Our ULTIMATE Guide to Everything Sweet

Do you really need our ULTIMATE guide to everything sweet? If you love a sugar hit, we reckon you do.

Sweet treats are some of life’s simplest pleasures but they certainly are delicious. Going out for a full meal is one thing but more and more people are going out with friends and family just to enjoy something to satisfy their sweet tooth too.

All across Australia there are plenty of establishments set up to provide just that. From ice cream stores to pancake restaurants, there are plenty of places you can check out for a high quality dessert or snack.

But where to go and what to eat? Well, with our guide to everything sweet, you are off the running.

Lune Croissanterie - Lemon Curd Cruffin - our ultimate guide to everything sweet

Sydney

One of Australia’s largest and most culturally diverse cities, Sydney is the perfect place to visit for an exciting culinary experience.

One of the best sweet treats to enjoy in any city is pancakes. These delightful fluffy treats can be enjoyed in so many ways. Stack them high and thick, American style, and drown them in syrups and toppings for a monster dessert. Alternatively, you can enjoy an elegant European style crepe with some carefully selected toppings for a lighter bite. Whatever you choose, it will definitely be delicious!

We’ve gone over some of the best pancake places in Sydney and one of our favorites is definitely Pancakes on the Rocks. As the name suggests, Pancakes on the Rocks is one of the best in the business for providing a great range of tasty pancakes and has been in the game since 1975! It’s since grown into a chain of restaurants with locations all over Sydney and New South Wales.

When you take a look at their menu, it’s clear to see why they’ve become so popular among local residents. It’s not just limited to pancakes and you can enjoy breakfast meals, salads, pizzas and grilled steaks if you want. However, when it comes to pancakes, you’ll be blown away by the choices on offer.

Savoury pancakes and crepes with seafood, Mexican and Thai inspirations make up only a small proportion of the menu. There are plenty of internationally inspired savoury dishes to choose from, which all have their own unique combinations of ingredients and flavors.

The excitement also continues into their famous sweet pancake menu. For a classic dish, try out the Devil’s Delight which takes the form of a chocolate pancake, topped with chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce and strawberries. What’s not to love? Alternatively, you can push the boat out and try an apple crumble pancake which is just as good as it sounds!

However, in a country that’s as constantly hot as Australia, you might be more interested in something cold. Ice cream is the perfect sweet treat to beat the heat and Cow and the Moon Gelato is pretty much the best you can get in Sydney. They feature on our list of the 15 best ice cream stores in Sydney.

Since 1993, this place has been providing Sydney with its interesting, unique and gorgeously creamy gelato.

They have 26 flavors on offer every day, with different ones rotating in and out regularly, meaning you can always come back another time and try something new.

Of course, you’ll find all the classics like lemon sorbet and vanilla bean, but you can also try out something a little outside the box like after dinner mint or banana salted caramello flavors.

The store doesn’t look like much from a distance, located on a street corner with a quaint outdoor seating area. However, once you step inside your eyes will be treated to an array of brightly colored ice creams on display. The decor inside keeps things simple and uses a rustic, wooden aesthetic to keep all of your focus on the delicious ice creams on offer.

The range of goodness isn’t just limited to ice cream, though- you can go for some cake and a coffee if you fancy it for a lovely sit-down cafe experience. All of their coffee drinks are made with Single 0 Roasters coffee beans, with high quality ingredients as a first priority.

Similarly, you can order small-ish cakes to be shared between 3 or 4 people, or alternatively order something a little more sizable that can feed up to 15! All of the cakes sold at Cow and the Moon are handmade in store and can be created to your specifications. They require at least three days’ notice for any of these orders but that just ensures that they have enough time to make it as tasty as possible!

Speaking of cakes, if you’re looking for a dedicated cake store/bakery that can cater for a party or simply provide you with a delightfully fluffy treat, there’s plenty of choice in Sydney.

Personally, we think that Textbook Patisserie is one of the best places to try out for their cakes. It’s a fantastic, Sydney based bakery run by expert pastry chef, John Ralley. He and all the staff who work there use their wealth of experience and technical skills to make some of the most complex and delicious desserts imaginable.

This expertise definitely carries over into their chocolate coffee mocha cake that we’ve dubbed the best in Sydney. The blend of coffee and chocolate flavors isn’t something everyone will enjoy but even the most apathetic coffee drinker will appreciate how well these ingredients balance in this cake. Thankfully for these people, the coffee flavor comes more as an accompaniment to the chocolate which is definitely the headline ingredient with this cake.

It’s also a very convenient thing to order for a number of occasions or as a gift. You can order single serve portions of the cake, which are about the same size as a cupcake. Alternatively, you could go for something larger to serve at a special event. The 6” round option will serve around 6-8 portions, making it perfect for an intimate get together and great if you don’t mind a little bit leftover. However, the sizes also go all the way up to the full luxurious, rectangular cake, which can serve up to 50 people! With this option you know all your party guests will be well fed.

Whatever option you go for, the gorgeous presentation will have your mouth watering before you’ve even taken a bite. The icing is gorgeously swirled across the top of the cake, with a few roasted coffee beans adorning it to remind you of the rich coffee flavor inside. You’ll even find some gold leaf on top to really bring the classy aesthetic together.

We’ve also taken a look at the 10 best dessert stores in Sydney. for the best all-round dessert store in the city, you have to check out Koi Dessert Kitchen. It has a unique approach to sweet cuisine that has people flocking to it every day.

The whole interior is almost laid out like a scientific laboratory, with clean white walls and various tools and implements on shelves all around the room.

Overall though, the atmosphere in the cafe is very inviting and designed to make guests feel comfortable. The simple and intimate table layout encourages socializing with your fellow guests while still allowing you to view the beautiful array of bite-sized sweet treats on display.

