When I was a child and dreaming of cakes and chocolates (which happened quite a lot as we weren’t often given dessert), I used to draw pictures of shops with displays laden with cakes. And so when I reach Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio in Melbourne’s South Yarra, I am rather excited to see something close to my childhood vision of heaven in real life.
As soon as I walk in I’m offered some fresh marshmallows – today’s flavour is licorice and I hesitate briefly as I am not a big licorice eater. However, the licorice flavour is present but not overpowering. Even the other customers that walk in afterwards that declare that they don’t eat licorice enjoy these.
The front room is filled with a girly Willy Wonka-esque selection of goodies. Under the glass on the left are large cakes and next to those are the smaller counterparts in about eight varieties. A freezer holds ice creams in tubs and on sticks, the latter coated in chocolate and items are given elaborate and detailed descriptions and involve words like “explosive” and “exaggerated.” Oh and I should add, the down lights make photographing a challenge so I apologise for the photos.
Lollipops made out of chocolate and cake pops sit in foam displays that resemble cakes.
On the right are ready to buy items like biscuits, chocolate bars and another staff member brings out some gold bullion bars, dusted with gold lustre powder and stamped Credit Suisse. The thin dark chocolate shell filled with a flowing salted caramel filling. The display marks them as “delicate” and they are although they’re worth buying and just scoffing down in the store.
Freeze dried flavours dominate and the chocolate bars have intriguing flavours to them – choosing is a hard decision. I’m recommended some items and I have grand plans of taking these home to Sydney. They package the cakes well taping the items to the bottom of a box and also sticking descriptions to the lid so that you know what you are eating. The descriptions are long and elaborate that it certainly helps.
On the wall to the right are the ready bagged items which are made up of dessert ingredients for your inner pastry chef to play with. These include items like puffed quinoa and malted orange crumble; raspberry and white chocolate clay; salted oat and ginger crumble.
The chocolate counterpart is sold by the bar in the form of puffed quinoa and malted orange crumble caramelised white chocolate bar. There are also jams like spicy pineapple jam with chilli . Other items like “explosive banana crumble” look decidedly covetable and are made up of banana milk chocolate with marshmallow and popping candy and come with a sign to “approach with caution.”
Decision time: what to purchase? I decide on three desserts, with an attempt to take them back to Sydney the next morning. They explain that they should arrive ok as long as they go straight from the fridge to the plane to my mouth (I added that last bit). All individual cakes and cups are $9 each.
For good measure and for gifts, I buy a puffed quinoa and malted orange caramelised white chocolate bar for $12 which is actually a dark caramel in colour – it’s not cheap but it’s so unusual that I had to buy it. To this I add a bag of twelve pistachio, lemon and white chocolate persuaders which are buttery biscuits which are for $12.50 for my mother.
Raspberry, white chocolate, honey lychee $9
I couldn’t wait to try these and I try the first dessert. The ingredient list is long and consists of white chocolate and raspberry mousse, raspberry and lychee jelly, muesli and honey nut sponge, raspberry & hibiscus jam, raspberry compote, lychees, exaggerated raspberry cream and white chocolate velvet spray (which was sprayed on top of the white chocolate mousse dome). The challenge with these cups is getting a spoonful of a good cross section and this one wasn’t so hard although sometimes you would end up with a lot of lychee jelly in large pieces or sometimes a lot of raspberry. The overall flavour with the muesli was like a raspberry and yogurt muesli and the first thing I thought of was breakfast.
Explosive milk chocolate and raspberry $9
The components list reads: milk chocolate and raspberry mousse, exaggerated raspberry cream, milk chocolate Sacher sponge, fresh raspberry compote, chocolate royal biscuit, raspberry marshmallow, chocolate coated pop rocks and mirror chocolate glaze. Whilst this was heavy in the chocolate, there were a bit too many crumbs. Trying to get a scoop out of all of these layers resulted in crumbs going everywhere and the first few mouthfuls were made of sandy chocolate crumbs making up almost a inch on top.
Once you burrowed underneath the flavour and the popping sensation was good with the predominant flavour of chocolate and raspberry. I’m not sure where the chocolate mirror glaze is, it usually is a glossy, reflective icing finish on chocolate cakes.
Smoked white chocolate, coffee, aniseed, lemon $9
This read: smoked white chocolate cream, crunchy almond meringue, coffee buttercream, coffee sponge, aniseed syrup, brownie sponge, lemon curd, dehydrated choc rock. The aniseed aroma and flavour is strong in this cake and it is like an aniseed version of an opera cake with many thin layers with buttercream, coffee and sponge. This has the added flavours of the aniseed and a layer of firm jellied lemon curd and different types of sponges, the most interesting being the bottom layer of moist sponge with ground up coffee beans. Bizarrely, I like eating this cake layer by layer better perhaps trying to avoid the strong aniseed flavour as it does tend to overwhelm. Topping it off is a layer of smoked white chocolate ganache, jelly and dehydrated chocolate rocks which have a salty coffee bite to them.
