Canelés, Tiramisu and Basque Cheesecakes: Three Micro-Bakeries Doing One Thing Right

Some of the most exciting bakeries and pastry shops in Melbourne began with chefs who honed in on one thing and started selling it semi-underground. Gareth Whitton and Catherine Way started Tarts Anon with flyers in their building during lockdown, and HyoJu Park and Rong Yao Soh’s Madeline de Proust was an Instagram bakery long before it opened on Lygon Street, Carlton. Here are three micro-bakeries we love, each with their own specialty.

Pinto Tiramisu (formerly Trmsu)

Pinto Tiramisu’s founders, brothers Clancy and Finley Ivanac, have no formal culinary training, but they developed an appreciation for food and produce growing up on their family’s sheep and cattle farm. The brothers are “obsessed” with tiramisu and, after years of rating tiramisu they’d found in the wild, started working on their own recipe in December 2023.

They now pop up at different farmers markets around Melbourne including the Carlton Farmers Market and the Rose St. Market in Fitzroy. They always have a classic tiramisu on offer, along with a monthly special. Previous specials have included a matcha tiramisu and a hazelnut and brown butter variation, while the current one is a black sesame and Bad Bees honey number.

They’re currently making their tiramisu slabs, which can be pre-ordered via the Pinto website, in their home kitchen in Fitzroy. But they have plans to open a standalone shop with a kitchen in the coming months.

Wake Wake

Partners Yoko and Julien Rius started their canelé business in 2023. Yoko, originally from Japan, previously worked at Shimbashi Soba, while Julien, originally from France, spent four years making Portuguese egg tarts at Melbourne’s Casa Nata before moving on to roast cacao and make chocolate bars at Mork.

They bake the canelés at home using specialty rum and Australian vanilla beans. For now, the focus is on a single flavour, “so that people can experience the true authenticity and roots of what a canelé should be,” the couple tell Broadsheet via email. But new flavours – including matcha and French tea, nods to their respective heritages – are on the way.

You can find Wake Wake canelés at cosy Brunswick matcha spot Osoi or order directly from Wake Wake’s Instagram and website.

Bakt

Bakt is all about burnt Basque cheesecakes. Founded by friends Vy Tran and Jasmine Tran (no relation) during lockdown in 2021, the micro-bakery has a rotating menu of flavours – such as Vietnamese iced coffee and yuzu, jasmine and white peach – inspired by their Southeast Asian heritage. “We are always pushing the boundaries of what a Basque cheesecake can be,” says Vy.

The duo bakes from a home kitchen in Caroline Springs, with orders available via Instagram DM for pick-up in Docklands. Once a month, Bakt also offers delivery, alternating between the northern and south-eastern suburbs.