Just Desserts

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5 J u s t D e s s e r t s

THE MOST POPULAR DISH ON THE MENU IS OFTEN THE FINAL ONE – DESSERT. HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULD MAKE SURE PUDDING LOOKS AS GOOD AS IT TASTES.

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1. TKSH9256615 Schonwald Shiro white bowl 149mm. 2. TKSH9252230 Schonwald Shiro white platter coupe oval – 300mm x 194mm. 3. TKSH925181Schonwald Shiro white lid for cup café au lait – bowl. 4. TKSH9251326 Schonwald Shiro 260mm coupe plate. 5. TKSH9256970 Schonwald Shiro saucer 266mm. 6. TKSH9255220 Schonwald Shiro white cup 85mm.

Our taste for dessert is growing all the time. The ice cream market is booming, with a current annual revenue of more than $1.3 billion (a $260 million rise since 2010) in Australia alone, and dessert-focused bars experienced a surge in popularity in recent years.

Puddings, while traditionally seen as British, have also risen in popularity – and are no longer confined to Christmas. Circa 2014, when cooking competitions were must-watch television, millions of us would tune in to see whether a contestants’ selfsaucing chocolate pudding would be suitably molten when presented to a judge. This led to something of a pudding renaissance, with generation-old favourites such as sticky date finding their way back on to menus. And really, is there anything more comforting on a cold winter evening?

Since then, we’ve found ways to bring puddings to the breakfast table (hello, chia pudding) and come up with some healthier alternatives (‘paleo pudding’ is an increasingly popular Google search term). The common ingredient is pretty presentation – and that’s where the influence of social media must be recognised.

In the 10 years since Instagram launched, more than 50 million posts have been hashtagged #dessert. Customers are always on the lookout for fresh social media fodder, so it’s more important than ever to make sure desserts are photogenic.

An easy way of ensuring a pudding will look good is by using different shapes and quirky styles of crockery – enhancing the experience for the customer before they’ve even tucked into their last course.

So, whether you’re serving a winter pavlova or a molten Black Forest pudding, Tomkin will ensure it’s a piece of cake. www.shop.bunzl.com.au/tomkin