Party pieces: Why the pudding of the summer is covered in hundreds and thousands
To truly enjoy an experience, stop thinking. Chef Neil Rankin knows this. At the new third branch of Temper in Covent Garden, the star dessert is a white chocolate cheesecake cannoli, topped with rainbow-coloured sprinkles. The main dishes are serious — tacos and carefully thought-through marinades. This dessert is light relief.
The multi-coloured sugary studs provoke an instant reaction. Rankin sums up their appeal: “Sprinkles are fun. I’d put them on every dish on the menu if I could.”
They are more hard-working than their appearance suggests, adds Rankin: “They add texture, colour and fun but also nostalgia. Nostalgia is more important for desserts than anything. You want to be brought back to your childhood. Sprinkles magic you there.” They also make you think of Nobbly Bobbly lollies.
The world is divided into two tribes — those who get sprinkles and those who don’t. For something so innocuously small and perky, these accoutrements can be divisive. When asked about them recently, Gordon Ramsay lashed out that “unicorns are meant for children’s tales, not food”. Fine, all the more for the rest of us.
But London is covered in sprinkles, from the hundreds and thousands on doughnuts at Ruby’s in Greenwich to birthday cake lattes at Blondies Kitchen in Selfridges, where no cake or drink is safe from sprinkles.
Some are healthier than others. Food writer Felicity Spector says: “I’m not a big fan of lurid-coloured food with tons of E numbers, although the ‘funfetti’ bakes by American food writer Molly Yeh are a lot of fun. But here, I prefer the all-natural and highly colourful ‘sprinkles’ which Magpie London uses to create its ‘birthday cake’ dessert.”
They’ve even made it to the establishment, at Fortnum & Mason, where they bedeck ice creams.
For guidance, watch the Christina Tosi episode of Chef’s Table on Netflix. The founder of Momofuku Milk Bar in Manhattan is the master of sprinkles and has got through millions since opening in 2008.
Tosi is known for her towering multi-layer cakes, which are controversially not iced so you can see the sprinkles in the sponge. Some melt into the mix, creating a tie-dye effect; sometimes they stand out intact. Their appeal lies in this unpredictability.
It’s the same at Temper, where sprinkles are scattered on and left wherever they fall. Make it rain.
