La Cigale French Market, Parnell

La Cigale French Market is a French style market day held every weekend in the Parnell area. At this market you can a range of food products from both local New Zealand growers, as well as from overseas.

Aside from that, there are also a few cafes and stores in the indoor part of the market where you can find a range of high quality French imports such as wine, cheeses, and other delicatessens.
 
For more details about the La Cigale French Market, please click on their link at the bottom of this post.

The market environment was similar to any market you find in New Zealand, filled with live music and packed with people walking around everywhere. As you would expect from any type of markets, the line for the outdoor food kiosk stands were extremely long, and with people walking and looking around the market, it did not make holding or eating food very easy. Just thought that would be something to keep in mind. 

Anyway, moving onto the sweet treats available :)
At the indoor section of the market sits a few small cafes, each with a small cabinet filled with French goodies such as macarons, chocolate slices, and various choux pastry treats.

Hokey Pokey Custard Puff

I'm not too sure whether size can be determined just from looking at a photo with nothing put next to the item as a guide for comparison, but this Hokey Pokey Custard Puff was huge! Since I didn't sit anything next to it to compare in size, I think the closest thing similar to this would be the average size of an orange?
The caramelised lumps on top are big Hokey Pokey pieces stuck onto some vanilla frosting. Though I've got to admit I was quite disappointed when I took that first bite of the Hokey Pokey lumps as I was expecting them to be extremely crunchy. Sadly, it might have been due to the duration the custard puff had been sitting in the cabinet, they has turned soft.
The first bite gave me a mouthful of smooth, creamy, heavily vanilla flavoured custard. As I looked closely I could see vanilla bean extract was put into the custard mixture.
The vanilla frosting on top was quite sweet which turned out to be a great complement to the custard filling inside as it wasn't too sweet, almost not sweet at all. The choux pastry was perfectly baked. It was hollow, thin, but didn't turn soft or soggy in texture despite being filled with the custard. 

Palmier

I've tried a lot of Palmiers since I was young but they were usually very small, thin, and came in a packet of five. I was very lucky that day to be able to snatch this one 'cause it was the last one sitting in the cabinet. Just the same as before I didn't compare the size of this to something else but OMG this was HUGE! Hmm...  the size of this one is probably a much harder to describe or compare. I guess the best way to to describe its size would be slighter bigger than a CD lol. 
Its features are quite simple but extremely delicious! Despite being the last one sitting in the cabinet, it still maintained to be extremely crunchy. You can taste the process of it being baked, taken out of the oven, coated in butter and sugar, and then put back into the oven to bake again, and this process most likely repeated over and over again for about 3 or 4 times. This is definitely a must try treat, and would go great with coffee or tea! 

There are much more exotic and delicate treats at La Cigale French Market, it was a shame that I was only able to try two items on the day I went. Hopefully I will eventually have more photos to add to this post. 
From memory, the price for sweet treats range from $2.00 - $6.00, but of course it depends on what you are going for. 

If you are ever in the Parnell area, this market is really a place worth stopping by. 

La Cigale French Market is located on:
69 St Georges Bay Road
Parnell
Auckland 1052
(09) 366 9361
Website: http://www.lacigale.co.nz/
Market Days and Hours: Saturday 8am to 1.30pm and Sunday 9am to 1.30pm

Hope you liked this post! 

Until next time!

The 'Sweet Tooth' Fairy xo