Sweet Memories: Gourmet Desserts to Remind You of Days Gone By

The Marina’s Victoria BC: Rise and Shine Dessert

Your mom always told you it’s the most important meal of the day, so why shouldn’t it be turned into a dessert? This sunny dish is a playful plate of strawberry-rhubarb pop tarts with strawberry cream cheese icing that you can drizzle yourself, just like the beloved toaster strudels of childhood. This sweet and tangy treat is served with a maple bacon ice cream placed on top of oatmeal crisps, and some orange juice jellies. Best of all? Everything in this dish is made in-house, giving it a gourmet spin on home cooked goodness like mom used to make.
The Marina Restaurant: 1327 Beach Dr Victoria, BC (250) 598-8555 www.marinarestaurant.com

Ulla’s Chocolate Cake with Rice Crispy Crunch, Aerated Chocolate and Dulce de Leche cream

The flavours and textures of this next dessert will take your taste buds to a nostalgic time. Of course moist chocolate cake was always hard to resist as a kid, but who can forget those light and bubbly Aero bars and the always-popular crunchy rice crispy treats? Even the plating of this dish may bring you back to your younger years playing in the mud through the deconstructed display sprinkled with chocolate dirt. And while playing in the mud may have gotten you in some trouble, this gluten free and completely organic dessert will keep your gut, and conscience, in the clear.
Ulla Restaurant: 509 Fisgard St Victoria, BC (250) 590-8795 www.ulla.ca

Aura’s Carmelia Valhrona Chocolate Bar

This rich dish proves that you can do childhood favourites in a refined way: textured layers of crunch, marshmallow and caramel milk chocolate make up this housemade chocolate bar, sprayed with a delicate chocolate layer to seal in the deliciousness within. The dessert is served with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream as well as pop rocks – proof that sophistication can still be fun.
Aura Restaurant: 680 Montreal St Laurel Point Inn, Victoria, BC (250) 414-6739 www.aurarestaurant.ca 

Photo credit: David McIlvride, Spatula Media

With summer finally arriving, you may start to hear the ice cream truck jingle cruising down your street as kids flock to the siren song to indulge in cool sidewalk snacks. But if you prefer your icy indulgence in a more refined environment, check out RauDZ Restaurant, which is also using Valhrona chocolate to create a house-made fudgesicle, accompanied by crunchy chocolate pearls.  Made with heavy cream, farm fresh eggs, and “lots of love,” RauDZ owner and head chef Rod Butters says their fudgesicles are a throwback to the frozen treats his Great Aunt Minnie from Melfort, Sask. used to make. Served in pint-sized form as part of a chocolate trio plate, patrons love these old-fashioned flashbacks, as well as their old-fashioned price at just $4.50 an order.

RauDZ Regional Table: 1560 Water St Kelowna, BC (250) 868-8805 www.raudz.com

photo credit Chef Salimian

DIVA at the MET’s Oreo

Chef Katie Siegel, of DIVA at the MET is also paying homage to her favourite home-cook, with their Oreo dessert composed of vanilla mouse, a white cocoa butter shell, placed on a small mound of vanilla pudding, with a chocolate and coffee cookie crumble. Accompanying this is aerated chocolate (like the house made Aero bar of Ulla), cassis sorbet, and sugar glass. Chef Siegel says this tribute to her mother reflects on “the follies of childhood”, where she would watch enviously as other kids enjoyed pre-packaged treats such as Oreos, while she had to eat home-made cookies from scratch. Looking back, Chef Siegel admits how much better her mom’s cookies were, and says that with the Oreo dessert, she “hoped to create something from scratch based on the flavours that so many of us remember from childhood that hopefully taste almost as good as [her] Mom’s cookies.”

DIVA at the MET Restaurant and Bar: 645 Howe St Vancouver, BC (604) 602-7788 www.metropolitan.com/diva