Cake Lover’s Guide To Sydney

Sydney gives great cake so I’ve put together this delicious journey, from the airport to the Central Business District, via the city’s best cake shops. No matter what Sydney suburb you find yourself in, this guide will have your cake cravings covered!

Waterloo

Top Cake: Cronuts and Donuts at Devon On Danks

First up on our cake-filled tour of Sydney are some Asian-inspired treats from the bakers at Devon On Danks. This sister property to the popular Devon Café near Sydney Central is a light-flooded industrial conversion that was made for Instagramming. On the cronut counter you’ll find unusual flavour combinations including red bean and matcha and sweet mayo with pork floss, whilst their ‘Danks-In-Donuts’ are pastel coloured balls of goodness, that come with a pipette of raspberry sauce.

Update April 17: These guys have now moved to Barangaroo. Find them at  Shop 19, 200 Barangaroo Avenue.

Best Of The Rest: Also found on Danks Street is artisan sourdough bakery Sonoma, who do great cruffin, and Kepos Street Kitchen on Phillip Street who serve incredible clotted cream filled muffins on pretty patterned plates. For delicate French pastries head to The French House on the corner of Danks Street and Young Street.

Alexandria

Top Cake: Raw Goodness at Pana Chocolate

I don’t know how they do it but Alexandria’s Pana Chocolate manage to make the most delicious desserts out of healthy ingredients. Their cakes, which include Caramel Choc Chunk and Raspberry Ripple, are dairy, soy, gluten and refined sugar free, and they’re as tasty as they are pretty. Don’t forget to get some of the velvety, rich chocolate to take away too.

Best Of The Rest: In the same converted warehouse as Pana Chocolate you’ll find my favourite lemon pancakes with caramelised banana at Bread & Circus. You can also get great coffee from Campos, situated at the front of the building, and simply perfect cinnamon cronuts from the Rosetta Stone Bakery.

Alexandria is also home to the ‘mega-café’ that is the Grounds Of Alexandria – a roaster, restaurant, garden, market and petting zoo combined. As well as roasting great coffee in their research facility they also freshly bake all sorts of delicious cakes – including zingy fruit tarts and fresh doughnut balls.

Newtown

Top Cake: Brewnuts at Brewtown Newtown

You can’t come to Newtown in Sydney’s Inner West without trying a Brewnut – the famed collection of donuts and cronuts cooked up at Brewtown Newtown. Whether glazed, cream-filled, covered in crumble or drizzled with chocolate, a Brewnut is always a good decision.

Best Of The Rest: For something a bit less heavy try the Strawberry Watermelon Cake with Rose Scented Cream at Black Star Pastry on Australia Street, or for something a bit more Aussie check out the Tim Tam chocolate pie at The Pie Tin.

Surry Hills

Top Cake: Gelato Messina

Onto Surry Hills where you probably weren’t expecting to visit a gelateria on a cake tour but wait till you see what Gelato Messina have in their window. Gelato Messina make all kinds of delicious gelato combinations, which often involve anything from cakes to biscuits, as well as giant gelato cakes. The constantly changing specials are announced on their Instagram account (I always keep an eye out for anything with the word brownie in it) but their range of regular flavours are pretty awesome too (I can’t visit without ordering a scoop of the salted caramel with white chocolate chip).

Best Of The Rest: For more deliciously crazy cronut concoctions (think: stuffed with peanut butter ice cream and dulce de leche) head to Paramount Coffee Project. For pretty cupcakes there is Sparkle Cupcakery and for some of Sydney’s best hotcakes head to Bills.

CBD (Central Business District)

Top Cake: Anything by Adriano Zumbo

In Sydney’s CBD you are never too far from great cake thanks to master patissier Adriano Zumbo. His colourful cakes and croquembouche have been the subject of masterclasses on Masterchef, whilst his macaroons are so well-loved they’re known as Zumbarons. The store in Balmain is the original Zumbo’s outlet but I’m a fan of the pop-up in the historic Queen Victoria Building.

Best Of The Rest: For a more traditional afternoon tea experience head to The Tea Room at QVB where men in white gloves will serve you finger sandwiches and proffer cakes on tiered stands.

The Rocks

Top Cake: All the desserts at the Guylian Cafe

The creators of the world’s most popular Belgian chocolates chose Sydney as the location of their first cafe and boy am I glad they did. At The Rocks Guylian Cafe you can order a whole array of chocolate infused desserts from rich chocolate cake, to dark chocolate mousses and the Guylian praline creme brûlée. If I had to chose just 1 top cake though, my money would be on the Guylian Bombe Au Chocolate – a Belgian dark and white chocolate mousse with Guylian praline.

Note: You can also find Guylian Cafes at Circular Quay and Darling Quarter. And if you have any room after cake you must try their praline hot chocolate.

Best Of The Rest: Chocoholics will also love the Wickedly Sweet Chocolate Afternoon Tea at Shangri La Sydney – take it from an expert chocolate eater when I say the chocolate scones and range of sweet treats created by Executive Pastry Chef Anna Polyviou are TO DIE FOR!

And on that note I shall leave you cake lovers at Sydney Harbour. You might want to take a little stroll to digest all those sweet treats!

This post forms my entry to the Problogger and Virgin Australia Top Travel Tips contest. I thought I’d combine my knowledge of cake with my love for travel around Sydney and share these secrets with you!

Update: I won! Thanks so much for your support.

You might also enjoy these 5 Foodie Experiences In Sydney and many more sweet treats in the Girl Tweets World Guide To Sydney.