Signature bakes – a term that’s risen in popularity thanks to The Great British Bake Off – take years to perfect. And while we love bakeries that can do it all, when a shop has taken time to create a specialty bake, it’s worth taking note. Here are five signature bakes from five new spots around town.

**Lava Pandori from The Butter Room**
The Butter Room is a small shop, so it’s not easy to find. But once you do, you’ll probably want to order one (or more) of the Korean-influenced cafe-bakery’s lava pandori.

This sweet Italian bread, baked as a one-person serve, arrives chimney-shaped and filled with strawberry, injeolmi (rice cake) or matcha sauce. Once you remove it, the sauce cascades down the sides, almost in slow motion. It’s high-key baked goods drama at its finest.

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Savoury Pies from Pieman’s Son
The apple never falls too far from the tree. So when Boscastle Pastries founder Terry Cremean sold his well-loved Melbourne business in 2018, he should have known that his son Pat Cremean would eventually get back into the family trade.

Cremean is the owner of Pieman’s Son in Heidelberg Heights, a small shop that’s seeing lines for its classic beef, Thai chicken and Moroccan lamb pies.

**Indonesian pancakes from Martabak Pecenongan 78 & D’Bakmie**
This Carlton spot is the first overseas outpost for Indonesia’s most popular martabak chain. It’s also one of the few places in town to try the thick, sweet folded pancakes (and customise them to your heart’s content).
As the name might suggest, the chain specialises in martabak manis – a chewy, folded pancake. Each one is cooked individually, on a cast-iron pan, and takes about 20 minutes to prepare. Once the martabak has finished cooking, it’s loaded up with any number of fillings – including Nutella, Skippy cheese, Toblerone and Lotus Biscoff – then folded over like a pancake calzone. The result combines pancake fluffiness with an interior that has some of the chewy, elastic bounce of an English crumpet.

Cinnamon scrolls from Sebby’s Scrolls
Annabelle Strahan and Sebastian Castro started Sebby’s Scrolls as a lockdown side-hustle. It did so well that the pair kept going, opening a takeaway window in Caulfield this August.

Stop by for the shop’s specialty – the classic cinnamon scroll. The super-soft layers of dough, cinnamon and caramelised brown sugar come covered with a heaped layer of cream-cheese icing.

Croffles from Lemuse
Is it a waffle? Is it a croissant? Yes. The croffle is a waffle-iron creation that’s taken off online in the past few years. The croffle is a cronut-like creation that sees a croissant (baked or unbaked) placed in a waffle iron until it’s golden brown and crisscrossed with the machine’s signature ridges.

Its invention is usually credited to Irish pastry chef and television host Louise Lennox, but its popularity really kicked off in South Korea. While the pastry has popped up at a few spots in Melbourne – including Korean cafe Ondo – Lemuse in Carlton takes the croffle craze to new heights with inventive takes like a sweet pandan and toasted coconut number, and a savoury one with smoked salmon, créme fraîche, red onions, fresh dill and capers.

Additional reporting by Claire Adey, Pauline De Leon, Ruby Harris and Callum McDermott.