Desserts and Decadence at the Botanist

Have you heard? The Botanist have new desserts on their menu for the Summer and they're pretty exciting.

Following on from the launch of their new cocktail menu, the Botanist in Newcastle have hit the refresh button again with the arrival of a new food menu just in time for the sunny weather. Knowing that I am a self confessed dessert addict they invited me to spend the evening in Granny Smith's private dining room sampling all of the new sugary treats.

My diary was immediately cleared, I dug out my elasticated trousers and headed to the Botanist for an evening of cocktails and cakes with some of my favourite ladies.

Before you panic (because, let's face it, change can be a scary thing) the Botanist have kept a lot of the old favourite desserts on the menu so you'll still be able to order the Sticky Toffee Pudding, Chocolate Fudge Cake and Lemon Posset Tart. But I urge you to forget about your current favourite and feast your eyes on the new offerings.

Get ready to grab yourself a spoon and fork!

The hanging kebabs have always been so popular at the Botanist (name me one person from Newcastle who doesn't have a picture of one on their Instagram!) so you'll be happy to hear that the new Rocky Road Kebab is their best yet. Strawberries, Hazelnut Brownies and Marshmallows swing over Ice-cream and Chocolate Crumb with a pot of Biscuit Sauce perfect for pouring.

For me classic Summer desserts always feature plenty of fruit and lashings of cream and the new Elderflower Jelly and Red Berry Pavlova is Summer in a glass.  Layers of meringue with delicious zingy berries, Elderflower jelly and raspberry ripple ice-cream.  Once I'd dug my spoon in it was pretty hard to stop myself.

For those who prefer something more savoury to finish their meal the Cheese Board is a delicious savoury alternative with Appleby's Red Cheshire, Stilton and Shorrock's with celery radish and fig chutney.  This dessert went down so well we actually got into a bit of an argument over it and had to order ourselves another one. Definitely better to order two cheese boards than fall out with friends!

Saving the best till last, my favourite of the evening was the Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - a mammoth sized cookie with hidden chunks of chocolate covered in salted caramel sauce and toffee ice-cream. I recommend letting the ice-cream melt into the cookie just a little - Wow!

Desserts at the Botanist are best enjoyed with a cocktail in your hand and friends by your side so make sure you stick a date in your diary to check out the new dessert menu and start working your way through the new list of cocktails.

Which dessert will you be ordering?

Thank you to the Botanist for inviting me to try out the new desserts and cocktails. My experience was complimentary, but all opinions are my own.