The World's Most Expensive Dessert?

Would you pay $14,500 for dessert? Neither would I. But The Fortress, a Sri Lankan resort, seems to think that somebody out there is silly enough to shell out for their horribly named "Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence."

Here's a description: "The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence is a gold leaf Italian cassata flavoured with Irish cream, served with a mango and pomegranate compote and a champagne sabayon. It is decorated with a chocolate carving of a fisherman clinging to a stilt - an old local fishing practice - and an 80 carat aquamarine stone."

If you didn't already know (I didn't), cassata is a Sicilian cake with ricotta and candied fruits, kind of like a glorified cannoli. Sounds nice, but not that nice.

BUT...this is still not the most expensive dessert in the world, at least not if you count one that may have already been eaten.

There aren't many desserts with unsavory reputations, but fruitcake seems to be one of 'em. There's even a site with instructions on creating your very own fruitcake joke. But a pastry chef in Tokyo clearly takes his fruitcake quite seriously. In 2005, the unnamed chef spent six months "developing" and one month actually making a fancy cake covered in red frosting and "iced" with 223 small diamonds. Until now, I thought that those controversial silver dragées were pretty fancy!

How much was he asking for the confection? $1.65 million dollars. No word on whether it sold or not. It was mighty pretty, though.

For the somewhat-less-ridiculous-but-still-extravagantly-wealthy folks out there, there's always the $1000 Golden Opulence sundae at Serendipity 3 in New York. 

Here's what it's made of: "5 scoops of the richest Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream infused with Madagascar vanilla and covered in 23K edible gold leaf, the sundae is drizzled with the world's most expensive chocolate, Amedei Porceleana, and covered with chunks of rare Chuao chocolate, which is from cocoa beans harvested by the Caribbean Sea on Venezuela's coast. The masterpiece is suffused with exotic candied fruits from Paris, gold dragets, truffles and Marzipan Cherries. It is topped with a tiny glass bowl of Grand Passion Caviar, an exclusive dessert caviar, made of salt-free American Golden caviar, known for its sparkling golden color. It's sweetened and infused with fresh passion fruit, orange and Armagnac. The sundae is served in a baccarat Harcourt crystal goblet with an 18K gold spoon to partake in the indulgenceserved with a petite mother of pearl spoon and topped with a gilded sugar flower by Ron Ben-Israel."

Apparently, they sell about one of these a month. And customers get to keep the fancy glass.

Comments

[Lisa Crean]

This takes Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake" to a whole new level of decadent self-absorption. Anyone else find themselves secretly hoping some nouveau riche tool chokes on a diamond?

[Molly]

Yeah. I hope some goob chips a tooth on the 80 carat aquamarine. Although, after reading the full description of that sundae, $1,000 seems like a pretty reasonable price.