Dessertarians rejoice! There’s a new dessert spot in town!
Meet Francisca Dessert Parlour, a European-styled tea room by former Miss Singapore World, Colleen Francisca and her gorgeous sister, Scarlet!
Specialty cakes, hand-made Swiss truffles, Italian gelato, luscious macarons, teas and infusions are some of the tasty confections on their hearty menu.
The icing on the cake? They are all free from trans fat and artificial ingredients!
Now scroll down for your sweet taste of happiness!
The homey cafe is strategically situated at P02-35/36, a couple of metres away from the entrance of Millennia Walk PARCO.
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Upon entering the premises, you’re greeted by a splash of pastel colors and intricate Parisian details that are reminiscent of a French patisserie.
Their awe-inspiring gift boxes are perfect for parties and gatherings!
Each of these boxes are lovingly designed by the Francisca sisters.
Noticed those paintings on the walls?
If you find them acutely familiar, that’s because they are works of David Delamare whose fanciful paintings have also appeared on countless book and album covers, in television programs and in films. He has produced concept work for Warner Bros. Animated Features and Francis Ford Coppola, and designed sets for the American premier of Trevor Nunn’s Peter Pan.
Colleen is a huge fan of David Delamare so she’d collaborated with the famous artist to produce a series of paintings known as Nighttime in Wonderland for the walls of her dessert parlour.
It is a unique new interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
I thought the paintings not only amped up the artistic factor of the cafe but also injected an air of whimsical enchantment into the settings, which is totally fascinating.
Francisca Dessert Parlour’s slogan ‘Happiness Delivered’
Francisca Dessert Parlour’s macarons are airflown from France and they offer more than 16 luscious flavours like chocolate orange, peanut butter, rose, rocky mountain, just to name a few.
The best sellers are summerberry, rose, lemon raspberry and salty caramel.
If you’re looking for a less calorific but equally palatable treat, try the mini macarons instead! They come in different flavours such as liquorice, lime yuzu, chocolate mandarin and apricot nougat.
Francisca Dessert Parlour serves gelato instead of ice-cream!
Francisca Dessert Parlour offers more than 12 flavours of gelato including exotic flavours like Lavender, Sakura, Lychee Raspberry and traditional favorites such as Cookies and Cream, Dark Chocolate and Banana Chocolate chunks.To be honest, I prefer gelato to ice-cream and it’s no surprise why. Gelato is made with a greater proportion of whole milk to cream, so it contains less fat than ice-cream. In case you’re wondering, the difference is about three to five per cent of fat.
And because of the way the dessert is made and stored, the flavour is more intense than ice-cream and it also melts in the mouth more quickly.
The dessert parlor also has a large selection of asian and western teas.
I chose the Sakura Flower tea to go with my Francisca High Tea Set.
My Sakura Flower Tea
The aroma of the cherry blossom was rather prominent unlike most sakura teas which have pretty subtle floral notes. The ratio of water to the tea leaves was on point. It refreshed my palate for the Francisca High Tea Set that was coming up next.
Francisca High Tea Set
My high tea was served on a classy 3-tier stand and it consisted of truffles, mini macarons, freshly baked cupcakes and sandwiches.
The sandwiches were a huge delight, especially the Shrimp and Dill sandwich which was an original Francisca Dessert Parlour recipe.
The shrimps were fresh and crunchy and the herbal dressing simply accentuated its delectable flavour.
Well, you don’t need a gourmet to tell you this combination is a match made in food heaven. 🙂
The other sandwiches served were Egg Salad Tea and Cucumber and Cream Cheese which I thought pales in comparison to the Shrimp and Dill one. But just to be fair, I’m a typical Singaporean who loves anything seafood so shrimps are definitely more to my liking than eggs and cucumbers. :p
I’m not a huge fan of cupcakes but I found myself falling head over heels with the Francisca Dessert Parlour’s cupcakes which were freshly baked by none other than its founder, Colleen.
Colleen has a huge passion for baking so she makes sure she maintains the high quality of the cupcakes at Francisca Dessert Parlour by making them herself.
I’m not kidding. When we met her in the afternoon, she only just came out of her kitchen and told us that she’d spent the entire morning baking.
In case you think she appeared looking sweaty and unruly, I can assure you that she did not. On the contrary, she came out looking like well… Miss World.
Check out this photo!
From left to right: Me, Colleen, Rusty, Tiffany and Scarlet.
We spent the afternoon bantering about cupcakes and her business concept.
She explained that the reputation of her cupcakes is too precious to be handed over to someone else to uphold so she decided to leave the most important part of the business to herself – the baking.
I really admired her for that because unlike most restaurant owners or bosses, she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. Kudos Colleen!
Guess what? Her perseverance paid off because Francisca Dessert Parlour caught the attention of BBC News and Colleen’s story was featured on its business segment. Check out the coverage here!
Surprisingly, I can totally understand Colleen’s insistence on making her own cupcakes as I had the same attitude towards my Honeyz Cube database too. I had a hard time convincing myself to let someone else take care of the database. I only learnt to let go when the work became too overwhelming and started to take a toll on my health. But I’m glad I did it as Honeyz Cube has a much larger and comprehensive list of beauty product information now.
Anyhoo, coming back to the Colleen and her cupcakes. I could tell she put her heart and soul into the cakes because it tasted absolutely fabulous. The cake was light and fluffy while the icing was smooth and not too sweet.
Francisca Dessert Parlour’s slogan is “Happiness Delivered” and I tell you, they certainly delivered happiness to my palates with their signature cupcakes. Well done ladies!
We also tried the chocolate mandarin and white chocolate lemon mini macarons which were pretty fab too. The macaron shells were crunchy and the fillings were chewy.
I’m big on citrus flavours and even though both macarons contained the juicy aroma of my favorite flavour, I was a bigger fan of the chocolate mandarin macaron. The tangerine flavour was much more prominent than the lemon in the white chocolate lemon macaron.
It’s time for some gelato! (said in my best Italian accent) 😛
To keep up with the European theme of the dessert parlour, our gelato was served on an antique-like silver tray which made it looked extra classy and yummy.
We had the best sellers dark chocolate, blueberry cheesecake, snickers and brownie and also the sorbets, mango and lychee raspberry.
Even though the dark chocolate gelato tasted sweet and decadent, my favourites from the lot were the sakura and lavender flavours – all thanks to my floral obsession.
Overall, I had a great experience at Francisca Dessert Parlour. The service, food and the atmosphere is top-notch.
I’m definitely coming back. I’m actually looking for a nice cozy venue for my wedding solemnisation next year and this fine dessert parlour is certainly one of the few places that I’m considering now. 😀
For its sophisticated and artistic settings as well as great food, 4.5 Honeyz crowns!
The Francisca High Tea Set is served with a choice of a pot of loose tea or coffee. Each set is priced at SGD20 with a minimum of 2 sets per order.
Francisca Dessert Parlour is located at Parco P2-35/36 Millenia Walk 9 Raffles Boulevard Singapore 039596. Contact them at +65 6333 4847 or visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/FranciscaDessertParlour for more info on their latest promos and offerings.
Happiness delivered?
Affirmative!
Your friend, Juliana
Disclaimer: Please be rest assured that even though the food and services were sponsored, they do not have any bearing on the content of this post. Opinions stated are objective and genuine. Also note that all sources, information, content, links are valid to change at any time.