It’s pretty much impossible you haven’t spotted Gelato Messina’s cakes around town. You know the ones – the giant red mushroom on a bed of grass that looks straight outta Mario Kart, or the lightly torched, white swirly half-sphere that is the bombe Alaska. It’s highly probable you’ve quietly wanted to inhale one all by yourself, but never summoned the courage. Thankfully, you no longer have to deal with that problem.
Today, Messina introduced a range of ‘monoporzione’ (single-serve in Italian, or “monos” for short) to their collection of confections, designed with the single devourer in mind. Diehard followers might recall the days when the smaller cake sizes used to be sold in the shoebox of a space next door to the OG Darlinghurst gelateria, but as the brand scaled up, so did the portions.
There are six small creations in total – including that bombe Alaska with Marsala-soaked sponge, strawberry mousse, strawberry compote and vanilla gelato all coated in Italian meringue, and Dr Evil’s Mini Magic Mushroom loaded with dark chocolate mousse, chocolate gelato and peanut butter crunch, complete with feuilletine grass.
For something a bit lighter, the Bubble Trouble combines coconut dacquoise, gelato and mousse made from Earl Grey tea and lychees, lychee compote and coconut crunch in a white chocolate shell shaped liked an old-fashioned fountain soda (there’s even a chocolate straw). Fans of nuts will fall for the Seymour Nuts, which throws hazelnut mousse together with hazelnut ganache and choc-hazelnut gelato, and finishes it with a caramel glaze, cocoa nibs and roasted hazelnuts. And the nostalgic amongst you might go for the Lamington³, flavoured as you might expect with milk chocolate mousse and coconut gelato, but with raspberry gel and almond crunch in the mix and covered in black chocolate spray. There’s a gelato-free dessert in the line-up too, dubbed Ballin’ – a globe of malt-and-peanut praline caramel and toasted white chocolate malt mousse dipped in a toasted white chocolate glaze.
They’re $12 a pop, but you can snag a box of three for $33 or all six for $63. Whatever you do, act fast, we suspect it won’t be long before the first batch sells out.
Messina monos are handmade at Messina’s Rosebery HQ, and only available there and at the Darling Square outlet (Shop 2/3 Little Hay Street, Haymarket) for now.
On the hunt for more dairy dessert goodness? Check out the 16 best places for ice cream and gelato in Sydney.