HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of our friends

Well the holiday season is now over and the doors to my Sweet Studio are reopening to the public this Friday (06.01.12). We will be running a limited cake cabinet for a couple of days as I try to get some new ideas and flavours together. I hope you all had a fantastic time over Christmas and I wish all friends of Burch & Purchese a Happy and healthy 2012.

This year is shaping up to be a very exciting time for myself and my team with the following events already in the pipeline:

• We will be holding dessert degustation dinners at Sweet Studio during certain times of the year, each with a theme or special surprise so keep an eye on this blog, twitter and Facebook for updates.
• A sell out Masterclass during the biggest Melbourne Food & Wine Festival yet
• The publication late in the year of a new book with some of the recipes, tip and tricks from Sweet Studio
• A complete redesign and new look of this blog with more interaction, recipes, photographs and stories
• Reworking of classic recipes and desserts in a new range of desserts in store, look our for new eclairs and choux - could be the next BIG thing?

All this and lots more, so while I get back to the kitchen to prepare for our reopening I hope you will keep an eye on this page and tell your friends about us.

See you all soon at Sweet Studio and have a Happy New Year!! 

2011 Christmas Hampers Now Ready To Order

We are now taking pre orders of our fantastic Burch & Purchese hampers for this coming Christmas. The collection of sweet treats make this a truly memorable gift for that special someone! We have two tiers of hamper on offer this year and each one will have a signed certificate from Darren Purchese explaining the contents and a uses for some of the products.

ORDER YOUR CHRISTMAS HAMPERS NOW

email - info@burchandpurchese.com 

phone - 03 9827 7060

or in store - 647 Chapel Street, South Yarra, 3141

AVAILABLE FOR COLLECTION FROM THE 1st OF DECEMBER 2011

Our trademark B&P gift boxes are crammed packed full of our most delicious and decadent creations

THE SWEET STUDIO CHRISTMAS GIFT BOX $120

CITY HONEY HONEYCOMB – 100 g

Try our wonderful homemade honeycomb made with honey from our very own roof top bees.

BURCH & PURCHESE GOLD BULLION BARS – PKT OF 6

Our famous salted caramel encased in dark Spanish chocolate finished with golden lustre

PISTACHIO, LEMON & WHITE CHOCOLATE PERSUADERS – PKT OF 12

The name says it all…this is a deliciously persuasive biscuit.

STRAWBERRY, MINT & WHITE CHOCOLATE RUBBLE – 150 g

Freeze dried strawberry & mint in Spanish white chocolate pieces….Christmas is here.

CANDIED SEEDS, NUTS & COCOA NIBS – 180 g

Delicious to eat on their own…..outstanding with fruit and yoghurt….’off the charts’ in salads

RASPBERRY & DRAMBUIE JAM – 250 g

Last summers raspberries with a generous tipple of Drambuie make the perfect holiday spread

CHRISTMAS PUDDING – 500 g

Our secret recipe pudding is going to turn heads this year

SALTED CARAMEL 250 g

One little jar – one hundred uses! Heat gently for a spectacular caramel sauce, roll through ice cream for an instant sundae or smear between layers of your favorite chocolate cake

CANDIED GINGER & DARK CHOCOLATE BAR – 100 g

Generous chunks of crystallised ginger

THE SWEET STUDIO EXTRAVAGAZA $160

CITY HONEY HONEYCOMB – 100 g

Try our wonderful homemade honeycomb made with honey from our very own roof top bees.

BURCH & PURCHESE GOLD BULLION BARS – PKT OF 6

Our famous salted caramel encased in dark Spanish chocolate finished with golden lustre

PISTACHIO, LEMON & WHITE CHOCOLATE PERSUADERS – PKT OF 12

The name says it all…this is a deliciously persuasive biscuit.

STRAWBERRY, MINT & WHITE CHOCOLATE RUBBLE – 150 g

Freeze dried strawberry & mint in Spanish white chocolate pieces….Christmas is here.

CANDIED SEEDS, NUTS & COCOA NIBS – 180 g

Delicious to eat on their own…..outstanding with fruit and yoghurt….’off the charts’ in salads

POPCORN & HONEYCOMB RUBBLE – 15O g

This scrumptious concoction is bound in milk chocolate…BEWARE it’s wickedly addictive.

RASPBERRY & DRAMBUIE JAM – 250 g

Last summers raspberries with a generous tipple of Drambuie make the perfect holiday spread

SWEET STUDIO BRITTLE – 175 g

Generous slabs od toffee & nut brittle dipped I dark chocolate

CHRISTMAS PUDDING – 500 g

Our secret recipe pudding is going to turn heads this year

SALTED CARAMEL 250 g

One little jar – one hundred uses! Heat gently for a spectacular caramel sauce, roll through ice cream for an instant sundae or smear between layers of your favorite chocolate cake

CANDIED GINGER & DARK CHOCOLATE BAR – 100 g

Generous chunks of crystallised ginger

SWEET STUDIO LOLLIPOPS x 2

White & dark chocolate lollipops studded with surprises

Darren Takes Part In Masterchef/Second Bite Dinner

Darren with George, Matt, Gary and the Victorian Premier Hon. Ted Baillieu

Darren's dessert

Visit www.secondbite.org for more info

Presenting the dessert course

85% of the dessert course was food saved from waste

All guests took away a gift from Sweet Studio

Main course is served

The menu

I was very flattered to be asked to take part in a prestigious fundraising dinner last month for a charity called Second Bite. Second bite are an organisation that reclaims and receives donations of food destined for landfill and they then pack up and distribute this to organisations that help the less fortunate. You can find out more about Second Bite by clicking here www.secondbite.org/about_us/

The dinner was held at the Sacred Heart mission on Grey St, St.Kilda here in Melbourne. The mission are one of the grateful recipients of perfectly good food donated by the Second Bite team and it provided the perfect setting for this event.

