Flavors of Florida Review: Orange-Hazelnut Petite Gâteau at Amorette’s Patisserie

2024’s Flavors of Florida has been interesting. It was a hot day, so we snuck into Amorette’s Patisserie to cool off and try this year’s citrus-based confections.

Amorette’s Patisserie offers an excellent array of fancy-looking desserts. However, colorful and artful decorations don’t always translate into good food.

Last year, the bakery offered an orange creme puff and the massive Orange Bird Dome Cake. In 2024, the dome reemerged, but the more miniature dessert was, this time, an Orange-Hazelnut Petite Gâteau.

The dessert looks amazing presentation-wise. The artists at Amorette’s do a fantastic job of making everything look too good to eat.

However, I wasn’t impressed with the taste of the Orange-Hazelnut Petite Gâteau. Technically, it should be packed with flavor since it is made of “layers of orange mousse, orange curd, and honey-orange gel on top of a hazelnut financier.”

The gel is where all of the flavors lay. The mousse and curd lacked even the slightest hint of citrus. The hazelnut base was pretty good, though.

Again, the gel was the standout part of this pastry. Had it made up more of the entire dessert, it may have fared better against our tastebuds.

Thankfully, a winner from 2023 was available to help.

Sadly, the Orange Bird Dome Cake was the victim of my rather aggressive driving on I-4, trying to make it back to Tampa in less than an hour. I did it … but at a cost to our tiny citrus mascot:

Regardless of Orange Bird’s banged-up condition, it’s still the same as last year’s. However, the presentation is 100 times better! The iconic character looks less alien-like and more like his cute self in 2024.

Here’s a reminder of 2023’s version:

The cake itself is still just as flavorful, mixing so many layers of different ingredients and textures: “grand marnier-soaked vanilla chiffon cake, mandarin pâté de fruit, mandarin orange cream and white-chocolate crisp pearls.”

However, I suggest devouring the Orange Bird Dome Cake within the first day you cut it open. From our experience, the cake dries out rather quickly in the refrigerator.