Christine Manfield's favourite desserts in Sydney and Melbourne

It is my belief that desserts are an essential indulgence. At their best, they should seduce through visual imagery and flavour. A great dessert has the ability to transport you, to entice you out of the everyday. Dessert should be the ultimate and final seduction of the taste buds after a lunch or dinner, and clever ones don't drown the palate in sugar overdose.

I like desserts that are playful, witty and flavoursome, that create a fantasy of textural elements, surprise and mystery, elegance and fun.

A restaurant's dessert menu helps to define its personality, desserts are part of the whole package not some tacked on afterthought. Desserts must have a synergy with the savoury elements of a menu through flavour, style and craft. Desserts come and go off a menu according to the season of the fruit – some can be crafted in the same way using different fruit – using ripe produce in season is elementary.

Here's a hit list of my current favourite desserts in Sydney and Melbourne (and Tasmania).

In Sydney

Ross Lusted's clarity of vision and the precision of his craft shines throughout his menu at Bridge Room, this is contemporary food at its best and I absolutely adore the bold flavours of the black sesame paste whipped with Valrhona Opalys white chocolate and yoghurt, partnered with compressed piel de sapo melon (a Spanish variety now grown in Australia), puffed black rice, toasted sesame powder and a crunchy element of sesame seeds and walnuts blitzed with caramelised coconut sugar. This is a sculptural dessert that has been 10 years in the making, inspiring and skilful. No wonder it has been listed as one of the defining dishes of 2014.

A visit to Rockpool (in Bridge Street) is not complete without the pandan white custard vacherin with coconut parfait, jasmine sorbet and lime granita, the balance of flavours so perfect with delicate textures, like biting into a cloud. The mini slices of date tart as a petit four is inspired and, even if you just opt to sit at the bar, you are sweetened with delectable bite-size yuzu marshmallows dusted with fennel sugar, and that date tart.

The iconic Snow Egg has become the definitive dessert at Quay and epitomises the perfection of Peter Gilmore's acute attention to detail, the complexity of textural layers created in this deceptively simple-looking dessert. Try making it and you can appreciate the skill involved. This dessert morphs into different flavours throughout the year, depending on the fruit in season (guava, peach etc). Currently, it's all about mulberries, raspberries and strawberries, with a mulberry granita and strawberry ice-cream as the snow egg.

I can't go past the salted caramel semifreddo at Ester, talk about voluptuous texture with just the right amount of saltiness in the caramel. This is simplicity at its best and most wicked.

Churros and salted caramel – dipping these sugar-coated crunchy dough sticks (served in a paper bag) into a pot of salted caramel is pure decadence, reminding me of street snacks in Spain (where it was usually a pot of chocolate) and Buenos Aires, where dulce de leche reigns supreme.

I am a wee bit partial to the mandarin curd and sorbet with sesame aerated sponge and crunchy bits of toffee-like sesame praline at Monopole, a neighbourhood favourite, with its clever play of textures and refreshing flavours.

Thanks to Nathan Sasi's interpretation of Moorish flavours at Restaurant Nomad, I always think sexy Crema Catalana with its silken rich texture and tang of orange when I dive into the baked orange blossom custard with segments of tangy Seville orange, finger lime pearls and rolled dates and an almond croquant wafer for crunch on his dessert menu. Bloody delicious.

In Melbourne

If dessert is about seduction, then this one hits the nail on the head. Supernormal serves up an inspiring combo – a pillow of soft meringue with sheep milk yoghurt, and a green apple and shiso granita that is inspired, light and refreshing. If you can find space, also try the soft-serve miso and pink lady ice-cream in a small cardboard cup – so retro, so perfect.

Being rather fond of spice, I love the food at Tonka, and the perfect finale is a few of their bite-size balls of gulab jamun with saffron syrup and edible silver leaf, which does total justice to this classic Indian sweet.

A dinner at Prix Fixe is a grand affair, where Philippa Sibley presents a different set menu every month, each based on a theme to tie all the dishes together. In July it was all about the French Revolution and her take on Marie Antoinette's "let them eat cake" was a fantasy of almond joconde (a type of sponge cake), chocolate biscuit and sponge fingers bathed in a passionfruit rum syrup with passionfruit curd and caramel milk chocolate topped with a bouffant hairdo of almond milk sorbet. In September, it was La Dolce Vita with an olive oil cake scented with vanilla and Meyer lemon, slices of confit blood orange, served with pistachio nougat ice-cream.

For decadent takeaway desserts, nothing compares to the edible treats from Burch + Purchase Sweet Studio, especially their chocolate and caramel creations. My favourites are from their chocolate world – the sublime chocolate, hazelnut and salted caramel tart or the chocolate, mandarin and salted caramel – a perfect cube of dark chocolate mousse with a hidden centre of mandarin cream and aerated chocolate shortbread coated with a shiny chocolate glaze.

In Hobart

Head straight to Sweet Envy in Elizabeth Street, where Alastair and Teena Wise make the most divine cakes and pastries imaginable, the hardest part is deciding what to buy, so many temptations on offer, and one is never enough. It's worth flying south just for this.

Dessert Divas by Christine Manfield, published by Lantern, is on sale for $79.99.