Good Eats - Hong Kong Edition - Phoenix Sweets (Ep. 2)

The lighting is pretty off since the place is very well lit but I think the white walls made my camera get confused and dim all my photos a tad.

On the rare occasion that I didn't have anything to do on a lovely Friday, I was able to go out and explore a couple of cafes I had on my bucket list of places to go before I leave Hong Kong. One of these places I stopped by was Phoenix Sweets - partially on accident - but I was in the Central and Sheung Wan area and found PMQ. PMQ is a sort of like a shopping plaza but not really since it's basically just a building filled with lots of hipster type small shops that are either dessert/sweet shops or ridiculously overpriced clothing shops or random small useless item boutiques (you get my point.. basically places you take pictures of but don't actually buy anything from besides the foodies). Anyways, Phoenix Sweets drew me in right from the start with the elaborately decorated cakes all across the shop and the super cute pastel coloring. They can do personalized cakes which you can order in stores or online at their website (definitely go look at their site if you're looking for cakes for a wedding or some sort of party because they are freaking amazing looking). On display, they have beautifully decorated cupcakes and the lady was super nice and friendly and helped me pick out the Rose Earl Grey cupcake. Honestly my current pictures don't do it any justice because I walked around the entire day before getting back home and taking the photos so the frosting sort of dropped BUT I think it still tasted quite nice. I actually had difficulty getting it out of the container which was like a good and bad thing. The lady put my cupcake in this nice plastic cup with a lid and their logo on it which was super cute in my opinion and a really smart way to hold the cupcake to prevent it from getting squashed or anything. The only problem was actually getting out my cupcake because, as you can see from the photos, I sort of ruined the frosting while trying to get it out T__T I mean there's no other way other than to shake the cup/tap it gently to sort of wiggle the cupcake out and.. well you get the point hand + cupcake coming out of cup = not so pleasant. 

The Rainbow Vanilla is supposed to be a special that is not always around but it seemed pretty standard in flavor and just different looking so I decided to go with the Earl Grey :)

Sooo cute although a bit pricey but I love the packaging and detail.

Admittedly I had high hopes for the Rose Earl Grey cupcake. I mean first off it cost $40 which is pretty pricey for a cupcake (about $6 US dollars!) but it also just looked very nice and the lady said it was one of the more popular flavors. I liked the bottom cake part of the cupcake as it was very moist and I could definitely taste the Earl Grey with hints of rose and it wasn't too sweet at all. Sometimes cupcake bottoms are too sweet or they're not sweet enough but this was the perfect middle. The frosting however... wasn't as amazing. It wasn't exactly a smooth texture in my mouth and felt more grainy like I could feel the sugar particles in the frosting, but then the frosting actually wasn't even very sweet, like not sweet at all! I suppose you can say that it's a good thing for those of you who aren't too fond of overly sweet treats but I do feel like the frosting could have had a bit more flavor. I could taste a little bit of rose but that was really it. I ended up scraping off most of the frosting because I just couldn't get over the strange grainy-ness of it but the cupcake part still tasted delicious!

Taken inside Holly Brown Cafe earlier in the day so the frosting is a bit higher haha!

Despite the slight mishap with the frosting,  I had a pleasant experience at Phoenix Sweets and would recommend you check it out if you are in the Central area and stop by PMQ. There are a lot of other sweet shops (that I'll be sharing in later episodes!) but make sure you leave room to stop by Phoenix Sweets. The decor and presentation of the shop is nicely put together creating a pleasant atmosphere and there are two small tables (though outdoors) for customers to sit and enjoy their sweet buys. The lady who helped me out was absolutely nice despite my horrendous Cantonese and she even helped tape up a box I had got from another shop that I had accidentally torn. The shop is definitely a bit pricey but if it's just a one-time thing, it doesn't hurt to try their cupcakes ;P They also have gluten free ice cream for the hotter days which apparently is pretty good and is also sold at the PMQ night market. Though I'm not particularly fond of the frosting on my cupcake, I did appreciate the "not-too-sweet" aspect of the cupcake and the way they were able to incorporate the earl grey and the rose without it being too much or too little.