Dessert Goals, Party Animal Edition - Food Reviews

The very first Dessert Goals festival was held in 2016, and since then, there’s been 7 festivals both in New York City and Los Angeles. The festivals celebrate indulgence and things decadent. They are highly curated, featuring the very best in dessert.

Cake Pop bouquet from Rebecca’s Cake Pops

This past weekend saw dessert lovers from all over New York City gather at Sound River Studios in Long Island City for Dessert Goals, a festival dedicated to the best in dessert. The theme this time around was ‘Party Animal’, and guests were encouraged to dress up.

The line up included cake pops, cheesecake bars, cookies, Vietnamese reimagined sweets, ice cream, matcha soft serve, macarons, crepes, boba, booze-infused puddings, chocolate covered pretzels, cremellas, cotton candy, South East Asian desserts, Brazilian cake rolls, halva, doughnuts & marshmallows.

Cremellas and Unicorn ice cream cake from Stax Ice Cream

The venue, at Sound River Studios, really set the scene for a morning (or afternoon) of indulgence. Cute stuffed animal heads adorned one of the walls upon entering the space, and a candy bar made for the perfect photo opportunity, along with photo walls adorned with vines and colourful backgrounds for the perfect Instagram shot.

My friend and I attended the first session on Sunday morning at 10am. I wore a leopard-print dress for the occasion. Initially I was worried that I wouldn’t feel like eating dessert that early in the day. I needn’t have worried. After the first bite of halva from Seed + Mill, there was no stopping me. If you’re not familiar with halva, it’s one of the tastiest desserts in the Middle East. There are two types of halva, flour based and nut based. Seed + Mill’s halva is made with sesame butter and sugar, and any additional flavourings such as rose or chocolate.

One of the standouts of the lineup for me were the South-East Asian treats from Moon Man. I tried the Indonesian coconut pancake first, and was delightfully surprised that it was nothing like the pancakes I know. This one was dense and chewy, and is made with grated coconut, sugar and glutinous rice flour. I haven’t stopped thinking about these pancakes since, they were that good.

Next up from Moon Man was the Pandan steamed cake. Another win! I couldn’t get over how light and fluffy this cake was, and the gorgeous flavour of pandan shone through beautifully. Called Kue Putu in Indonesia, it’s made by mixing the juice of pandan leaves with a small amount of flour and eggs. The dough is then steamed to create the fluffy texture. I chose to get black sesame seeds on top, and it was divine along with a spoonful of coconut paste under the seeds.

Kochin Desserts, who specialise in Vietnamese sweets, had ‘Dessert Tornados’ on offer, and I got the Tropical Paradise one. It was made up of avocado pudding, which I really enjoyed, coconut ice cream and cactus jelly, all drizzled in chocolate.

I tried Japanese chocolate brand ‘Royce’ for the first time, and it was really decadent! They actually have white chocolate coated potato chips, which sounded strange but I loved the sweet and salty together. The chocolate truffles were to die for.

If you’re a marshmallow fan like I am, you can’t go past Squish Marshmallows. Not your usual one flavour marshmallow, Squish manages to infuse multi-layer flavours that will make you go ‘Wow!’ Which is exactly what happened when I took my first bite of a zebra marshmallow. Specially created for Dessert Goals, the zebra and elephant marshmallows were Strawberry Lemonade flavoured, with party sprinkles. I like to think of these as grown-up marshmallows, due to the fabulous flavours. The texture is absolutely perfect too, everything a marshmallow should be: light and fluffy.

Party Animal marshmallows from Squish Marshmallow

Marshmallow perfection from Squish Marshmallows

After all of our dessert eating, my friend and I grabbed some goodies to take on the road with us, including chocolate covered pretzels from Posh Pretzels and macarons from Stache of Goods. We then proceeded to walk off some of the sugar in the beautiful sunshine (the waterfront in Long Island City is gorgeous), and then get lunch at Sweet Chick. Because after all that sugar, you need something savoury, in the form of fried chicken and waffles. Please enjoy the rest of my photos below.

Booze-Infused puddings from Spoonable Spirits

Peanut butter cups from Jessie’s Nutty Cups

Brazilian Cake Rolls from Kouklet Bakehouse

Thanks so much Dessert Goals for having us!

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