Honeyed Delights is less a restaurant than an institution dedicated to the proposition that dessert deserves an evening of its own.

Everything served here is built around two of Aranthaes’ great island luxuries: fragrant local honey and exceptionally rich dairy. The result is a menu of creams, custards, pastries, frozen dishes and elaborate confections that have made the establishment famous far beyond the Restaurant Quarter.

Among its signature dishes is Mother’s Gold, a warm honey custard baked beneath a thin caramel crust; Cloud Cream, whipped island cream folded with blossom honey and served with sugared nuts; and Sunset Milk, a chilled layered pudding of saffron cream, honey jelly and soft cheese. Most celebrated of all is the Aranthaen Hive Cake, a tall construction of honey sponge, cultured cream and crisp pastry shaped like the cells of a honeycomb.

The rooms are correspondingly indulgent: pale marble tables, golden lamps, floral tiles and glass display cases filled with immaculate cakes and pastries. Wealthy families come after the theatre, courting couples share elaborate tasting plates, and City Tier children quickly learn that good behaviour near Honeyed Delights can be converted into extremely effective bargaining power.

Despite its sweetness, the place takes its ingredients very seriously. Particular honeys are chosen for particular dishes, with coastal, orchard and upland varieties valued for different flavours, while much of the cream and soft cheese arrives daily from farms beyond the city.

To visitors, Honeyed Delights can seem almost absurdly specialised. To Aranthaens, the stranger question is why any civilised city would expect dessert to remain merely the final course.

 

Honey & Cream Specialities

Mother’s Gold
A warm baked honey custard beneath a thin shell of dark caramel, finished with thick island cream.
4 gp
Cloud Cream
Whipped island cream folded with blossom honey and vanilla leaf, topped with sugared almonds and crisp pastry shards.
3 gp 5 sp
Sunset Milk
Layers of saffron cream, honey jelly and soft sweet cheese served chilled in a tall glass.
4 gp
Honeycomb Cream Pot
Thick cultured cream layered with warm honey, toasted oats and pieces of real honeycomb.
3 gp
Golden Milk Pudding
A rich set milk pudding scented with nutmeg and orange blossom, glazed with warm island honey.
3 gp 5 sp

Cakes & Pastries

Aranthaen Hive Cake
Honey sponge, cultured cream and crisp pastry built into a tall honeycomb-patterned slice. The house speciality and entirely unsuitable for anyone pretending they only want something small.
6 gp
Triple Honey Layer Cake
Three soft honey cakes layered with whipped cream, salted honey caramel and crushed nuts.
5 gp
Bee-Sting Tart
Sweet pastry filled with thick cream and honey custard beneath a crisp layer of caramelised almonds.
4 gp 5 sp
Butter & Honey Millefeuille
Fine layers of crisp butter pastry, honey cream and vanilla custard, assembled immediately before serving.
5 gp
Orchard Honey Cheesecake
Soft island cheese baked with cream and honey over a biscuit crust, served with poached seasonal fruit.
5 gp
Little Golden Buns
Three warm enriched buns filled with honey cream and glazed until dangerously sticky.
3 gp

Hot Desserts

Honey-Butter Pudding
A dense steamed sponge drenched in hot honey-butter sauce and served with an indecent quantity of cream.
4 gp 5 sp
Baked Apples with Cream
Whole apples stuffed with nuts, dried fruit and honey, baked until soft and served beneath warm cream.
3 gp 5 sp
Caramelised Milk Bread
Thick slices of sweet bread fried in butter, soaked with honey and topped with whipped cream and sugared fruit.
4 gp
Golden Pear Dumpling
A whole honeyed pear wrapped in sweet pastry and baked, served with hot custard and cold cream because choosing one would be unnecessarily restrained.
5 gp

Frozen Delights

Honey Cream Ice
A rich frozen cream made with blossom honey and vanilla, churned smooth and served with crisp wafers.
3 gp 5 sp
Salted Honey Caramel Ice
Frozen island cream swirled with dark honey caramel and coarse sea salt.
4 gp
Orchard Cream Ice
Seasonal fruit folded through chilled cream and honey, changing according to what is freshest beyond the city walls.
4 gp
The Three Hives
Three scoops made with coastal, orchard and upland honeys, each chosen to show the striking difference between the island’s varieties.
5 gp

