Look at it. Isn't it beautiful? It may look like a bridal bouquet, but few brides would walk down the aisle carrying an enormous chocolate orange brownie cheesecake topped with strawberries, blueberries and edible flowers. They'd eat it first, like any sensible person.
This wonderful creation is on show at the lovely Bill's Produce store in Brighton. Like just about everything else in this unique produce/café/deli/greengrocer/organic wine store, it just sits there saying "eat me".
Bill's has struck upon a rare truth – that good food is beautiful, and the more natural it is, the more beautiful it is. This cake, and others like it, is completely untraditional in its use of fruit, flowers and foliage, but it's one of those leaps that make you realise tradition, in this case, is conservative, boring and artificial.
Bill Collison, originally a greengrocer, opened the first Bill's Produce Store in Lewes, East Sussex in 2001, with Brighton following in 2005.
The place is a joy. You walk in past vibrant fruits and vegetables (including a first, for me, of purple rocket) and lots of food-is-decor shelves of olive oils, cheeses, pasta and chocolates into a relaxed school-room style caff that dishes up everything from a fish finger sandwich to a beef and Harvey's Ale casserole with honey roast parsnips and leek and mustard mash.
The only possible thing to do is to stand in the middle and shop your way out.
Bill's Produce Store, 100 North Road, Brighton. Tel: 01273 692894
How do you eat it though? It looks too large to me and you'd end up dropping bits all over your tie. When it comes to cakes, too many people think more is more.
Posted by: Hobgoblin | Tuesday, 29 April 2008 at 09:31 AM
Hi,
I recently got married and we had our reception there - it was brilliant. Everything they made was delicious - I even had one guest raving to me about the potato salad over two weeks after the event. In particular, we opted not for one wedding cake, but a groaning table of the things - chocolate and raspberry loaves, dali-esque sprawls of pavlova laden with passion fruits, chocolate straws dusted with silver...I don't even really like desert, but it was amazing.
One small downside- booking a whole wedding reception may actually be the only way to get a table.
Posted by: Tim Wild | Monday, 12 May 2008 at 03:10 PM