Banksia Bakehouse

Banksia Bakehouse sits at the base of a CBD office tower, right below Rockpool restaurant group’s Italian diner Rosetta. From the street you can see the team rolling croissants and preparing pretty pastries in the glass-encased kitchen. While the interior is pared-back – white curved surfaces with greenery dangling from above – the range of cakes is anything but.

A three-metre-long case is stocked with creations such as a cookie-cheesecake bombe cake, made with a butter biscuit base and torched meringue coating, and a chocolate-caramel toffee cake, finished with caramel buttercream, toffee almond crumble, caramel popcorn, toffee shard and honeycomb macaron. The selection changes regularly, and you can also order custom cakes for every kind of celebration.

The rest of the bakehouse’s range is similarly extensive. Expect lemon meringue cruffins; plain, Biscoff, lemon-meringue or croque monsieur croissants; and a range of single-serve cakes, including Piña Colada mousse cakes, tiramisu tarts and the bakehouse’s signature: a deceptively realistic Apple Delight cake.

As well as being a one-stop shop for office birthday cakes, Banksia is also perfect for lunch breaks with its range of flaky, golden savoury pies. You might order a beef brisket, mushroom stroganoff or Mexican chicken number. Or, opt for a pork and fennel sausage roll.

But ask the team what they’d really want Banksia to be known for and you might be surprised to learn it’s croissants. They perfected the recipe over 15 months, and are using the gold standard of Sydney butters – Pepe Saya.