The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

When invited to a dinner party, it may seem impolite to turn up empty handed, but with so many esteemed dessert outlets, it’s often difficult to know where’s best to buy from. With numerous bright orange sweet houses around Cairo and the North Coast, Delight claims to produce the ‘finest’ desserts. Their Zamalek branch, on Mohamed Mazhar Street, is small but spacious and is uniformly bright and contemporary, with burnt orange walls and dark wood and glass refrigerated display cabinets.

The cabinets are filled with fresh, delicious looking creations and, unless you order in advance, they may not have your favourite cake available – particularly if you turn up late in the day. Although with some of the cakes the flavour is obvious, for example, the ‘Cappuccino Maltesers’ tart (134LE) is topped with cream and lots of chocolate Maltesers, there are no other indicators to assist with curiosity. Thankfully, the shop assistants are patient, helpful and happy to reel off the descriptions and prices of every individual cake.

Delight specialise in scrumptious, unique tarts, cheesecakes and sponge cakes, all large enough to feed at least eight people, if not more. Small, personal sized cakes are also available (13.75LE-23LE), although the choice at this branch was limited to chocolate cake (17.25LE).

The scrumptious recipes are almost endless and not only does Delight boast tempting seasonal fruit tarts (128LE) with numerous variations – lemon, apple (134LE), and date (115LE) – but there are also the sugary and chocolaty types including blueberry mousse (131LE), marshmallow, coffee and Mars, Kinder, Twix and Toblerone tarts. In the hope to please both chocolate and fruit lovers, we went for one with coffee and Mars (145LE), along with a ‘Banija Crackers’ tart (145LE) – a variation of the banoffee pie. 

Neither tart disappointed; the coffee and Mars cake tasted just as its name suggested. The cream was fresh, airy and fluffy with a subtle hint of coffee, complete with a thin and crunchy biscuit base and topped with chewy chunks of Mars bar. Our personal favourite, however, was the banija crackers creation, topped with the same, thick layer of cream on top of a generous amount of ripe banana slices, sweet caramel sauce and a rich biscuit base. 

For a dessert that’s guaranteed to impress, pre-order or pop in to one of Delight’s many branches. Although the prices are a little on the high side, Delight proves that they produce some of the finest cakes, using some of our favourite ingredients to make delightful desserts.