Those who follow foodies on instagram will no doubt have noticed the abundance of photos from the recently opened Icinghill in Fortitude Valley. Boasting quite a range of Asian style cakes (such as the watermelon strawberry cake and matcha crepe cake), I made firm plans to try it out last weekend.
Like bugs drawn to a lamp, we were captivated by the cakes on offer. They had a large variety on display, including fruity options like apple cheesecake and strawberry watermelon cake, as well as opera cake and matcha crepe cake.
The usual assortment of cafe style drinks were available. We ordered at the counter and got a loyalty card which had a free drink after the eighth purchase, which isn't the most generous I've seen, but still more generous than most.
After a couple of minutes, our drinks and cakes came out.
Between the three of us, we had an iced chai latte, a latte and an iced matcha latte. We all found our drinks to be very mild in taste, to the point of being quite bland. I found the matcha to be a particularly watery and unfortunately not even milky or creamy enough for my taste.
The cake which initially drew us to go so soon was of course the Watermelon Strawberry Cake. Having now tried them at Black Star Pastry as well as Sweet Treats, I can definitely say that whilst this one looked quite pretty, it was not as fragrant as the other ones I had previously tried, nor was the cake as soft. What the fruits lacked in freshness though, was doubly made up for by way of sugar.
We also had a Lemon and Yuzu Meringue Tart. The lemon taste was quite light, and the meringue was very runny, whilst the base was more hard than crumbly. Having said that, I do have to say that it did look very appealing though.
My pick of the afternoon was the black sesame chiffon cake (I really wanted the Matcha Crepe cake, but decided against having a matcha drink and cake). Given the fact it had real bits of ground black sesame in it, I wasn't expecting a particularly smooth texture, but as a minimum a chiffon cake needs to be soft and fluffy. This one had a texture more akin to a sponge cake, but more coarse due to the sesame in the mix, which didn't appeal to me as much. The cream was also the hardened butter cream rather than fresh cream which I would have preferred.
Taste: 5/10
Value: 5/10
Service: 7/10
Environment: 7/10
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