Category Archives: vanilla slice

Biga Artisan Bakery, East Lindfield

bakery, city, nsw, vanilla slice

9 Hughes Pl, East Lindfield

It’s been a long time between vanilla slices, due to a combination of the COVID pandemic, and me being busy with new work. But today I took a short drive with Mrs Snot Block & Roll and Canine Snot Block & Roll for some afternoon tea to a new bakery that we hadn’t visited before.

Biga Artisan Bakery

I was wondering if they would have some vanilla slices, and lo! They did!

Biga Artisan Bakery

It’s an interesting bakery, with a small counter displaying just a few sweet treats, with a view behind to the working area with racks and machinery for baking bread. There didn’t appear to be a lot of bread available, probably because it was getting close to closing time. But they did have an interesting Lego version of the very shop I was standing in on the counter.

Biga Artisan Bakery

The 20-something Italian man behind the counter said that the Lego figures sitting on the benches outside the shop (which you can see for real in the first photo above) were likenesses of actual customers who frequented the bakery! It also appears that this bakery makes pizzas at some time, and they sell chilli oil. It definitely had a bit of an Italian air about it.

But I was here for the vanilla slice. I ordered one and took it out to eat on a bench in the deep shade of a large tree, since the day was over 30°C and very humid. I braved the sun to take a photo.

Vanilla slice, Biga Artisan Bakery

The slice is of a small to middling size, not the smallest I’ve had, but definitely not approaching the most generous. It has a single custard layer sandwiched between pastry layers that contain dozens of paper-thin sheets, the whole dusted with icing sugar. It looks pretty good, though it tapers to a thinner layer of custard at one end, which is apparently the edge of the slab that was sliced up to make the individual slices.

It’s easy to pick up and get a mouth around. However the first bite reveals that the pastry is very soft, not crunchy or crispy at all. I don’t know if it’s always like this, or if it has gone soggy from several hours sitting in the counter waiting to be served. Disappointing.

Vanilla slice, Biga Artisan Bakery

But that’s the only bad thing about it. Despite being soft, the pastry tastes good, with a nice brown caramelisation, and it’s light and separates into layers, rather than being stodgy. The custard is really good. It’s delicious, mouth-coatingly smooth and creamy, and has a decent hit of vanilla flavour, not too sweet. The whole thing is actually really enjoyable, despite the soft pastry.

I’m giving this a good score, and it would have easily made 9/10 if only that pastry had been crispy.

Vanilla slice: 7/10

Cornucopia Bakery, Naremburn

bakery, cafe, city, nsw, sausage roll, vanilla slice,

Shop 2/296-298 Willoughby Rd, Naremburn
facebook.com/CornucopiaBakerySydney

One of the earliest reviews I did on this blog was Delicia in Naremburn. As it’s within a (solid) walking distance from home, it was a bakery that I visited fairly frequently. Unfortunately, when I went there one time a year or two ago, I discovered that it had closed down. This left a fairly big hole in the local area, since the closure of St Malo a bit earlier wiped out the best bakery in the region.

The vacated Delicia premises remained empty for many months, until recently I took a walk that led me past… and I saw that it was now occupied. And by a new bakery!

Cornucopia Bakery, Naremburn

The fitout has changed, with the coffee machine on the left, and a single straight counter instead of the L-shaped one that Delicia had. They have a nicer looking selection of pies (although Delicia’s sausage rolls were good, their pies were average):

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High Street Bakery, Northbridge

bakery, city, nsw, sausage roll, vanilla slice,

142 Sailors Bay Rd, Northbridge, New South Wales

Just a day after making a special expedition to Newtown for Miss Lilly’s, I had an appointment for my first COVID vaccination in the suburb of Northbridge. Since it was at lunch time, I took the opportunity to stroll around the Northbridge shops after my 15-minute safety rest, and found the High Street Bakery.

High Street Bakery

This is a bog standard suburban high street bakery, with the usual array of freshly baked loaves, a selection of small cakes and tarts and other sweets, and a pie warmer counter full of pies and sausage rolls.

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Heatherbrae’s Pies, Heatherbrae

bakery, country, nsw, sausage roll, vanilla slice,

Corner of Pacific Hwy and Masonite Rd, Heatherbrae NSW 2324
www.heatherbraespies.com.au

Note: This is a new review of a place visited in 2015 by my co-contributor.

I recently took a long overdue holiday trip – not overseas because of COVID, but rather a road trip up the coast north of Sydney. Driving north along the highway, there are various towns and rest stops along the way. One of them, about 170 km (or two hours driving) north of Sydney, is renowned for its pies and sausage rolls. Although I’ve passed this way a few times, I’ve never stopped here before: Heatherbrae’s Pies.

Heatherbrae's Pies

The place is right beside the highway, accessed by a roundabout intersection. It’s hard to miss, as there are multiple roadside billboards announcing its presence, starting from about 10 km away. We arrived in the middle of the lunch rush, about 12:30, and it was clear that this place is very popular. We had trouble finding a spot in the car park, and then there was a queue of about 25 people in front of us to order pies.