However, this place not only offers a great dining experience, but also offers classes to spread their expert knowledge of cakes and pastries. When you book one of these classes, you’ll be taken behind the scenes to see how an award winning dessert kitchen produces such high quality food. This is a really fun activity that the whole family can get involved in and doesn’t require any prior experience or expertise as the staff are always on hand to help everyone out.

The cakes sold at Koi Dessert Kitchen are all made in store and are each completely unique from each other and probably any other cake store you’ve been to before! Browsing their online store, your eyes will be treated to an array of bright greens, pinks and yellows all over the cakes. Even when the cake itself is somewhat monotone, they do their best to add some flair and vivid colors in the decorative toppings they use on top.

This is a great place to visit if you’re in Sydney. Even if you’re not hungry and don’t want to buy anything, the treat of browsing through all the gorgeous goods they have on display is fulfilling enough for most!

Brisbane

We’re taking a look at Brisbane now, which has a great range of bakeries across the whole city. Our list of the 15 best bakeries in Brisbane has everything you need when it comes to baked goods like cakes, cookies and everything in between.

If you’re after a place for your crunchy fresh loaves of bread or specially made cakes for a big event, look no further than Flour And Chocolate.

When it comes to bakeries, this place really does cover all the bases. Of course, you’ll find all the savory bakery essentials like bread, sandwiches and sausage rolls. However, their sweet selection is what sets them apart from the others in Brisbane.

On their cake menu alone, there are four different types of cake to choose from, with all the traditional flavors on offer. Go for a classic chocolate cake with a deep, dark ganache or indulge in a raspberry velvet chocolate cake for a more tangy taste.

However, the sweety goodness doesn’t stop there. Flour And Chocolate also offers roulade, donuts, brownies, blondies, vanilla slices, eclairs, profiteroles, winter puddings and traditional tarts. If that isn’t enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, then nothing will!

Even just walking into this place is a real treat for the eyes. They have display cases all around the interior, showing off the gorgeous wares on offer. If you come here for a sit down snack, you can even enjoy your food in the sunshine in their outdoor seating area.

Alternatively, there are plenty of more elegant establishments available, too. We’ve found our top 13 places to get high tea in Brisbane to help you out.

One place that features on the list is W Brisbane, a classy hotel that offers just as delicious sweet snacks as it does savory.

When most people think of high tea, hot drinks and finger sandwiches are some of the first things that come to mind. However, W Brisbane does a great job of providing food for guests with a more sweet tooth. You should definitely try out their chocolate cherry profiteroles to liven up your taste buds!

Of course, Brisbane also has some fantastic cafes to enjoy a quick sweet snack with a hot drink. In our selection of the 15 best cafes in Brisbane, we found out about John Mills Himself. No, we’re not talking about a guy named John Mills, that’s the actual name of the cafe!

This place has four different options for chocolate drinks alone, so you can tell they know what they’re talking about when it comes to sweetness.

However, as well as the drinks, they offer a great variety of small cupcakes, brownies and other sweet things that are left on display for all to see.

Breakfast food also tends to provide a lot of sweet options. If you’re interested in finding somewhere for an early morning sweet meal, you should definitely check out the 15 best breakfast joints in Brisbane.

Melbourne

If you’re looking for somewhere to enjoy a relaxing, sit down dining experience with lovely hot drinks and tasty sweet treats in the city, you’ll probably want to look at the 15 best cafes in Melbourne. Here, we’ve taken a look at some of the best places to visit for a relaxing way to to enjoy some sweet foods and drinks.

Mammoth is one of our favorites from the list. Its focus isn’t necessarily on sweet foods, but it still offers a very good selection of sweet and savory delights to be enjoyed in a comfortable cafe atmosphere.

Their sweet menu includes all the classic staples like muffins, banana bread, brownies and cookies. It isn’t necessarily the best place in Melbourne if you’re only interested in the highest quality sweet foods possible. However, a day spent here will fly by thanks to the great atmosphere and intimate vibes.

It’s a quaint little cafe on a street corner that has a simply decorated, well lit interior that provides the perfect environment for a long overdue catch up with friends. For this kind of quick coffee meeting or sweet treat run, we feel like Mammoth is one of the best all-rounders you’ll find in Melbourne.

However, if you’re only interested in pure, unadulterated sweetness at the end of a meal, you’ll have to take a look at the 15 best places for dessert in Melbourne. These places aren’t necessarily all dedicated to producing sweet foods, but they all have at least one fantastic item on their dessert menu that can’t be ignored.

One such place is Entrecote, which we included on this list for its lemon tart. It’s a classic dessert dish that perfectly cuts through the savory saltiness of a main course with its sharp and zesty citrus flavors.

Melbourne is also, of course, home to the already legendary Lune Croissanterie. However, Kate Reid’s temple to laminated pastry isn’t the only noteworthy croissant shop in town. And then there’s the emerging star of the booming Melbourne doughnut scene – the naughty, but oh so nice Levain Doughnuts.

Overall, this restaurant is a great place to visit for its French style menu. However, if you can only order one thing from Entrecote, it should definitely be from the dessert section!

Final Thoughts

Of course, there are plenty of other sweet food establishments in Australia that we couldn’t find space for on this list. For a more in-depth look at more places like these, check out our other guides to the best bakeries, dessert stores, pancakes or cakes in all the major Australian cities.

If you’re doing your own research and looking out for the best place near you, there’s plenty of stuff you can find just on the internet to inform your decision. Google Maps and reviews will give you plenty of insight into how well received a restaurant or store is. You should always look out for places that have lots of reviews, rather than only a handful of good ones.

Alternatively, if you stick to anything listed in one of the guides on this website, you’re sure to have a great meal out with friends and family.

Bon appetit!