MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM BURCH & PURCHESE!!!!

We just wanted to say MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of our readers, customers, pastry lovers and supporters!! It has been a massive push to the end but we are working hard to open a SPECTACULAR shop in the first part of 2011. Plans are going well and we are refining and improving on our product every day.
Here are some images of our seasonal work including our white chocolate snowmen, our modern take on 'Yule Log', our chocolate Christmas trees and some of our images from last year. We will post once more in 2010 in between Christmas & New Year but for now have a fantastic time and eat lots of yummy things, MERRY CHRISTMAS & lots of love Darren & Ian xxxx

Latest Wedding Cake Creation 12.12.10

Wow! What a busy month, they don't call it the silly season for nothing. We have been flat out with orders for our chocolate celebration cakes and here is a shot of one of the latest for a wedding between a lovely couple John & Helen. A summery theme of lemon, vanilla and pistachio was chosen by the happy couple. We have layered Heilala vanilla & white chocolate mousse with fresh silky lemon curd and a crumbly moist Iranian pistachio sponge. It was sprayed with our signature velvet chocolate spray and finished with one of our 'avant garde' chocolate pieces. We hope John & Helen had a fantastic day, which we are sure was fantastic as it was held at Hellenic Republic (yum!), and we wish them all of the best for the future.
We will post some festive desserts and chocolate pieces that we have been working on in our next instalment, but until then, enjoy the season.

Official Melbourne Food & Wine Festival Guide OUT NOW!!

The official Melbourne Food & Wine Festival guide is out now! Loads of fantastic foodie treats for everyone to enjoy we believe that there are over 250 delicious events - so get planning and booking. Of course Burch & Purchese are featured in the guide with our two events with Bompas & Parr & Der Raum. These events are sure to sell out VERY quickly so if you are interested in 'Sweet Architextural' with the Jellymongers or in 'Reinterpreting Dessert' with the Der Raum then click on the links below.
We hope to see you at our events and hope you get to enjoy some of the world class food offerings at the festival in March 2011.

'Sweet Architextural' with international Jellymongers, Bompas & Parr

'Reinterpreting Dessert' with cocktail kings, Der Raum

View the full festival guide here!!!!

It's Official!! Burch & Purchese To Open Early 2011

We are delighted to announce today very special news to all of our readers. 'Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio' will have it's first retail outlet in South Yarra, Melbourne opening early 2011. We have been working hard for a number of years, refining our concept and searching for a site and we are very pleased to say that we are not far away from finally opening the doors.
You may have seen snippets in the Australian press recently so this is to confirm the stories are true and we look forward to sharing our passion for contemporary dessert designs with the residents of Melbourne.
Keep checking here for regular updates and follow us on our Twitter & Facebook pages.

The Australian 23.11.10

Wedding Cake 14.11.10

Phew! Another weekend and another few cakes, this one was really fun. It was commissioned for a lovely couple who were married on Sunday, they designed the flavours and a few of the visual element and we put it together for them. The cake consisted of 'Tarakan' & 'Nayarit' chocolates from Chocovic made into a mousse. It also had raspberry mayonnaise, tarragon crunchy meringue, brownie and Murray River salted caramel. We also produce a specially designed antique chocolate piece for the top of the cake and each guest had a mini version of the main cake to prevent all that unattractive cake cutting that so often happens. We wish the couple a happy life and look forward to making more delicious creations such as these. Thanks to Kate from Bright Young things and the owners of the Emerald Peacock in the city for all of their help.

Bright Young Things   http://www.brightyoungthings.net.au/
The Emerald Peacock  http://www.theemeraldpeacock.com/

Alcoholic Architecture by Bompas & Parr

Bompas & Parr Jelly Film - See who's coming to town!!

Event Information! ARCHITEXTURAL: A Collaboration with Bompas & Parr

We are VERY excited to announce our latest collaboration for 2011. International 'Jellymongers' Bompas & Parr are bringing their eccentric skills to Melbourne next year as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.
We have organised an exclusive 'one night only' event in The Gershwin Room at the famous Espy Hotel in St.Kilda. The event is being named 'ARCHITEXTURAL' and pairs the extravagant architectural jelly making skills of Bompas & Parr with the multi textured cuisine of Burch & Purchese.
If you don't know much about the 'Jellymongers' then check out their excellent website www.jellymongers.co.uk and view some of the amazing events they have worked on in the last couple of years.
These have included an artisanal chewing gum factory in a shopping centre, a walk in cocktail of vaporised gin & tonic, a Futuristic Aerobanquet and a 'sugar cave' for London Fashion Week.
The night at the Espy promises to be a fantastic match between two creative forces and will include drinks, laughs, jellies, music and BIG SURPRISES! We can't tell you too much as we don't want to spoil the night but we can tell you that famous & iconic Melbourne structures may be recreated out of jelly and that Burch & Purchese will provide some specially designed sweet dishes throughout the night.
Music & entertainment is on the cards as are special guest MC's and exclusive goodies to take home.

Tickets are now available, and if you want to be part of this unique and entertaining night which is sure to be a highlight of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2011, you should email cath@burchandpurchese.com for more details. We hope you decide to join us on the 10th March 2011 and we will update you on announcements on this and other events here as they happen.