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Vanilla, Lithgow

cafe, country, nsw, vanilla slice

32 Main St, Lithgow, New South Wales

A few months ago, I took a winter weekend getaway driving trip with Mrs SB&R and Canine SB&R to the country town of Mudgee. Along the way, we stopped for a break and to stretch our legs at the intermediate town of Lithgow. Lithgow is a bit of a sleepy town and there wasn’t much open on this morning, but we located a cafe named Vanilla for a hot drink and a sweet treat. It also seemed to be operating as a florist.

Vanilla cafe, Lithgow

Stepping inside is like stepping from a freezer into a nice warm living room with a roaring fire in the fireplace. It’s warm and cosy, and populated with a few locals enjoying a respite from the harsh weather of the former coal mining town. The cake selection in here looks pretty good. And they had vanilla slices!

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Golden Bakehouse, South Turramurra

bakery, city, nsw, sausage roll, vanilla slice,

219C Kissing Point Road, South Turramurra, New South Wales
golden-bakehouse.business.site

It’s a warm late winter Sunday – the perfect opportunity to take Mrs and Canine Snot Block & Roll for a drive! Of course, I had to do some research to make sure there was a nice bakery awaiting at our destination. And for this trip I chose something that has been tantalising me for some time now. Whenever I do a Google search of Sydney for bakeries, popping up like a gleaming apparition with an astonishing 4.9 star average rating, is Golden Bakehouse at South Turramurra.

Golden Bakehouse, South Turramurra

It’s a strange thing. Despite the amazing Google rating, photos of the bakery look distinctly bland and average. This looks like your run-of-the-mill suburban bakery, dishing out good hot bread and banh mi rolls, but distinctly average patisserie goods. Something seems rotten in the State of Denmark here…

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Drummoyne Bakehouse Cafe, Drummoyne, pt. 3

bakery, cafe, city, nsw, vanilla slice

150 Lyons Rd, Drummoyne, New South Wales
drummoynesbakehousecafe.com.au

We’ve reviewed the Drummoyne Bakehouse twice before, once for the sausage roll and vanilla icing topped vanilla slice, and once for the vanilla slice topped with icing sugar. But on this cloudy, drizzly late autumn day, when I’d ventured here mostly for a comforting hot pie for lunch, I casually added “and a vanilla slice” to my order, remembering how good they were. The woman serving me asked if I wanted icing sugar, or passionfruit icing… and indeed the slices visible in the display had clearly visible passionfruit seeds. Well!

Vanilla slice, Drummoyne Bakehouse

I took my pies and slice to nearby Drummoyne Park, where Canine Snot Block & Roll could run around on the grass while I indulged. The pies were great, but then I turned my attention to this unexpected boon.

As in previous reviews, the slice is a visual marvel, three layers of very crisp looking pastry, two of mid-yellow creamy custard. This one is topped with a thick layer of rich yellow icing, with a couple of black passionfruit seeds visible. there is some hand-made roughness around the edges, but the whole thing looks scrumptious.

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Two Brothers, Lane Cove

cafe, city, nsw, restaurant, vanilla slice

6-8 Burns Bay Rd, Lane Cove, New South Wales

While still under COVID-19 restrictions, Mrs Snot Block & Roll had a necessary appointment at her optometrist in a nearby suburb, so we had an excuse to make a small outing of it, picking up a coffee (for her) and a sweet treat for myself along the way. The normally bustling Lane Cove shopping village was a bit more sparsely populated than usual, with most of the shops and cafes open for business. One of them was Two Brothers Cafe Restaurant, which, while not open for seat-in dining due to the rules, was serving take-away drinks and snacks.

Two Brothers, Lane Cove

In the front window was a tray of vanilla slices!

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Pennant Hills Hot Bread, Pennant Hills

bakery, city, nsw, sausage roll, vanilla slice,

Shop 2/3 Hillcrest Rd, Pennant Hills, New South Wales

The next old entry that I have to clear otu from my review backlog is also located in Pennant Hills, just a minute’s walk from the previously reviewed Andrew’s Patisserie, although I visited this place several months later! Yes, also nestled in the old fashioned 1960s shopping centre here is the descriptively named Pennant Hills Hot Bread.

Pennant Hills Hot Bread

At least that’s all the sign says. A Google search indicates that the business is actually registered as Thai Son Hot Bread, but that name appears nowhere on the premises signage. Yes, as you can tell from the name, this is another in the endless supply of suburban Vietnamese bakeries that can be found all over Sydney. many of them are excellent, so let’s see what this one is like.

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Knight’s Bakehouse, Castle Hill

bakery, city, nsw, sausage roll, vanilla slice,

159 Ridgecrop Drive, Castle Hill
www.knightsbridgeshoppingcentre.com.au/directory/knights-bakehouse-bakery

Following Scully’s successful Delta Dogs audition and my snack at Shepherd’s Artisan Bakehouse, we went a couple of hours later on a quest for lunch. Searching the Castle Hill area located a suburban bakery that we decided to check out, in a smaller local shopping centre than the massive Castle Towers across the other side of Castle Hill. This was Knights Bakehouse (which also eschewed any apostrophe, in the same way as Davids Cakes, reviewed recently).

Knights Bakehouse, Castle Hill

Also similarly to Davids Cakes, they had two types of vanilla slice, a traditional yellow custardy one with passionfruit icing, and a “French” vanilla slice, with a more creamy style filling and an icing sugar topping.

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