Almost no one can truly resist something sweet; that might be why people find it so difficult to say no to dessert.

In a city whose native cuisine emphasizes sweet flavours, the popularity of desserts seems reasonable. The exotic delicacies have tempting appearances and please the palate craving a taste of something sweet.

For most of my women friends, the best part of dinner is at the end, when the dessert is served. No matter how firmly they are determined to diet, beautifully-dressed desserts can always make them change their mind.

On a casual afternoon, when roaming Raffles City in People's Square, I walked into a newly opened, lovely dessert restaurant. The restaurant, named Bakerzin and decorated in a warm red colour, has a large semicircular glass counter of various kinds of dessert cakes at its front. Sometimes the product is the best advertisement, especially when it comes to dessert. Even though some look better than they taste, most desserts can capture my interest by their splendid looks.

I ordered seven different kinds of desserts, including four tapas, two ice creams and a sorbet. These can be served in different combinations according to diners' preference. The seven-one combination cost me 84 yuan (US$10.5).

The raspberry panna cotta served in a small cup was my favourite because of its proper sweetness and strong creamy flavour. It tasted very much like a pudding combining milky ingredients and eggs; it was soft and easily melted in the mouth. The raspberry topping mixed with the pudding for a bit of sourness that was delectable. Compared to the other desserts, it was not as sweet but was milder and pleasant.

The only hot dessert I had there was the banana pizza with cinnamon cream, a delicate portion and presentation.The triangle-shaped pizza was made of baked crumbs and topped with hot banana slices and a mint leaf for decoration. It was very crispy and sweet.

Even sweeter was the chocolate and caramel ice cream with hazelnut rice crispie, served in a decorative glass cup which wobbled playfully on the table. The two ice creams were topped with hazelnuts and had a lovely presentation but an overpowering sweetness.

In a comparison, the Coupe Black Forest was a nicer dessert which also contains chocolate ice cream. It tasted somewhat bitter, possibly due to the coffee ingredients, which blended well with the sweetness.

I ordered two cups of ice cream in Bakerzin, green tea and black sesame flavours - both pleasant and refreshing.The black sesame ice cream is worthy of more recommendation because it was said to be prepared by the restaurant with its own secret recipe and the flavour was quite natural, not too sweet and well scented with sesame.

It was a challenge to try and judge seven different kinds desserts at the same timesince my tastebuds eventually became overworked. My stomach was just too full to contain those alluring cakes shown in the glass counter which I originally planned to try!

Bakerzin
Location: 5F, Raffles City, No. 268 Central Xizang Road
Tel: 021-43405243