My apologies, especially to Luka, for the long wait on this one.
I recently read an article saying that more and more of us are choosing our holiday destinations based on food choice available at a particular destination. The fabulous 3 other ladies I often travel with, always mention the phrase ‘food holiday’ when we are away somewhere, but food is never the sole focus of us meeting. However, if you are looking for a 2016 holiday destination based on high quality, lovingly made culinary delights at very affordable prices, visit Split in Croatia and visit Luca’s cakes and ice cream.
Every day, Luka and his team work on new seasonal flavours of ice cream and cake. While we were there, berry ice cream, pear ice cream and orange sorbet were making their debuts. What particularly impressed me was that you can see all the good stuff being made, apart from the ice cream. Due to popular demand and space being a premium the homemade ice cream has to be made off site, although the fruit and other ingredients for it are prepped onsite.
Mary and I sporting carrot cake (in my hand), poppy seed, raspberry and yoghurt cake (in front of Mary)
Chocolate and praline cake with a caramel meringuey mousse and Apple crumble cake
There were 3 of us, we aren't eating two cakes each, hm hm...
So what would I recommend…
Definitely the carrot cake. It is not like what you may find in the US or UK. It is very moist and delicate with a sweetened pie crust. A perfect treat for breakfast. Alina and I can verify that. If you’re looking for something traditional from Split, you can get a slice of splitska torta, a layered cake filed withe cream, custard, dried fruit and figs.
What makes the difference at Luka’s is the hospitality and friendliness of the staff. You can chat away to them, get recommendations and try out their new culinary creations. They will give you more than just cake. In our case, we had so many testers that we were so full and left with some good local knowledge and bus numbers for the rest of our adventures. NB - because everything is so fresh and seasonal, you may not get some ice-cream flavours after a few days. Be warned.
If you have allergies, intolerances or are diabetic, Luka will definitely have a sweet treat for you. If you’re too full to eat anything at the current Croatian president’s favourite ice cream shop, they can box up some homemade biscuits for you. Their fig rolls are just right - “ just tangy enough, just sweet enough” and the best my Mum has tasted in her whole life.
Everything in the shop, unless you buy a whole tub of ice cream or whole cake, is very reasonably priced, with exotically flavoured muffins starting from about 70p (7 kuna) and most cake slices are under £1.90 (19 kuna). Brace yourselves. No-one will judge you if you go back multiple times a day…Luka Icecream and Cake is open until about 11pm everyday, so there isn't really an excuse to pop by.
More photos are on the way. I had some of the team but my phone died...so just go and see them in real life. Wizz Air has super cheap return flights.
Go to Svačićeva 2, Split, Croatia to see them and give a cake a home.
