Meeting Esther at Exquise Patisserie

Recently my mum and her friend stumbled upon a new patisserie which opened around three months ago in Fremantle. After chatting to the owner for ages and bringing home some divine baked goods, she managed to convince me that a trip to the port suburb was in order.

Beverage wise you have five senses coffee beans in use, plus some beautiful teas and fresh juices. On our visit my mum ordered some chrysanthemum tea while I chose a watermelon, apple, ginger and lemon juice. They both went down an absolute treat, my juice refreshing and cool. They were the perfect accompaniment for the slices of cake we ordered.

Mum’s mango cheesecake was smooth and lightly sweet; the bottom crumbly and the mango hit bright but not overpowering. It might surprise you that I’m actually not the biggest mango fan, but even I could appreciate the flavouring in this cake. I hear they also do a guava version sometimes!

My cake slice of choice is enigmatically titled ‘chocolate souffle’. As Esther puts the plate down in front of me, she smiles and tells me affectionately that people say it’s like eating a cake form of ice-cream. Consider my curiosity piqued!

It looks dark and dense, but the texture is actually so light! It’s almost like a mousse cake, with a lovely rich and bitter ganache on the outside. While I can appreciate chocolate cake, it’s never my first choice, but I loved this. The slices of nuts underneath offer the perfect crunch and savoury contrast to each bite.

The patisserie was intermittently busy, but in the quiet periods we got the chance to chat to Esther more and photograph some of the beautiful pastries she makes each day. I’ve included photos below (many of which are things we ended up buying and taking home with us). My favourites flavour wise were definitely the almond croissant and the bacon and gruyere cheese quiche.

I mentioned before that there are some phenomenal marshmallows made here at Exquise. Funnily enough, my boy’s nickname for me is ‘mallow’ so everyone is always buying me marshmallows. I’ve come to love them (ALOT) and handmade ones are my weakness.

The marshmallows here are made with fruit purees with no added colours. They’re soft and so unbelievably fluffy with bursts of flavour coming through. There’s raspberry, mango, passionfruit, blueberry, strawberry, black currant and more. I definitely recommend trying these if you pay Exquise a visit!