MoMo & Coco

Melbourne’s Best Asian Cake Shops

Introduction

Can you believe that we have been dessert blogging for almost 15 years?? :O  Where has time gone? From Melbourne to London to HK to NYC, and a lot of little trips in between, we have certainly eaten a lot of cake and other desserts. 😀 Since returning to Melbourne after a decade away, the most significant change that we have observed is how Melbourne’s food landscape is now liberally populated with a stunning array of Asian dessert spots. Where once an Asian cake shop was a rarity, almost every corner of the CBD has such a spot. In our last month in Melbourne, we crammed in as many as we could, and here’s a guide to our favourite Asian cake stores.

Chinese tea mille crepe cakes

  • ☑ Dessert destination: iCake, various locations, with one in the CBD and in Carlton.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Any of the tea flavoured mille crepe.
  • ☑ Budget: $$-$$$. 
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  A stone’s throw away from Queen Victoria Market and just north of the CBD area, iCake is a make-to-order specialty cake store, but cakes are also available on a walk-in basis, albeit in quarter size serving, half size or full size — no slices available. 😦  Each “quarter size” ($25) is about three slices. For us, iCake stands out for its Chinese tea-infused mille crepe cakes, with unique flavours such as jasmine green tea, lychee milk tea, and grape oolong. In typical Asian patisserie cake fashion, iCake’s cakes are made in a barely-sweet, light creamy style. 

Chinese cakes and cream puffs

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Maka maka, 10 Sutherland Street, Melbourne CBD. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour:  Soybean mille crepe; taro giant cream puff.
  • ☑ Budget: $$. 
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: If iCake is a quiet achiever largely flying under the hype radar, Maka maka is one of the most unassuming dessert spots that we have seen. Located in an off-the-beaten track laneway, it’s seems barely put together, yet don’t miss the whisper sweet soybean mille crepe. Maka maka also offers a range of large cream puffs, with flavours such as taro, matcha, strawberry, chocolate, oreo etc. They remind us strongly of NYC’s love for cream puffs. 

Chinese ball pastries

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Tangmama Bakery, 842 Bourke Street, Docklands.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour:  Taro or matcha mochi ball pastry.
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (A set of 4 is approx AUD $25). 
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: Confession, before hunting down Tangmama, we had only been to the Docklands area west of the CBD maybe three times? Tangmama is worth the trek, modernizing traditional Chinese pastries into cosmic balls of colours. Their striking appearance belies a more understated flavour profile, with flavours such as taro, salted egg, matcha, red bean more muted than pronounced. Go for those flavours with a mochi contrast for extra oomph. 

Japanese sponge cakes and cheesecakes

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Amiri Cafe, QV Centre, Melbourne CBD.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Lychee cheesecake; black sesame mandarin chiffon; matcha roll. 
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (Approx AUD $15 a slice).
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: For a serene brunch in the middle of the city, we adore Amiri Cafe. After filling up half your stomach with the savoury Japanese brunch fare, do consider dessert. Made for sharing, Amiri’s dessert offerings include toast creations blanketed in thick sweet sauces, large bowls of bingsu and generously-scooped ice cream sundaes. We love Amiri’s cakes more — being a Japanese cafe, matcha of course features on the cake menu, but our heart belongs to the cheesecake that embellished with an ethereally-delicate translucent lychee layer and a similarly soft-toned black sesame mandarin chiffon. 

Korean aesthetic cafe cakes

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Butter Room, 16 Katherine Place, Melbourne CBD. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Mango layered cake; rabbit matcha brownie cupcake
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (Approx AUD $15 a slice).
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  If Bibble & Sip is our most favourite cafe in NYC, Butter Room is our most favourite in Melbourne. We previously featured it in our guide to Melbournes “Most Instagrammable Desserts,” and we feature it here again. We make it a point to always order the Butter Room’s exquisitely tanned onion-shaped garlic bun on each visit, and also one of the sweeter creations, such as a cookie-croissant hybrid imprinted with a sweet canine face,  a dense brownie-like matcha muffin embellished with a thick scoop of cream shaped like a rabbit, and any of the layered fruit cream cakes. 

Pan-Asian entremet sponge cakes

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Musu & co, 73 Cardigan Street, Carlton.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Mango pandan; grape jasmine; honeydew pistachio.
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (Approx AUD $15 a slice).
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  Similar to iCake, we sneak Musu & Co into this list of Melbourne’s best Asian cake stores although it is not technically located in the Melbourne CBD area, but rather a 10 minutes walk north of it. Musu’s cakes are available in generously-portioned slice sizes as well as in full cake size, and distinguish themselves from others on this list by being dome shaped and layered internally similar to an entremet mousse cake, albeit in sponge cake form. Exceptionally flavoured in taste as aesthetically pleasing in appearance, Musu also imagines full size cakes in creative cartoon and emoji shapes. 

Pan-Asian tea cakes and cheesecakes

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Tori’s, 28 Niagara Lane, Melbourne CBD.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Lychee shortcake; matcha basque cheesecake.
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (Approx AUD $15 a slice).
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  A quintessential Aussie laneway cafe with a slight Asian lean, Tori’s has to be one of the most popular cake cafes in the city. Every time we have visited, whether weekday or weekend, there has been a short queue of people (especially Gen Zs) lining up along the cake counter or waiting for one of the cafe’s vintage seats. Tori’s cakes canvass the East Asian flavour spectrum, featuring the likes of taro, ube, matcha, lychee, before dipping into Western territory with banofee pie , carrot and rum chocolate cake. We have made repeat visits for the lychee or strawberry shortcake, but if you prefer your cakes heavier, the basque cheesecakes – in original, matcha or ube flavours – are made for you.

Modern Asian-accented mousse cakes

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Yeahlow, 366 Little Collins Street, Melbourne CBD.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Any, but we especially love the Peach and Lychee.
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (Approx AUD $15 a piece).
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: For when you need a cake to impress someone, look no further than the masterfully-crafted mousse cakes infused with Asian-esque flavours at Yeahlow. We have loved every cake we have ever tried here, from the Lychee sculpted into the words “Love”, the delicately-flavoured Peach painted in a beautiful sunset shade, the tangy Daisy that enfolds like sunshine, to seasonal specials such as a trompe l’oeil hot cross bun and a sakura-themed springtime beauty. 

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