Brisbane's best sweet treats 2015
From sophisticated to silly, we hunt down the city's top 10 sugar hits.
Fairy bread at Rogue Bistro
Sorry kids, this one's for the grown-ups. A croissant base holds a triangle of toasted coconut cheesecake with a rainbow of "dipping dots" – fruit flavoured liquid ice-cream dropped into liquid nitrogen to resemble hundreds and thousands. It's then topped with a delicate wisp of fairyfloss. A big-kids' party treat.
14 Austin Street, Newstead, 07 3257 0227, roguebistro.com.au
Strawberry milkshake dessert at Vintaged
Sounds straight up, but the old milk bar classic is reimagined here with added extras of a white chocolate dome, berries, little crunchy pearls of white chocolate crumble, freeze-dried raspberries, meringue, strawberry ice-cream and fizzy strawberry pearls topped with Persian fairy floss.
Hilton Hotel, 190 Elizabeth Street, Brisbane, 07 3231 3265, vintagedbarandgrill.com.au
Unicorn Cream Pie at Chester Street Bakery
No unicorns were hurt in the production of this riotously colourful concoction. Bound to bring out the big kid in all of us, a white chocolate filling rests on a crushed Oreo crust studded with mini M&M jewels, the colours lightly swirled into the chocolate. It's then topped with dark cocoa cream topping and more M&Ms.
2A Chester Street, Newstead, 07 3852 4130, chesterstreet.com.au
Nutella pizza at Cowch
Ah Nutella. We always say yes to Nutella. Seems it's even truer than when this was the (annoying) TV jingle years ago. To be a player these days, it's practically mandatory to have a Nutella dessert on your menu. At Cowch the chocolate-hazelnut spread is slathered onto a sweet pizza base, drizzled with caramel and topped with slices of banana. That's fruit, so it's healthy, right?
2/179 Grey Street, South Brisbane, 07 3844 1559, cowch.com.au
Ice-cream bao at Kwan Brothers
It's said bao are the new burger. Or are they the new macaron? Sweet or savoury, Brisbane's in thrall to the milky-white soft Asian bun. Here they're deep-fried then filled with toasted sesame, pandan, palm sugar and ginger ice-cream in an Asian interpretation of the classic ice-cream sandwich.
43 Alfred Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3251 6588, kwanbros.com.au
Chocolate loukoumades at Zeus Street Greek
There's a lot of honeypuff love out there – largely thanks to an introduction to these light, syrup-drenched doughballs at the annual Greek festival in Musgrave Park. Zeus has zhuzhed up the Hellenic version of a doughnut by adding a generous drizzle of chocolate and sprinkle of crushed walnuts. Opa!
Shop 13/14, Little Stanley Street, South Brisbane, 07 3846 0200, zeusstreetgreek.com.au
Cream and jam doughnut at Flour and Chocolate
It's pretty serious when a baker will only do doughnuts once a week for purposes of quality control. Each "doughnut day" (Wednesday), there's a smorgasbord of flavours, but the squishy, long, jam- and cream-filled buns have a certain tuck-shop nostalgia about them that's impossible to resist.
621 Wynnum Road, Morningside, 07 3161 6246, flourandchocolate.com.au
Chocolate and raspberry roulade at Jocelyn's Provisions
A classic little black dress of a sweet, the chocolate and raspberry roulade has long been a Jocelyn's Provisions regulars' favourite. What's not to love about a dark Belgian chocolate cake rolled and filled with a white chocolate cream dotted with raspberries. Elegant and universally loved, it comes in a half (yeah right) or a full sized roll.
Centro On James, 8 Doggett Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3852 3799, jocelynsprovisions.com.au
Matcha angel cake at Sinmei Tea Room
Of course you can consume this guilt-free because it's an angel cake. Actually, matcha (Japanese green tea) is chock full of antioxidants, so you could almost consider this to be a big, delicious vitamin pill. The whisper-light earl grey sponge is topped with a vivid matcha cream and scattered with petals – almost too pretty to eat.
Scrumptious Reads, shop 5/6, 19 James Street, Fortitude Valley, 07 3852 6797, scrumptiousreads.com.au
Brownie meringue tart at Dello Mano
It seems it is possible to improve on perfection. The Dello Mano folks, never ones to rest on their laurels, have magic-ed one of their cult chocolate brownies into a tart shell and filled it with raspberry curd. Peaks of soft meringue and a shower of toasted coconut sweeten the deal.
29 Doggett Street (corner Doggett and Chester streets), Teneriffe, 1300 661 682, dellomano.com.au
What's your favourite Brisbane sweet? Let us know in the comments below.
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