Darlinghurst Blog: Food: Strawberry Cream

The Blogger website that hosts My Darling Darlinghurst was down for most of last week, which meant I couldn't add any new posts. Then my telecommunications company failed me and I was left without mobile telephone or internet access for almost 24 hours from Friday to Saturday. 

It was a very strange experience and made me realise how heavily I rely on my mobile phone and internet access, and also how much I am addicted to blogging. 

So what have I been doing since my last post on Wednesday? I have been here, here and here. And I also popped into Strawberry Cream.

I have been meaning to blog about Strawberry Cream for months, because it is one of my favourite Darlinghurst cafes and I have been going there since it opened about five years ago. I was first attracted to it because it is one of the few Victoria Street cafes that the sun reaches, due to the fact that it is located across the road from the low-lying St John's Church. It is always a good spot to catch some warmth on cold winter days, so when the temperature dropped last week and I desperately needed some vitamin D, I went straight to Strawberry Cream. 

There was a time in early 2010 when I developed a dangerous addiction to cake. Cake, cake, cake: it was all I could think about for three months and Strawberry Cream became my twice-weekly dealer. There are dozens of different cake, cream and chocolate confections in Strawberry Cream's glass display cabinet and I have tried every single one of them, such was my addiction.

There's the signature Strawberry Cream, Strawberry Mousse ($7.20), which I ate in one sitting:

The towering Japonaise ($9.90) that I couldn't finish and gave to a friend:

The decadent St Moritz ($9.90), which I ate over three days:

Macaroons, which Ruby once served for tea:

Petit Fours, which are handy for dinner parties:

The Princess Cake of which I could only mange to eat half:

The Pyramid Cake that I ate straight from the box:

And the Mango Mousse:

The man behind the cakes is baker Geoffrey Reid, who also employs one other chef to help him create this sugar-laden output each day. I think they start work at about 4am or some crazy hour and then work through until about 2pm. These kinds of hours would make me rather snappy I think, but Reid is one of the most friendly shop-keepers in Darlinghurst and is always up for a chat. If you push him a bit, he might even divulge some good Darlinghurst gossip, of which I am always rather fond. 

Reid also subscribes to The Daily Telegraph and The Australian newspapers, so if I don't want to buy the hefty weekend editions (so much paper waste for one person), I simply sidle on into Strawberry Cream to read them over a bowl of hot chocolate. The coffee at Strawberry Cream is good too, but I prefer it when it's made by Fiona, who works the afternoon-evening shift. She is one of the nicest people in Darlinghurst too and has been living here for years. 

My other favourite Strawberry Cream treat is what I call the hangover croissant, which features a delicious fattening filling of ham and cheese and bechamel sauce. There's two of them in the photograph below, next to the focaccias. Yum, I wish I had one now. 

 

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Strawberry Cream

336 Victoria Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 9356 3122