Mabels

For Cassandra Hanna and Joshua Green, who both grew up in Auckland, bakery visits were a weekend ritual. They channelled those memories into Mabels, which they opened together in 2021.

Hanna cut her teeth working in the pastry section at a number of Melbourne cafes. Meanwhile, Green was perfecting his pie recipes and selling his creations to venues across Melbourne’s south using social-media moniker The Prahran Pie Man. So at Mabels she bakes cakes and he bakes pies.

One day you might find a decadent choc-raspberry cake, the next it could be a zesty lemon-pistachio number – but the layered-up presentation and thick icing are constants. These are Hanna’s “celebration cakes”, each sold from cake stands in the front window.

She also regularly makes gluten-free carrot cake and vegan chocolate cupcakes, as well as various combinations of lamingtons, marshmallow slices, lemon tarts, chocolate biscuits and gingerbread people.

It’s the same on the savoury side of things. Pies are in constant rotation, with options such as butter chicken, chilli con carne, and the bestselling steak and cheese, plus excellent sausage rolls. But it’s not just bakery staples: there are also saucy cheeseburgers and hot-chicken sandwiches, fail-safe chicken-and-avo ciabattas, and regular specials.

In a nod to their homeland, the pair serves Coffee Supreme from NZ.