This was my little present to Mr NQN, a caramelised white chocolate bar with the puffed quinoa flakes. The caramelised white chocolate is even sweeter than white chocolate and the puffed quinoa flakes and malted orange are unusual addition. I think this is unusual and rich and best eat in small portions-either because of its sweetness, or to make it last longer, eater’s choice 
So tell me Dear Reader, are you a desserts person or would you rather have savoury? And when you travel, do you buy gifts for people?
Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio
647 Chapel Street, South Yarra, VIC 3141
Tel: +61 (03)9827 7060
Open 10am-6:30pm. Closed Mondays
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51 Comments | Add your own
What a fabulous studio – my idea of heaven!
Well Lorraine, it may not kill me to know this bit of paradise is over 9000 mi. from my house, but I must say, I’m feeling a bit discouraged.
Seriously though, I appreciate each and every one of your mouth-watering photos! And don’t even get me started on the ‘explosive’ milk chocolate and raspberry dessert. Oh, dear.
i like the idea of white chocolate clay–good for cake decorating. Also, the spicy pineapple chilli jam–spicy jam tarts!!
What a lovely shop. I’m sure I would have a good time there. I love licorice but I’ve never had a licorice flavoured marshmallow. I always try to buy gifts when I go away xx
This is one of our favourite sweet shops in Melbourne. We have a Christmas guide planned to be published in about a week on this too. Glad you managed a visit!
Re the cylinder desserts, we found it easier to sample the full spectrum if we carefully tipped out its contents.
Btw, we are heading to your city early next year, any tips re dessert places? Thank you kindly, we will ensure to acknowledge you for the recs if we visit
I’m a desserts person all the way but have had to ease off recently! I love buying little gifts for people when I travel and this looks like the most perfect place to do it! I can’t wait to go there and check it out!
This sweet heaven actually reminds me of my own drawings of cakes and sweets displays (I do them even now when I am bored at school… Shhhhhh
Your choices of dessert were magnificent and I would happily devour them all!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I am a desserts person, I try to avoid such attractions! I’ve been meaning to try caramelising white choc – thanks for the reminder.
That store is the end to any diet. Those cakes look great!
How could anyone not like sweets???? I just don’t understand. And these look lovely.
Both savory and sweet, I must admit. And yes, I love buying presents when I seen something I know someone dear to me would love.
I’d heard of Burch and Purchese from Australian Masterchef. It’s as amazing looking place, I wish we had one here. GG
I will indulge in very, very good desserts, but not very often. I’d rather a glass of wine instead
We used to buy presents for people when we travel, but it got too cumbersome and now with the weight restrictions makes it impossible.
But we did bring Canadian maple syrup gifts to the apartment owners from whom we rented in Barcelona and Paris and to the chef in Lyon!
I love the weird combinations and the lengthy explanations
I’d love a job in that studio, you could really let your imagination soar!
I always buy presents- usually food related, and if it’s sweet or chocolate, I’m quite happy to eke it out over a period of time.
I am American, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York – AND I have never been to Australia or anywhere close to it. I love your blog – makes me feel like I’m actually visiting these wonderful places myself. Many of the words you use, even though English, are quite foreign to me, such as “persuaders.” What are they and why are they called that? Anyone?
Mmm, that all looks delicious! And actually, the individual desserts are quite well-priced for something so elaborate.
Hi Joyce! Thank you for the super kind comment and hi to Brooklyn! To be honest, I’ve never heard of the word “persuaders” used to describe biscuits or cookies before or indeed food. Perhaps they decided to give them a cute name
YAY Lorraine you made it to B&P last time you were here
and it seems like you enjoyed it!
it’s one of my favourite dessert places in Melbourne but hahaha I’m so guilty of not blogging about it yet! Oops!
And you don’t need to ask me
You know I’m a dessert person!!!
Once I was traveling with a group of friends and one remarked ‘I wish I’d stayed home. I want to be one the ones getting all your presents!’ I’m constantly on the look out for presents when I’m away. It’s a strange idea when you think about it really.
Definitely a dessert person here. What a weird and wonderful assortment of baking ingredients.
I have the biggest sweet tooth it’s really quite bad! Bordering on sugar addiction
I love buying treats for other people so that they can try tasty unusual morsels too!
