Colombo’s got a lot of great home bakers. There are the big names like Monique and Sita, but then there’s also the ones you stumble upon at a birthday when someone’s like wow who made that cake?
I recently came across a box of lavender coloured French macarons at my aunt’s house. French macarons are something of an acquired taste I think, but they’ve become very fashionable. They’re seen as rather luxurious and sexy – especially if they’re from Ladurée. Remember Kirsten Dunst eating all those macarons in ‘Marie Antoinette’? Blair Waldorf in ‘Gossip Girl’ (not that we’ve ever watched it)? All from Ladurée.
So given the grand reputation of this tiny confection, I was pretty surprised to find a box of them lying in my aunt’s house. Where did they come from? Do you even get them in Sri Lanka?
Apparently you do.
They’d been ordered from a home bakery called Munchkin, run by Dushinka Subramaniam. We’re not huge fans of the French macaron, but they looked so pretty that we gave her a call and ordered ourselves a box of 10, which included an assortment of vanilla, chocolate and pistachio flavours.
They’re crazy expensive at Rs. 1410 for just 10 macarons, but this is somewhat on par with international prices – macarons are expensive everywhere. I guess that’s what makes them so fashionable. And they were tasty, although the texture wasn’t perfect (apparently this is quite hard to get right – the top should give a light crunch before sinking into the softness of the centre). But they’d make for a trendy little treat when you want to impress the people you have over for coffee. And also very nice gifts.
We’ve had desserts from Munchkin before, they’re excellent. Definitely worth a call. You can order cakes, cupcakes (red velvet, also very much in vogue), muffins, cookies whoopie pies, etc. Check the facebook page for more details.
Oh and we love their ‘Let them eat cake’ tagline.
