a notch more decadent, I always order a side of hot butterscotch sauce to go with it. The sauce actually belongs to the sticky date pudding, but what the heck!
They are always generous with the butterscotch sauce; needless to say, so am I! It is part of the ritual to lovingly bathe the pudding in sauce. Not to do so is a crime in my books! It is dense, moist, and has fat, juicy raisins in all the right places that just explode in your mouth, releasing a barrage of buttery, sugarry euphoria.
A faithful companion to my bread and butter pudding will have to be a steaming bowl of hot chocolate (extra chocolate please). The cocoa powder they use at cafe Berlin is dark and bitter which compliments the pudding very well.
I also got a chance to sample the Tiramisu and strawberry cheesecake my tea-time companions were having. The Tiramisu had a good combination of textures – unlike alot of Tiramisus, this one wasn’t too damp. The crushed almond biscotti just melts in your mouth.
The Strawberry Cheesecake was deliciously rich and heavy. The cheese was dense and solid, and had a strong milky flavour that worked in harmony with the strawberry concentrate. Probably a good idea to go slowly on this one! A sip of coffee between bites does help!
As you can see, the cake portions are very generous at Cafe Berlin. Definitely worth the $7.50! Cafe Berlin is located at 249 Darling Street, Balmain 2041.