Crème de la Crème

Crème de la Crème started with Jazmin and her husband Samih Ladkani making mixed boxes of cakes from their home kitchen. They began selling celebration cakes, catering events, and popping up at markets around Melbourne – Since then they opened a retail store in Spotswood.

The pastries are uniform and glossy and the cabinet is lined with savoury options including a balsamic-glazed bruschetta danish, as well as sweeter options of tarts, brownies, golden cruffins, stuffed doughnuts and powdery almond croissants.

The team specialises in laminated pastries with a twist. There’s a spanakopita-inspired number filled with spinach and feta and a monthly special.

But the signature is Crème de la Crème’s knafeh croissant – a play on the knafeh (an Arab dessert made by layering white brine cheese and shredded filo or kataifi pastry) recipe Samih’s family gave Jazmin when he proposed. A traditional croissant is filled with knafeh and infused with an orange blossom and rose water syrup and topped with pistachios, rose petals and orange blossom-infused cream.

The shop’s other standout is a riff on a traditional croissant, inspired by a croquembouche (a cone-shaped tower made with filled cream puffs held together with caramel). The King Julian, as the team has named it, is made by proofing three miniature croissants in a ring-shaped mould and baking them together. They’re then filled with vanilla crème diplomat and dipped in a caramel glaze.