Masterchef Australia's Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan were on board to take part and they asked of my assistance for the dessert course. The canapés were designed by Matt, the first course cooked by George and his team from The Press Club and main was cooked by Gary Mehigan and his team from Fenix. The brief from Second Bite was to ensure that as much food as possible cooked on the evening was food destined for landfill, this was to highlight the obscene amount of perfectly good food that goes to waste every year. I am happy to say that we filled the brief and a staggering 85% of all of the food served on the night would have gone to waste.

On a personal level, I was extremely impressed with the work that Second Bite do and the work that St.Kilda's Sacred Heart mission do to help those less fortunate than us and I am happy to say that 90% of the food I used in the dessert was saved from Second Bite.

I produced a dessert that seemed to be well received by the guests including the Victorian Premier himself and his charming wife. The dessert was Banana, Caramelised White Chocolate, Avocado, Coffee and Passionfruit. I must say thanks to my chocolate sponsors Chocovic for the generous donation of chocolate that only had two weeks left on the best before date.

The night produced a stunning result for Second Bite and enough money was raised to provide 200,000 meals to the local community. Here at Burch & Purchese we now donate any of our unsold cakes to Second Bite and we are confident that someone deserving appreciates our efforts.

Thanks to the following for helping make the night a success

George, Gary & Matt
Sacred Heart Mission St.Kilda - www.sacredheartmission.org/
Peter Jones Events (especially Eliza) - www.pjse.com.au/
Bright Young Things - www.brightyoungthings.net.au/
Donna Le Page Communications    
Chocovic - www.cocoaalliance.com/
Rachelle Davey Photography

Tickets On Sale Tuesday - Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2012

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the always brilliant Melbourne Food & Wine Festival in March next year and to coincide with the release of presenters and tickets tomorrow (Tuesday 18th October), we were invited to an intimate gathering of friends. To see what happened and the big surprise given to us click on the video above.

Don't forget to check out the line up for the festival which is released tomorrow and look out for some amazing events from us here at Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio. We can't wait for March 2012 and pretty soon you'll see why!

Visit http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/ tomorrow for more details.

'In The Mix' - New Recipe Book From Thermomix Featuring Darren Purchese

Monday 10th of October was the launch of the highly anticipated new book from Thermomix written by the extremely talented Dani Valent. The book features recipes from some of the best chefs here in Australia and worldwide and we have had a sneak peak and can say it is fantastic.

Here at Sweet Studio we use multiple Thermomix machines daily and could not live without them. To emphasise our continued support with Thermomix Darren Purchese happily contributed a dessert for the book along with an impressive roll call of chefs, food writers and bloggers.

Some of the chefs that have contributed are Melbourne's Ray Capaldi, George Calombaris, Matt Wilkinson and our own B&P manager extraordinaire Cath Claringbold.

International chefs include our Spanish friends Ramon Morato and Paco Roncero, UK chefs Sat Bains & James Petrie and loads more.

To get your hands on a copy it is retailing form $60 and available from www.thermomix.com.au or by calling 1800 004 838

Latest News & Products From Sweet Studio

Our NEW! Spring Racing Carnival 12 Dessert Hamper Pack

We have been working on new eclair flavours

Cocktail size desserts for weddings and other celebrations

Pigging out on your birthday

NEW! Dessert: Avocado, Mint, Cucumber, Apple, Yoghurt & Lime

Our new raspberry eclair

First, apologies for the absence of a post for the last few weeks. It has been very busy at Sweet Studio with lots of massive projects on the go for us.

We have been working on some new flavours for the cake cabinet and taking lots of new orders for the impending wedding season. We have also been working on a fantastic new hamper for Christmas and details will be posted here soon and to our database.

Spring is here! and we are excited by the change in season.  This years Spring Racing Carnival here in Melbourne is such a great festival and to mark the event we have come up with the ultimate accessory to be seen with at the races. Our 12 dessert hamper pack is sure to make the other racegoers green with envy. We are now taking orders for these packs and require just 24 hours notice to have them ready in time for you. Flavours are: banana, caramelised white chocolate & passion fruit; raspberry, lychee, honey & nut; violet, white chocolate, pine nut & lemon and; dark chocolate, pear & hazelnut. Email info@burchandpurchese.com for enquiries or orders.

We have been in talks as well with Melbourne Food & Wine Festival  about a couple of really exciting events during next years highly anticipated 20th Anniversary festival. The details will be revealed next month here and on the Melbourne Food & Wine site and the tickets are also due for release to the public in October.

In all things are going great here on Chapel Street and we hope you can find the time to pop down and try one of our new eclairs or our new creation pictured above, (second from bottom).

Thanks and see you soon.

We now stock Fresh As. retail packs

After so many of our customers have enquired about the availability of freeze dried fruits we are now pleased to announce that we stock a retail range from the excellent Fresh As. We have been using these unique ingredients in our dessert range for some time and find them an amazing addition to our signature textured creations. If you want to try your hand at 'pimping up your pud' then pop down to Chapel Street and we will be happy to help.
Fresh As. http://fresh-as.com/