Melbourne’s Scroll Craze Might Have Peaked. Newcomer Scroll Lab Isn’t Worried

The scroll dominated Melbourne bakeries last year, and new bakeries are still dedicating themselves to the gooey treat. Ballarat-born Scroll Lab, which just opened in Brunswick West, is one of them. And chef-owner Daniel Shrimpton, who has worked at restaurants in London and Ballarat over the past two decades, is doing his dough differently.

“A lot of people have said to me, ‘Oh, you’re just doing cinnamon scrolls. Are you a bit scared that the fad might go?’” Shrimpton says. “I think fads come and go when you’re not very good. But the aim is to create a product that people want to eat again.”

Shrimpton fell into baking cinnamon scrolls in 2023, when he became head chef at Cobb’s Coffee in Ballarat. He launched Scroll Lab in 2024, popping up at Cobb’s and another former workplace, Ballarat Thai diner Mr Jones, as well as local events around the goldfields. After almost two years, Shrimpton decided to “have a bit of blind faith” – which meant selling his house to move the bakery into a permanent 10-seat space on Grantham Street in Melbourne.

The baker says he was inspired to open a specialty store by Southeast Asian hawker stalls “where they just do one thing”, and he’s constantly tweaking his recipe. “Every day I’ll write down the temperatures, the pH of the dough, and I’ll think about [improving] something.”

While most scrolls rely on yeast to rise, Shrimpton uses panettone starter in a three-day process. The idea struck while he was experimenting with sourdough techniques, and he promptly booked into Preston’s award-winning breadmaking school Oji House to learn about the naturally leavened Christmas cake.

Scroll Labs’ panettone starter is “finicky”, Shrimpton says. He jokes that it’s his baby: he has to feed it three times daily at different temperatures and ferment it overnight until it’s ready to use in the scroll dough. Then, ingredients like organic Sri Lankan cinnamon and St David Dairy butter are added, as well as malt for an airy crumb, before the second dough proofs for another eight hours.

The result is like a cross between milk bread and brioche that stays soft and fluffy. Five flavours – listed on butcher’s paper behind the shop’s American oak counter – rotate every month or so, including jam doughnut and matcha topped with fresh raspberries. But the original cinnamon scroll, with its swirls of classic cream-cheese frosting and vanilla bean glaze, is here to stay.

Thai milk tea scrolls, dotted with crispy rice and palm sugar caramel, come from Shrimpton’s time cooking at Thai restaurants like the famous Som Saa in London (its owners trained under David Thompson) and Mr Jones. Another Thai-inspired invention pairing red curry paste with sweet braised pork belly is in the works.

There will always be a savoury scroll on the menu. It’s currently a Vegemite-and-honey combo laminated in croissant dough – Shrimpton learnt the technique from the pastry pros at Carlton North’s Amann Patisserie – and topped with parmesan and olive oil.

Coffee is from Rumble Coffee Roasters – including a cheeky cold brew, called Scroll Daddy, starring brown-sugar syrup and a cinnamon scroll-inspired foam. There’s also a salted coconut matcha laced with palm sugar and coconut-infused cream.

Before he moved to London, Shrimpton was a Brunswick West local. Now he lives just around the corner from Scroll Lab. “I’ve been all over the place for like 20 years,” he says. “This is probably the happiest that I’ve been in a long time. I didn’t grow up in Brunswick, but it feels like home to me.”

Scroll Lab

6 Grantham Street, Brunswick West

Hours:

Thu & Fri 7.30am–2pm

Sat & Sun 8am–1pm

@scrolllab