If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I have a massive sweet tooth. I LOVE dessert! So I thought it was about time I did up a list of my favourites in Canberra. In no particular order:

1. Ricardo’s Cafe

Located at the Jamison shops, Ricardo’s Cafe is hugely popular amongst locals and I know of others that travel 20-30 minutes just for a Ricardo’s cake fix (myself included). The long glass display cabinet filled with gorgeous looking cakes will make you drool at first glance. Oh the colours, shapes and flavours!

Some of my favourites are the pineapple meringue (in the shape of a pineapple!), the mango cheesecake, and the magnum. Cakes are regularly changing so there will be something different to choose from each time you visit. Best of all, the majority of cakes are gluten free. Then there are the cronuts. Ricardo’s is the place where I tried my first ever cronut. The cronuts have come a long way since that first time, and now they are decorated with very naughty toppings and a syringe filled with a yummy flavour that you can inject into cronut.

I couldn’t resist adding another shot of all the cronuts, tarts, croissants and melting moments!

This is a good lead-in the self-injecting donuts that come with regularly changing flavours from jam to cookies and cream, all in a plastic syringe. And I can’t forget the range of pastries like danishes and tarts, and a colourful assortment of macarons. If you want to sample a few of the cakes, high tea is available on weekends.

Jamison can be quite far depending where you live in Canberra. But it’s so worth it. Go on, make the drive. It’s super busy on weekends for brunch so bookings are essential if you plan to dine in.

2. Smoque’s Deep Fried Oreos

A more recent addition to the Smoque menu are the deep fried oreos. Served with a scoop of Mr Frugii’s cookies and cream gelato, there are are four whole oreos that have been battered and deep fried until crispy.

The oreos are warm with a melted middle so it was a little oozy but not so much that it melted in your hand. Sooo good! It felt like eating the naughtier version of a childhood treat. And who doesn’t love Frugii gelato?

Inside the warm oreo…

I easily polished this off on my own – it was just too good to share. At only $8.90, this won’t break the bank.

3. Patissez

Patissez has some seriously awesome milkshakes, or ‘freakshakes‘ as people are calling it. I am in love with the Muddy Pat and the Nutella and Salty Pretzel shake. The Muddy Pat was everything I wanted and more. First of all, a large square piece of toasted marshmallow on top of an even bigger super moist chocolate fudge brownie. All of this on top of a cloud of whipped cream which sits on a thick chocolate ganache that is smeared around the mason jar. Then you get to the hot chocolate with chocolate fudge. So bad for you but oh so good!

The Nutella and Salty Pretzel freakshake (I think it’s been renamed since I was there) has lashings of Nutella, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream and crushed salty pretzel. OMG it tasted just as good as it looked. I loved scraping off and licking the smooth thick Nutella on the outside of the jar and was equally happy to find more inside the jar with lots of vanilla ice cream and cream. Patissez make over 400 freakshakes a day!

Apart from the freakshakes, the cakes are also a must try. Some of the cakes are super tall and just look plain amazing and over the top. Other smaller cakes are worth trying such as Patissez’ take on the black forest cake, the delicious eclairs and vanilla bean bavarois with poached pear. Get in early if you want a table. Since this place went viral globally, the wait times are notoriously long.

4. Mr Scroll

Mr Scroll is a distributor of Oregano Bakery’s famous scrolls. Oregano Bakery is located in South Hurstville, NSW, so it’s great that we have these delivered to us through Mr Scroll each Sunday at the Old Bus Depot Markets. I am in love with these scrolls. My favourites are the white chocolate mocha, cookies and cream, Turkish Cherry Delight, and the original cinnamon scroll.

The scrolls are soft, fresh, with multiple layers of scroll and excellent filling between the layers making it more moist and delicious.

Scrolls are $6 each and large enough to share between two, especially if you want to look after the waistline.

5. The Flute Bakery

Located in Fyshwick, The Flute Bakery is only open weekdays from 7.30am – 3.00pm. The types of cakes change daily and sell quickly. My favourites are the 10 textured chocolate cake, triple chocolate mousse cake and macaron tart. The individual macarons are big and come in many different flavours.

I like getting the cute petite fours where you get 4 mini-desserts for the price of one. The petite fours change regularly too.

Orders are taken for full-sized cakes and the cake list with prices can be found on their website. Not only are the cakes fantastic, so are the hot pies! Baked fresh every day. If you manage to get a weekday off, it is well worth visiting.

6. Meating Room

The Meating Room introduced its deep fried mars bar cheesecake when it first opened its doors in Weston Creek. This was decadent from the first bite. The sensation of melt in your mouth warmth in a dessert, mixed with cheesecake goodness, then the richness of a mars bar, all in one bite. It rocked my world.

7. Morks

Morks’ Sweet Egg in Hay dessert consists of two scoops of coconut icecream, sweetened condensed milk, toasted shaved coconut, fairy floss and crispy puff pastry. This dessert is HEAVEN. There are so many delectable coconut flavours and textures to this dish. Foodgasm, oh yes! If you love coconut, you’ll love this!

8. Italian Continental Bakery and Cafe

The display cabinet at the Italian Continental Bakery and Cafe in Mawson will make you do a double take. It is filled with a variety of Italian sweet treats from fat Italian doughnuts, custard cream filled Sicilian cannoli, eclairs, vanilla slices, cronuts, macarons and so much more. I remember standing in front of the display cabinet in awe – half panicked because I couldn’t try everything I wanted and filled with greedy anticipation to get those pastries in my belly.

Pastries are made fresh each morning. Both the traditional Sicilian cannoli and the baked cannoli are my go-to items for work morning teas (I cut them into thirds for easy bite sized pieces).

9. Eightysix

The signature dessert at Eightysix is the caramel popcorn sundae which shot to fame with Canberrans and even made the cover of a popular food magazine. Such a simple dessert – two scoops of vanilla and butterscotch ice cream, unsalted popcorn, caramel sauce, chunks of peanut butter brittle and a cute upside down mini waffle cone. Everything worked and I remember eating this in blissful silence as I stole most of this from my partner. I cant imagine anything that would make this sundae better.

10. Italian & Sons / Bacaro

I think the tiramisu at Italian & Sons / Bacaro in Braddon is the best you can get in Canberra. Big call but I’m stating it until proven otherwise. A very well balanced combination of perfectly soaked and moist lady fingers with thick creamy mascarpone. Since I don’t drink alcohol, I loved the fact that there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of liquor in it. So yummy.

Special mentions

Special mentions go to Koko Black for the more upmarket chocolatey concoctions.

Frugii for great gelato in amazing flavours (the award-winning vanilla, popular salted caramel, popcorn, musk stick, beer, truffle, and butter chicken!) not to mention the choux pastries.

And last but not least, La Sable Patisserie, a fairly new dessert destination in Mitchell that offers lots of variety – choux pastries, entremets, cheesecake, tarts, macarons and pies.

So there you have it. I hope this helps if you’re trying to find your next sugar fix 🙂

If you want more random photos and updates about food, I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Facebook: /foodpornjournal
Twitter: @foodpornjournal
Instagram: /foodpornjournal