Light chiffon cakes from Patisserie La Famille Atelier Fraicheur (Hong Kong)

I haven't been to Hong Kong in years so it was a nice thing to be back for a short work trip and extended vacation after that. Although most people would be loading up on the usual dim sum, roast meats, cha chan teng fare or Cantonese dishes while in Hong Kong, I made a conscious effort to try different types of cuisines since the city has a lot to offer in terms of variety. To the extent that I was asked - how can you say that you were in HK when you ate so little of the dim sum / roast meat / cha chan teng food? ^__^

One interesting thing I noticed is that, there are lots of nice bakeries and cafes with very Instagrammable desserts which taste good too. I certainly don't enjoy eating food which look nice but don't taste as delicious. And that's good news for someone like me who started to acquire a sweet tooth only when I became a adult. Perhaps it was the stress of working life which made desserts an appealing option for unwinding.

This bakery with a French name may give you the impression that it's some fanciful European brand but it actually hails from Tai Hang, a neighbourhood near to Causeway Bay and is relatively young i.e. founded in 2014. Goes to show that there are also hidden gems even among the local and homegrown brands. There are currently 5 branches at Causeway Bay, ifc Mall on the Hong Kong Island side and Harbour City, Langham Place and Wonderful Worlds of Whampoa on the Kowloon side.

I happened to walk past the ifc Mall branch and was tempted by the visually-appealing cakes in the display. You may be slightly intimidated by the fact that they sell only whole cakes but the smallest size light chiffon cakes here are small enough to be finished by one person (maybe need to split over two days for small eaters). As I was there when they were about to close, there weren't that many options left which probably suggests that their business must be pretty good. Note though that there are different sizes on offer so the bigger ones are definitely more suited for sharing. Depending on the flavours, prices would differ accordingly.

After deliberating for a while, I chose the matcha flavour as shown in this photo which had the right amount of moisture and still maintained its lightness. The chocolate pieces on top went well with the matcha flavour as well. This is probably one of the "lighter" flavours because from their website, there are much "richer" options with lots of cream and fruits on top so you can choose whatever suits your tastes. It's just too bad that this is something which I couldn't bring home so I guess I can only try the other flavours when I visit Hong Kong again. Note that there aren't any dine-in spaces so the only way is to bring this home or to your hotel room to indulge your tastebuds without feeling overloaded at the end.