Candied Bakery
81A Hudsons Road
Spotswood, VIC 3015
Ph: (03) 9391-1335
Website
Do you follow Dan Lepard on Twitter? He's the Aussie-born bread baker now based in Britain, and author of the fantastic book: The Handmade Loaf. He also writes an excellent column, How to Bake, for the Guardian newspaper. He was in Melbourne recently to film the Great Australian Bake-Off, and it's been so cool following his tweets as he discovers Melbourne's current food scene from an "outsider" perspective. (As someone who is really interested in Melbourne's dining scene and trends, I had to giggle when he tweeted his surprise that modern Mexican food is really popular in Melbourne right now!)
It was actually on his Twitter that I heard about Candied Bakery. Later that week, a friend of mine happened to suggest that we meet there for brunch, and I was more than keen! (She'd heard about Candied Bakery on Broadsheet). Coincidentally, in the days leading up to our brunch, the lovely Adrian from Food Rehab published a post about Candied Bakery, including droolworthy pictures and a great interview with the owners. Anticipation levels were through the roof!!!
And speaking of Adrian, you may be interested to know that his book: What The Heck is Filipino Food?, has just won The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for Best Asian Cuisine (Australia)!! Well done Adrian! Let's all send some much-deserved congratulations his way!
So... back to the bakery. Candied Bakery is on that stretch of Hudson Road in Spotswood that also houses Duchess of Spotswood and A Bunch of Cakes. The cafes, shops and houses there are kind of a mix between actually old, faux-retro throwback and the rapidly gentrifying.
The menu |
Condiments and cutlery |
Cappuccino - $3.80 |
My coffee was good - quite strong and at a pleasant drinking temperature. It wasn't in the stratospheric coffee league of, say, St. Ali or Proud Mary, but it was a satisfying coffee nonetheless.
Bread baked in-house |
So anyway, let's have a look at what we ate! Between the four of us, I think we did a great job covering the Australi-Ameri-Euro parts of the menu!
Beef & Onion roll - $5.00 |
And speaking of which...
Hot Beef Pie - $5.60 |
Our two friends ordered a roast beef ciabatta each. They were delightfully served with a side of potato chips. Cute!
Roast beef ciabatta roll - $9.50 |
And moving to a more European item... a zuppa inglese donut.
Zuppa Inglese Donut - $4.00 |
Ok, so we've talked bread, we've talked pastry, we've talked sandwiches, we've talked donuts. However, despite it being a bakery, my absolute favouritest thing at Candied Bakery is not a baked item at all, but their house-made soft serve.
Vanilla soft-serve - $4.50 |
Less colourful, but even more delicious, was the peanut butter and jelly soft serve.
Peanut Butter & Jelly soft serve - $4.50 |
I know, right? Peanut butter and jelly soft serve! Peanut butter jelly! Peanut butter jelly! Amaze! It was creamy and soft and had a lovely pure peanut flavour - I totally loved it. A word of warning though, these are quite rich and can definitely be shared - we shared this between three and struggled to finish.
I'm told they rotate their soft serve flavours - apparently they do a Milo-flavour as well. Cannot wait to try that one! (They have a Milo milkshake too... if I wasn't already so full I'd have totally ordered that too. Milo is The Best!)
One of our friends bought one of their famous nutella croissants to take home. I think she was planning on saving it for breakfast... but an hour after we left the cafe, I got a text from her: "I ate my croissant already". Whoops!
5 comments
Ommmggg peanut butter and jelly softserve? That totally has my name all over it! :D
ReplyDeleteI am pretty positive it was Bone Suckin' Mustard - amazing and a staple in my fridge. Essential for toasted ham & cheese sandwiches.
ReplyDeleteNutella Croissant? Say no more!
ReplyDeleteOh my god I need to visit just for the soft serve.
ReplyDeleteAw thanks for the props Sarah! You wok.
ReplyDeleteGosh, I need to get ma hands on the peanut butter & jelly soft serve pronto. Love this post