For Sharing, Allegedly

The Honey Board
Six island honeys served with warm breads, butter, soft cheeses, cream and fresh fruit. Intended for two, although disagreements over the final piece of bread are common.
10 gp
Golden Afternoon
A tiered stand of miniature cakes, buns, tarts and cream pastries accompanied by an unlimited pot of tea.
12 gp for two
The Beekeeper’s Folly
Honey cake, cheesecake, cream ice, caramel custard, fruit, pastries and a jug of warm honey sauce assembled into a single heroic platter.
18 gp for two
The Queen’s Hive
An extravagant table-sized construction of cakes, pastries, creams, frozen desserts, sugared nuts, fruit and edible honeycomb, brought out beneath a spun-sugar dome. Serves four sensible people or two extremely determined ones.
35 gp

Drinks

Honeyed Hot Milk
Steamed island milk with blossom honey, nutmeg and vanilla leaf.
1 gp 5 sp
Thick Drinking Chocolate
Dark imported chocolate melted into hot cream and milk, sweetened with honey and served with whipped cream.
3 gp
Iced Honey Coffee
Strong chilled coffee with milk, cream and honey over crushed ice.
2 gp 5 sp
Honey Mead
A sweet golden local mead chosen specifically to accompany cream and pastry.
2 gp
Golden Dessert Wine
A rich late-harvest wine with flavours of apricot, honey and spice.
8 gp
Tea or Herbal Infusion
A full pot with milk, cream, honey and enough hot water to sustain a prolonged assault on the cake cabinet.
1 gp

 
 

Encounters

Honeyed Delights attracts courting couples, fashionable City families, theatre-goers, determined children and anyone convinced that three courses of dessert constitutes a perfectly reasonable meal. The atmosphere is usually cheerful, although sugar, status and spectacular cakes provide complications of their own. Roll d10 for possible encounters…

  1. A young City Tier couple are sharing a Queen’s Hive on what is very obviously a first romantic outing. Unfortunately, both are far too polite to take the final honey pastry and have now spent several awkward minutes insisting the other should have it.
  2. A Wynds family in their best clothes has come to celebrate a birthday and ordered far more than they intended. When the enormous Hive Cake arrives, several nearby tables spontaneously applaud, much to the birthday child’s delight and the parents’ embarrassment.
  3. One of the pastry chefs bursts from the kitchen carrying a tray and urgently asks everyone nearby whether they have seen a small blue box. It contains a rare upland honey worth considerably more than the cakes it was intended to flavour.
  4. A fashionable young City resident is attempting the Beekeeper’s Folly alone after boasting that it could not possibly be difficult. A small crowd has begun keeping score, and someone at the next table is quietly taking bets.
  5. Two elderly ladies enjoying tea are conducting an apparently vicious discussion about the merits of coastal honey versus upland honey. What begins as culinary disagreement gradually reveals itself to be the latest round of a rivalry that has lasted more than forty years.
  6. A child’s elaborate frozen dessert begins to melt much faster than expected. The resulting stream of honey cream crosses the table, reaches the floor and threatens the immaculate robes of an important diner at the next table.
  7. A well-known confectioner from another part of the city has arrived incognito and is attempting to determine how Honeyed Delights makes its famous Cloud Cream. Every member of staff recognised them within moments but has agreed, without discussion, to pretend otherwise.
  8. A marriage proposal is underway beneath a spun-sugar dome prepared specially by the kitchen. Unfortunately, the ring has somehow become incorporated into the dessert, and nobody is entirely certain which portion contains it.
  9. A server brings out an experimental candied-onion and honey tart created by one of the younger pastry chefs. The staff require volunteers to taste it. Initial reactions around the room range from horror to unexpected enthusiasm.
  10. Orinna Lor is sitting alone at one of the best tables, enjoying tea and an impressive selection of cakes in complete contentment. At least three members of staff are fawning over her simultaneously: one replenishes her tea before the cup is half empty, another has appeared with a complimentary pastry, and a third is assuring her that the kitchen can make absolutely anything she wishes. Orinna appears entirely accustomed to this treatment and occasionally makes a blunt observation that sends a server scurrying away before returning moments later with something even more extravagant.
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