Eight To Try: Hot Cross Croissants, Cheesecakes and Everything but Buns

Every year it feels like Melbourne bakers get more and more creative with hot cross buns. While some stick to the classic, others treat the bun as a jumping-off point to make everything from hot cross lamingtons to frappes and croissants. Here are eight hot-cross-bun-inspired treats from around the city. 

Hot cross frappe, Juniper

The signature coffee and chocolate frappe at Juniper, the South Melbourne cafe from Florian founders Dom Gattermayr and Rose Richards, has been remade for Easter. The hot cross bun frappe is made with whipped coffee spiced with ginger, clove, cinnamon and coriander seed. It’s then topped with chocolate and served on iced milk.

Hot cross croissant, Hector’s Deli

Hector’s Deli executive baker Aram Yun has taken the brand’s expert croissants and hot-cross-bun-ified them. A traditional-flavoured hot cross croissant sees laminated pastry lined with a spiked frangipane, rolled, baked and finished with a spiced syrup and fondant cross. Yun’s chocolate version is made using a similar process with chocolate croissant dough, lined with chocolate almond frangipane filling, before it’s rolled, baked and finished with sugar syrup and a chocolate fondant cross.

Hot cross cake, Le Yeahllow

CBD and South Yarra bakery Le Yeahllow is known for making hyper-realistic cakes that look like other objects (the most notable being its Jeff Koonsian balloon puppy cake). It’s unsurprising, then, that the team has released a trompe l’oeil hot cross cake. Made to look like matcha hot cross buns, the cake has an almond dacquoise, topped with caramel, a layer of almond biscuit and blackcurrants, all covered in a matcha cream. The cake is available as single “buns” or in larger slabs of six or nine.

Hot cross lamington, Tokyo Lamington

Tokyo Lamington – known for its playful twists on Aussie cakes – is offering three Easter creations: whisky coconut hot cross buns, lamington hot cross buns and hot cross lamingtons. The latter is the venue’s take on the classic bakery treat; here, the team takes two slices of classic spiced sponge cake, sandwiches them together with a filling made of cinnamon vanilla cream and mixed fruit, dips the whole thing in a white chocolate sauce, rolls it in spiced cookie crumbs and tops it off with a white chocolate cross.

Hot cross tiramisu, Pinto

Tiramisu shop Pinto in Fitzroy is well known for its classic version and inventive spins on the dessert. This year, the Pinto team has a hot cross tiramisu with layers of coffee- and malt-soaked savoiardi (ladyfingers); a jam made of sultanas, currants and raisins; and a spiced crumble, finished with a cocoa powder cross.

Hot cross cruffin, Lune

For their hot cross cruffin, croissant queen Kate Reid and the team at Lune have taken the bakery’s buttery croissant dough and added dried fruit, candied peel and mixed spices. It’s then filled with brown-butter mousseline (made by whipping butter into pastry cream) and finished off with a classic cross. Available from Thursday March 16.

Hot cross scroll, Q Le Baker

Prahran market bakery Q Le Baker is taking its classic cinnamon scroll and adding a hot cross bun twist. The hot cross scroll uses the same dough, but adds soaked fruit and the same spices as its traditional hot cross buns. The scroll is then slathered in spiced cream-cheese icing.

Hot cross cheesecake, Betterburnt

Betterburnt is a bakery on Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, that specialises in Basque cheesecake. Its hot cross cheesecake is a dark chocolate Basque cheesecake topped with spiced mascarpone cream that’s been infused with orange and has sultanas folded through it.