Let Them Eat Cake

'Let them eat cake', were the words once spoken by French, and may I say very stylish (though perhaps not so politically adept), queen, Marie Antoinette. At the little corner cafe Beatrix, found on North Melbourne's Queensberry Street, they have a very similar message scrawled up on their blackboard, 'we beat, you eat'...though I doubt that this particular phrase caused such social unrest amongst the lower class. I'd heard about this teeny little place from numerous people who had raved about the cakes, so I decided that it was my duty to sample these sweet delicacies for myself. Only to ensure that the hype was justified of course.

Beatrix really is a cupcake of a place (I felt that the cake reference was appropriate), with only four or so tables, a window bench and a few tables outside. The menu is a blackboard ordeal, featuring simple dishes like the humble BLT and muesli and the Allpress coffee is very drinkable and lightly acidic. But what this place is really known for is the sweet stuff. I must say, I was expecting a slightly bigger array, but what the cakes lack in variety they surely make up for in flavour.

Sitting prettily in the glass cabinet were ginger biscuits, a devilishly rich looking flourless chocolate cake, buttercream coconut cake, chocolate brownies and a fabulous looking old school sponge. I treated myself to the rhubarb and custard crumble tart and, may I be the first to say, NOM NOM NOM! It was super scrummy and moorish, with the gooey, slightly tart, insides working in perfect harmony with the flaky pastry and the sweet, crumbly topping. I don't know if cake baking is an art form, but if it were then the bakers at Beatrix should win the Archibald Prize.

So if your tooth is craving something a little on the sweet side, then take Marie Antoinette's advice. Who knows, maybe if the lower class had eaten some cake from Beatrix, that whole French Revolution kerfuffle might have been avoided.