Okay, fine, you got us – there’s more than a baker’s dozen bakers at this year’s Baker’s Dozen. There was a baker’s dozen, but then everything had to go and be so gosh-dang delicious that we had no choice but to add an extra 10 bakers from Victoria and beyond. Here’s what you want to eat from each one.
Iris x A.P. Bakery’s mango-coconut cream puff
Quite possibly the most talked about pastry at this year’s Dozen, this collaborative confection by Iris and Sydney’s A.P. Bakery is the first to feature a baker from beyond the Victorian border; a recipe for delicious intrigue and something that’s going to get plenty of attention.
All Are Welcome’s khachapuri egg boat pastry
Georgia’s sacred contribution to the pantheon of baking is also its national dish: the khachapuri. They vary from region to region, but the version that comes from the Black Sea region of Adjara is the most eye-catching – a boat-shaped pastry filled with molten sulguni cheese and an egg yolk. For Baker’s Dozen, All Are Welcome has riffed one into a Danish of sorts, and the results are mind-blowing.
Antara 128’s soft-serve croissant
Soft-serve what? That’s right, friends – and it’s flavoured with pumpkin spice, salted-sourdough miso and macadamia.
Baker Bleu’s custard tart
This isn’t some every-country-bakery-wins-a-ribbon custard tart – this is a ripper inspired by Portuguese tarts and made with sourdough pastry and ridiculously good custard.
Tarts Anon’s smoked pecan and butterscotch tart
A classic for a reason. Clean lines, unbelievable flavour.
Kudo’s lamington bear ice-cream
The CBD’s pre-eminent gluten-free bakery comes to the party with a darling lamington canelé shaped like a little bear. Throw some ice-cream in the mix and delight in the sweetness.
Lulu & Me’s Basque cheesecake
Lulu & Me damn near broke the interwebs when it launched its pay-by-weight cheesecake shop. They’ll be moving some serious product at Baker’s Dozen this year; don’t miss their Basque cheesecake.
Lumos’s brownie bomb
A fudgy brownie encased in a croissant. Kaboom!
Madeleine de Proust’s hazelnut madeleine
If you don’t identify as a madeleine fan right now, I’m all but certain you will come Baker’s Dozen. Lygon Street’s Madeleine de Proust is a wonderland of mini French cakes, and the hazelnut flavour, made with hazelnut ganache, hazelnut paste, cacao butter and espresso syrup – might be their very best. (Plus, it looks like a hazelnut.)
Mietta by Rosemary’s carrot cake
Eight-layer-carrot-cake alert! It’s actually 16 layers if you count the Valrhona white chocolate in between the spongy carrot and pecan goodness, and it’s one of Melbourne’s most sought-after cakes.
Bakers Delight’s raspberry and peach scone
Bakers Delight is bringing three champion scones to Baker’s Dozen for Vote #1 Scone – probably the biggest democratic vote in Melbourne baking history. Your job is to eat them all and elect your champion into the annals of baking history (and the cabinets of select Bakers Delight stores). I don’t want to influence your decision, but might I strongly suggest trying the raspberry and peach. Vote #1 Scone – or bear the crushing weight of baker’s despair.
Monforte Viennoiserie’s salted hojicha kouign-amann
That is one fancy-sounding baked good. Nothing like a dense little Breton pastry filled with roasted green tea in the morning.
Raya’s Hainanese kaya and banana layered chiffon cake
Raymond Tan’s Southeast Asian bakery doesn’t miss. The kueh, the cookies, but most of all, the chiffon cake. This one features kaya – one of the world’s great jams – and banana. Impossibly light, improbably delicious.
The Flour Melbourne’s mont blanc cake
Long live the mont blanc: both the tricked-up coffee that took Melbourne by siege in 2022 and the French dessert sculpted with noodles of sweet chestnut purée. You’ll find the latter at The Flour’s tent at Baker’s Dozen: a melange of soufflé sponge, French chestnut purée folded with mascarpone cream, candied chestnuts and Valrhona white chocolate ganache. Sucre bleu!
To Be Frank’s carbonara twist
This Baker’s Dozen, everybody’s doing the carbonara twist. Take everything you love about a bowl of piping hot carbonara – parmesan, pancetta, black pepper and grated cured egg yolk – transfigure it into a laminated pastry and delight in the deft and clever ways of Collingwood’s finest bakery
By Frank Sweet