Patisseries can be found across Jeddah, and range from the very good to the truly awful. But sometimes it can be quite hard to tell the good from the bad; confectioners and patisseries across town have perfected the art of disguise.
Cream cakes topped with exotic fruits attract unwary customers like the Sirens of Homer’s “Odyssey.”
On the surface they look good, but ultimately takers will be sorely disappointed. In other words, these cakes are a huge waste of calories.
However, the good news is there are hidden gems across town; needles in the haystack so to speak.
Some you local readers are probably familiar with Bon Bon and Lenotre. We looked recently at Si Bon.
Now there is another that should be considered in the same league: Caramel, a patisserie that has branches across Jeddah.
The Rawdah branch of Caramel sits in the same row of shops that include Wakame and other confectioners such as Ganache and Chocolate Corner.
Of these shops, Caramel has history. It has been around for quite some time and still remains one of the better cake shops in town. Their oldest branch remains beside Abuzinadah Hospital, a Tahliya and Rawdah Branch followed shortly after.
This gourmet cake shop specializes in everything, from tiny sweet macaroon like biscuits to cakes small and large.
Varieties include ingredients such as pistachio, almonds and hazelnut in addition to the usual varieties.
The smaller, single-serving cakes are great for events where you might want a sampler of different types.
Caramel’s Rawdah location is decorated in pink and black. Interior design aside, it’s what’s behind the glass that really impresses. Small sugar dusted chocolates soon caught our attention.
“Those are the soft chocolates,” said the attendant. “They’re very popular, French tres bons.”
Our curiosity aroused, he proceeded to offer us a sample. Sampling is a nice touch, and a strategy that went on to sell a whole box of the things!
We went on to select a variety of small single-serving cakes to take home and share with the family. These range from SR9 to SR12. We picked up a chocolate fondant, vanilla, pistachio, chocolate, and caramel cakes, two mille-feuille (one caramel, one sugar coated), and a raspberry cheesecake.
We also ordered a large date cake with a tub of caramel sauce (75 SR), along with the box of the soft chocolates (tres bons) we had sampled (650g is 75 SR).
Once home we set to work on the cakes, aiming to sample them all.
Of these the chocolate fondant really impressed, 30 seconds in the microwave and the cake was piping hot, a thick gooey chocolate sauce at its center, simply wonderful!
Of course no visit to Caramel is complete without trying the Caramel cake, and not surprisingly this also received the thumbs up with a powerful kick of burnt sugar in between layers of caramel cream and soft sponge cake.
However our favorite was the Caramel Mille-feuille, a crispy wafer-thin biscuit covered in layers of custard cream and thick caramel sauce, the caramel version was even more impressive than its sugar-dusted alternative.
After eating so many cakes, we hardly had any room for the date cake, saving this fruity treat for another occasion!
There’s far more available at Caramel than we can manage to fit in here, but don’t take our word for it, check it out yourself!
Location: Rawdah Street at the first traffic light from Kubri Murabbah.
Tel: 02-668-8527 and 02-668-8529