Wedding Cake 06.11.10

We have been very busy with our unique designer wedding cakes lately. It seems we are doing at least 2 events a week at the moment which is great fun and the feedback we have had has been sensational. The creation above was an adaptation of one of our mousse cakes we created a couple of months back. The original was a smooth and silky white chocolate and Heilala vanilla mousse on top of set lemon cream, pistachio custard and crunchy green tea meringue. This was the basis for the clients choice of wedding cake with all of the original elements added plus a few extra. The cake was garnished with one of our signature white chocolate pieces and a few green tea macaroons. We wish the clients well for the future and hope they enjoyed the cake as much as we did making it.

Event Information! Der Raum vs Burch & Purchese - Cocktail/Dessert Degustation

Matthew Bax - The Man Behind Der Raum

This Event In Conjunction With The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2011

We Will Be Showcasing 5 New Desserts At Der Raum

We are very excited to announce our first collaboration for 2011 with news of two nights at the amazing Der Raum cocktail bar here in Melbourne. Der Raum has established itself as one of the most exciting and innovative bars in the world with a list of awards to rival any bar. Matthew Bax and his head barman Matthew Rees and their team will present cocktail matching to 5 new Burch & Purchese creations as part of two nights of cocktail matching during next years Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. The event is being billed as Der Raum vs. Burch & Purchese and will be held at Der Raum on the 7th & 8th March 2011. We are thrilled to be working closely with such a talented team at Der Raum and this announcement is the first in a series of exciting collaborations and developments in our business planned for 2011. Tickets will be available soon from Der Raum and the information will be on their website at http://www.derraum.com.au/

Latest Shots From Burch & Purchese

Classic Opera Cake

We love revisiting old classics every now and again, we are working on a new version of this for a special event later on this year.

Part of the decoration for the latest chocolate celebration cake produced for a client.

The cake was as spectacular on the inside as out with many contrasting layers of texture & flavour.

Back to the classics with our Battenburg cake made with freeze dried raspberry & lemon.

Some cool salted caramel & pistachio popcorn to garnish a new dessert.

Getting ready for an outside function we picked up. Fun to do these chocolate 'bombs'.

We are bursting with excitement at the moment as we are waiting to announce the latest developments in our business. We really want to let everyone know our news but have to wait until an official press release is sent out. So keep coming back and we will let you in on the latest as soon as possible. We also have two fantastic collaborations with two international talents that we will let you know about in the next couple of weeks. Sorry to leave you hanging but we will update you on here, our Facebook page and by following Darren Purchese on twitter. Cheers and have a great week.

Visit To William Curley London

On the way home from our recent trip to Madrid we stopped of at London, the city where we first made our name in pastry. There are many fantastic food store, markets, restaurant and chocolate shops and it was great to drop in to an old friend and mentor Chef William Curley at his second outlet in Belgravia. William has among other things been the pastry chef of Marco Pierre White, Raymond Blanc and Pierre Koffman but it was during the time that he was the executive pastry chef at The Savoy Hotel that we first met. William has an unrivalled knowledge of pastry and chocolate and has been awarded UK chocolatier of the year in the past four years. We learnt so much from William during our time at the Savoy and he has been a great friend since. We dropped in to catch up and William gave us some valuable advice for our first business and also some amazing chocolate and pastry items to take away. William's wife Suzue, is also a very talented pastry chef and together this pastry shop/dessert bar in the centre of London is a must visit. William's original shop is still in Richmond and is also well worth the detour, the patisserie and chocolate works are as good as you will find anywhere in the world. Check out William's website and blog from the links below and pop in if you get the chance.

William Curley         http://www.williamcurley.co.uk/engine/shop/index.html

William's Blog         http://www.williamcurley.co.uk/engine/shop/page/Curley+Blog

Madrid Tales 8 - Last Day & Coming Up!!

Beautiful fit out at this smart Madrid chocolate shop.

Large selection of chocolate bars in dozens of flavours.

Hand dipped pralines.

Plenty of selection.

Cacao Sampaka in Madrid.

Packaging is superb and the store neat and tidy.

Large selection of Champagnes, Sherries, Ports and Sauternes for sale.

Probably the best beer in the world?

The general strike in Spain and austerity strikes across Europe gave us an unexpected extra day in Madrid. This gave us the opportunity to visit the Madrid branch of Cacao Sampaka, we visited the Barcelona branch last year and love the brand. The store is fantastic, and has a large selection of chocolate items, alcohols, books and houses a smart cafe. Cacao Sampaka is located at Calle de Orellana, 4 28004 and is well worth a visit. Tomorrow we return to London on business and we will be catching up with talented individuals in the world of cuisine. We will let you know who they are and how it goes in our next post, but for now it is time for a last beer in Spain. What better than the special edition Estrella on which chef Ferran Adria contributed! Saludas Madrid, see you next year!!  

Cacao Sampaka  http://www.cacaosampaka.com/

Estrella Cerveza  http://www.estrelladamminedit.com/es/index.html