IT is not uncommon for the cabinet to be almost empty on any given day at Icky Sticky Patisserie.
The shop in Lorn has a reputation for delivering high quality, delectable pastries and desserts - the sort of thing that will draw regular customers out early to get what they’re after.
“In the beginning people would get really angry that we had sold out,” Icky Sticky Patisserie owner Jessica Boutard says with a laugh. “Now they’re just like ‘Oh well, we’ll just have to come earlier next time’.
“When we started out, we thought that if you could provide a really good quality product, people would come for it.
“We get people who come from Singleton on a regular basis - we get people from all over the place. So I think that has really worked for us in that if you create something beautiful, people will source you out.”
Former fashion designer Boutard opened the patisserie five years ago with husband Phillip Bowtell, a Maitland-born and bred pastry chef who trained under Dean Gibson at Hunter TAFE.
The couple met in 2007 on a trip to England as part of a team mentorship program in the WorkSkills Australia competition after gaining recognition in their field of study - retail baking (pastry) for Bowtell and garment production for Boutard.
Their relationship blossomed and led Bowtell to join Boutard in Melbourne, where he worked as a job pastry chef while she furthered her career in fashion.
Eventually they became “burnt out” with working in Melbourne and decided to quit their jobs and head overseas for an extended holiday across Europe and Asia.
It was a lightbulb moment for the pair.
“While we were over there we got the idea that we should do something ourselves instead,” Boutard says.
Five years on, Icky Sticky Patisserie is a dream realised.
“Basically we wanted to create a shop that we would actually go and visit. So it is all the things that we wanted - we wanted pastries, we wanted cakes, we wanted a proper patisserie.
“In Australia, pastry and bakery both cross over, whereas in France, if you’re a baker, you sell bread and if you’re a pastry chef, you’re a patissier and the two are very, very different. But in Australia they’re blended together somehow.
“Often you’ll stop at a shop and it says patisserie and it’s just dodgy cupcakes. We wanted to create a proper patisserie.”
The shop stocks a range of individual desserts, large cakes and pastries, as well as gourmet pies, sausage rolls and sandwiches.
Desserts and pastries are the focus, using high quality ingredients and local produce to create arguably the best in the region (try for yourself and let us know).
A mirror-glazed chocolate and raspberry mousse cake, orange and almond cake, chocolate and vanilla eclair, and vanilla panna cotta with strawberry jelly and rose water cream are among the individual desserts on offer, alongside perfectly crispy and crunchy buttery croissants and danishes.
The menu is ever-changing and evolving, with seasonal cakes and desserts popping up throughout the year, including a new sponge this month made from fresh apples with white chocolate and cinnamon creme.
“Depending on what's in season we will change up the menu,” Boutard says. “Sometimes you’ll have a lot of strawberries, so you’ll do a lot of strawberry-based desserts or other times you’ll get all the stone fruit in, so we’ll start doing the stone fruit stuff. It’s nice to not be stuck on doing the one thing.”
Icky Sticky Patisserie is embarking on a new adventure in the form of a cafe - The Stick Pastry Kitchen - that will operate out of Tulloch Wines in Pokolbin, beginning with a soft opening this weekend. Boutard says it will offer a quick and easy option for diners in the form of gourmet pies and quiches, along with their desserts and pastries, with coffee available and an option for customers to purchase a bottle of wine upstairs at the cellar door to enjoy with their meal.
Icky Sticky Patisserie at 2/27 Belmore Road, Lorn. 7.30am-3pm Monday to Friday, 7.30am-1pm Saturday (or until sold out).
