Sweet as spots for Valentine’s Day in Wellington
February 13, 2019
Valentine’s Day. It can be sweet. Or sickly sweet, depending on your relationship status. But here at Wellington On a Plate, we feel Valentine’s Day is a day to show love in all its shapes and forms - platonic, familial or romantic. If anything, it’s really just an excuse to indulge your sweet tooth.
Here’s our list of some of Wellington’s best sweet as spots to hit up this Valentine’s Day, whether you’re looking for sweets for your sweet, friends, parents, neighbours, or just for yourself (the best reason of all).
Lashings - Two words: Brownie Bar. If you haven’t been here yet, please rearrange your priorities. Jackie Lee is the UK patisserie chef who has made Eva Street the home of Lashings. Dash up the stairs, grab a box and customise your selection, like the peanut butter and raspberry jam brownie (our faves), featuring ingredients from laneway neighbours, Fix & Fogg and Wellington Chocolate Factory. Lashings also does a mean as sticky bun, if you can tear your eyes away from the brownie selection long enough to pop a couple of those in your eco-carry bag.
Louis Sergeant - A word of warning. You won’t want to immediately dig into your patisserie at Louis Sergeant. Too pretty. Each one is a work of art and oh-so-insta-worthy; you’ll need at least five minutes just to admire the craftsmanship of your cake, macaron or biscuit. Take your friends and indulge in Marie Antoinette, make believe ‘Let them eat cake!’ high tea. (One is actually called the Marie Antoinette, so it’s not too far a stretch.)
Sweet Release Cake & Treats - Ahem. What was that? Of course desserts vegans can eat desserts. And at Sweet Release Cake and Treats on Willis St you’ll find vegans and non-vegans (and the gluten-free) flocking here for cakes, slices, hot chocolates and milkshakes in flavours the vegan cynical could never have imagined - Oreo Cookies & Cream, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Banoffie and Salted Caramel to name a few. Grab two for one treats all week long between 3-4pm. Share or hoard them all for your brilliant self.
French Cancan - Who said you need to fly to Paris for the prettiest and most authentic of patisseries when you can pop down to Riddiford St. in Newtown and into French Cancan. The treats here are the creations of Cancan’s very own two-star Michelin chef-patissier, Eric Hausser. You’ll find your eyes are bigger than your stomach, so give in, and grab a selection of eclairs, croissants, macarons, cakes and tartlets in eye-popping jewel and pastel colours. It’s the real thing right here in Wellington, and you don’t even have to update your passport. C’est si bon!
Sugar Flour - Open every weekend, Sugar Flour in Kilbirnie is the home sweet home of patisserie and Blumenthal-trained chef (as in, Heston), Maxine Scheckter. So expect to see some sculpturally beautiful tarts, cakes, meringues, mille-feuille, and more, made with seasonal, fresh fruits, crunchy, textural toppings from nuts to burnt sugar to toasted oats, and edible flowers. There’s often a surprise here and there, in the form of jellies in delicate half-cup meringue shells and strawberry pots, housing fairytale-esque, edible toadstools. This Valentine’s Day, Sugar Flour has a special heart-shaped pastry - a shiny, red mousse heart in strawberry or stone fruit (both gluten free!) for that special one.
Tomboy - Big cakes, little cakes, the most show-stoppingest cakes you’ve ever seen? YES. Tomboy’s cakes, loaves, doughnuts and cakes-in-vegan-renditions are like sculptures with fruit, flowers and other pretty, edible things artfully scattered over perfectly iced surfaces. Also on offer are a range of salty treats - charcuterie and/or cheese platters to turn heads (or hearts, if your Valentine is wooed by savoury treats instead of sweet).
Sixes & Sevens - Expect a cabinet full of plump, cakey treats. But what will really make you press your nose up against the glass cabinet are the doughnuts filled to the point of overflowing with the most drool-worthy flavour combos - salted caramel, fresh berries, chocolate and peanut butter ... they change every day, and we challenge you to select just one. If you can, you are much stronger than we are.
Sweet Bakery & Cakery- Grab a box of the mini cupcakes and one of their fanciful milkshakes (which you can customise will all your favourite trimmings) to wash them down. Sweet Bakery has a ridiculously long list of cupcake flavours that’ll make your head spin with delightful indecision. On top of that, they have two bakeries in Cuba St. and Karori, filled with cabinets full of cakes, slices, cookies, brownies and donuts (for Donut Friday!).
Sweet as, Wellington. And Happy Valentine’s Day!