Best Cake Shops in Sydney
There are so many places to find great cakes in Sydney. Our Italian population has been making gloriously soft ricotta cheesecakes since the '80s – but more recently a new wave of innovative young pastry chefs have brought us cuisine-blending creations that break the mould entirely. Whether you want to order a birthday number the size of a truck-tyre, or just sit in for a single slice, here’s our edit of the best cakes in Sydney.
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Flour and Stone Annexe
Classic English and French cakes made with high quality ingredients. Its pannacotta-soaked lamingtons are baked-goods royalty. Easily one of the best options in Sydney for a large takeaway cake – lemon drizzle, and chocolate and raspberry are the most popular.
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Salma’s Canteen
Two top chefs have joined forces to open a casual eatery in South Sydney. The red-brick one-stop shop has you covered with vibrant lunchtime salads, deli provisions and the city’s most Instagrammable desserts.
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Hearthe
Christopher Thé created the country’s most famous dessert. Now, he’s focusing on native ingredients at this beautiful cafe in an old butcher’s shop. As well as his signature cakes, pastries and elegant brunches are also on the card.
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Penny Fours
Frangipane tarts, brûlées, lemon meringues and everything else you associate with traditional bakeries of the past. But this one isn't run by any old fogey. The boss is Penelope Ransley, a former pastry chef at Tetsuya’s and Sepia, and a former baker at Iggy's Bread of the World.
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Black Star Pastry Newtown
Internationally famous for basically one thing: a beautifully layered strawberry and watermelon cake that tastes as delicate and light as it looks. That's far from its only worthwhile order, though. Chiffons come in black sesame; the raspberry and lychee takes the same light and delicate cues from the signature creation; and the vegan chocolate popcorn cake is a showstopper.
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Cherry Moon
This quaint inner-west venue is a cafe, a woodfired bakery and a grocer. The kitchen is helmed by a an ex-Rockpool and Tetsuya pastry chef. On top of stellar sourdough (which may just be the best in the inner-west), the cakes here are particularly noteworthy. If you come to Cherry Moon and they have the upside down orange cake, buy as many slices as your stomach can handle, and then some.
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Brickfields
Even if you've never been to or heard of Brickfields you've likely tried its goods. The Chippendale bakery supplies many of Sydney's best cafes with bread, Persian love cakes and croissants. Not as well known are its bigger cakes, such as the salted caramel and choc, and the zucchini and spelt. Those syrupy and chiffon-soft love cakes can also be supersized.
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Koi Dessert Bar Chippendale
A patisserie and dessert bar with a zealous cult following. That's mostly thanks to the Poernomo name, made famous by two of three brothers who've found success on Masterchef, both in Australia and internationally. Koi's creations are creative, pan-Asian inspired and texturally rich.
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Gelato Messina
It changed the game with its gelato and again with its gelato cakes. Before Messina we'd never seen ice-cream cakes that look like pieces of forest foliage or sculptural works of art. Some literally bubble and pop in your mouth, others crack and fold like gelato isn't supposed to. All of them taste as a gelato cake should: like proper, richly flavoured gelato made with real ingredients.
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Wellington Cake Shop
For Sydney's Hungarian, Polish and Jewish populations, Wellington is an institution. Since opening in Bondi in 1979, Leslie Brull's cake shop has been one of the only places to get traditional Eastern European strudels, sponge cakes and biscuits. Its most famous creation, for good reason, is the mighty kuglóf, a hollow, bell-shaped bread-y cake layered with chocolate.
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Pasticceria Papa
Like any good Italian pasticceria, this place makes a mean baked-ricotta cake. That and the lemon cheesecake are our two go-tos here, and at most Italian bakeries in Sydney.
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Tokyo Lamington
A former Black Star Pastry chef is behind this tiny bakery in an inner west backstreet. Playful spins on the classic Aussie cake are speciality (think yuzu-meringue or pandan and coconut), but you can also expect onigiri filled with traditional Japanese flavours and a few inspired creations such as bacon-and-egg.
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Goodwood Bakeshop
This tiny neighbourhood bakehouse is run by a couple who list some of Sydney’s best bakeries on their CVs. Get in early for crunchy croissants, rustic sourdough and seasonal-fruit danishes – they often sell out.
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Pasticceria Tamborrino
Beyond having some of Sydney's best cannoli, the made-to-order cakes at Tamborrino are very worthwhile. You won't find any surprises in terms of flavours, but every cake is executed superb technique.
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Bourke Street Bakery
This is no longer the glorious, one-of-a-kind bakery it was when it first opened in Surry Hills, but its carrot and flourless chocolate cakes remain some of Sydney's best. Grab a single slice of these simple, unpretentious cakes, or take a full one home.
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Banksia Bakehouse
A one-stop shop for celebration cakes, savoury lunch-time pastries and croissants made with a recipe that took 15 months to perfect. From the street, you can watch the team prepare all of the above inside the glass-encased kitchen.