YES YES YES
Murder by chocolate. That is what this is. I am dead, gone to chocolatey heaven.
Mnnnnnnnnnnnn.
For someone who isn’t really a dessert person I had to stop myself from getting in my car and driving straight to South Yarra. Must be the photography and beautiful writing xo
A very, very attractive shop for those with a sweet tooth
! Of course yours truly would have walked straight past 
! Oh, yes, buy lots and lots of presents for others when travelling: methinks more for others than for myself – being on the trip is oft ‘present’enough 
!
Oh I love Burch & Purchese so much. I’ve only been a couple of times since I don’t visit the area much, but would love to go more.
Saying that though, I actually have more of a savoury tooth – so I would be nibbling on that chocolate for quite a while!
It’s like Willy Wonka’s in real life!
Without sounding sacrilegious, am not a dessert person per se,
But viewing all sort of wonderful food delights MAKE me day!
Whimsically creative and innovative desserts are getting, TRUE!
Yes! if I see something “perfect”, LOVE surprising people when return home from holidays too!
I love Burch & Purchese! The caramelised white chocolate bar on its own (without quinoa) is amazing.
OMG, that’s like my idea of heaven. I think you’d have to drag me out of there before I wanted one of everything. The sweets are so beautifully put together that you can really see the care they put into it all.
Lorraine, you always post amazing photos of places that you go…everything looks so tempting and so yummie!
Thanks for the post and have a great week
I’m definitely a desserts person. They look just exquisite! Hmm, I buy gifts if it is an overseas holiday..or I’ll usually just buy little presents for the bf.
Gutted I missed out on B&P on my last visit! It looks amazing. Absolute perfection
What a super cute place! I am definitely a dessert person and love to give food as gifts
I have no idea how I would choose!
I visited here in April – and bought jam and muesli home to Adelaide. They were both fabulous. 8 year old didn’t like the cake pops,but I surely did. Very adult flavours and visually gorgeous.
oh my god I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOVED this place when I was in Melbourne recently. My cousin and I just hung around eating the samples that they kept bringing out hahahaha… they make such delicious stuff… (and yes, I did actually buy a few things, I’m not a TOTALLY cheap Asian)
I’ve heard much about B&P. To be honest I’ve never heard about them until those who have posted about it on instagram. What a gorgeous looking studio and I really do see myself going wild in there
Gosh this would also be my idea of heaven! All those treats
Wow I want to work there so I can bake those amazing treats!
How stunning, standard and style like we find in Paris, but then Melbourne always claims to be a little Paris.
Yum. ‘Nuff said.
Wow!! Does this place give Zumbo a run for his money? Hmm, probably not!! I’d still eat everything in the shop though. Must be the way you describe the food that you eat, Lorraine, it’s so vivid that it feels like I’m getting a taste as well
Love sweets and adore savoury. Buying gifts when I’m travelling is one of the highlights of my whole trip because getting souvenirs and sharing them is one of my favourite things to do 
I’m definitely a dessert person all the way! This looks absolutely fabulous, I have to remember this place if I ever visit Melbourne.
I also always buy gifts for family and friends whenever I am travelling. Food gifts are the best!
Savoury is the way to go for me.
I don’t mind desserts but if I have to choose between the two, I’ll choose savoury every time.
And I do like to buy things for people when travelling – it is a happy feeling to watch them like and enjoy their gifts
I’m convinced that this is the most happiest place. I’m a sweet tooth but also love savory treats (ok, a piggy, lol). The store is so fabulous. I’d have hard times going out from that place.
I wanted to like Burch and Purchese more than I did when I visited last year, but even that doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm to return in future. I think I just have to steer away from the overly-sweet-mousse-focused creations in future… and go for the caramelised white chocolate
I visited B&P last year and fell in love immediately. I saw Darren Purchese in the kitchen working away and he said hello to me. I nearly fell over
I’m such a fangirl… Love the freeze dried fruit powders too.
Oh gosh, the salted caramel gold bars are right up there on my favourite things ever list.
I’ll be heading down to Melbourne next right in the middle of summer, so eating them in the store might be the only option for me this time!
It’s not often you see a Fragile notice in a chocolate shop! You’ve piqued my interest – have been meaning to visit Burch & Purchese for a while now; and that Smoked white chocolate, coffee and aniseed cake has my name on it. Yum.
now I want dessert for dinner!
I’ve only been to this shop once and it’s probably a good thing I live so far away. Terrific post about a favourite shop.
I love this place. I think I like the ready made “extras” ingredients section even more than the full blown desserts as they are so inspirational and can make vanilla ice-cream or a plain tea cake exciting again. Yum!
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