Seven To Try: The Best Easter Treats in Sydney This Year (if You’re Sick of Buns)

It’s hot cross bun season – which is my Christmas. I’m on a bun-a-day diet: fresh or toasted, always buttered. But if you have hot cross fatigue, get around one of the following Sydney treats instead.

Hot cross bun gelato at Mapo, Darlinghurst, Bondi and Newtown The scoop lord at Mapo – Matteo Pochintesta – is into autumn’s festivities, with his HXB special on now at all three stores. AP Bread’s deep-brown, heavily spiced hot cross buns are swirled through silky, simple Australian milk gelato. Available until Easter, and then till sold out.

Colomba Pasquale from AP Bakery, Surry Hills, Newtown, Potts Point The AP team is supporting its hot cross bun program – classic and choc – with a Colomba Pasquale (or Easter “dove”). It’s a traditional Italian sweet bread – think a pannettone or pandoro, but for Easter – that’s baked in a dove-shaped tin, symbolising peace. The team’s very same panettone starter is used here, in a dough that’s fermented for four days.

It’s full of Aussie sultanas and candied fruit – the bread bubbly, airy and ready to tear up. Available to pre-order for pick up on Good Friday, April 3. Hot cross cinnamon scrolls from Fika, Manly Manly’s Swedish bakery and cafe is the spot for Easter-fied cinnamon scrolls.

Any other day, a sweet, bready dough scented with cardamom is rolled out, spread with butter and cinnamon, then tied in a pretty knot for the oven. But from now until Easter, they’re filled with currants and spice too, with an icing criss-cross. Available in-store and online until Monday April 6.

Easter show bag from Lune, Rosebery and CBD This Easter you’ll find escargot nests filled with salted caramel crème pâtissiere and plenty of hot cross cruffins, but you’ll also find an elevated take on a classic Easter Show bag. The bag is $25 and filled with croissant-filled Lune chocolate eggs, a pastry, choc-honeycomb from Hunted & Gathered, a collab bag of Chappy’s chips and a sticker sheet. Plus, one bag in NSW will also have a $500 Incu voucher.

Available in all stores from Thursday March 26. Crème eggs from Deliciously Yours, Five Dock Five Dock’s artisan chocolate business is the spot for sprinkle-covered freckle eggs, hand-painted bunnies, mega 1.3 kilogram eggs and an artful take on a Cadbury Crème Egg. A golden cream “yolk” is encased in Belgian chocolate, and the little eggs are hand-painted in a splatter pattern.

Available online and in-store, $40 for a box of six. Pandan buns from Khanom House, Chippendale The Chippendale spot is led by self-taught baker Yeen Verasenee, and flavours are influenced by his Thai heritage. For Easter he’s doing pandan-stuffed hot cross buns.

But honestly, the cross on the top is the only thing that makes it a hot cross bun: a really light, fluffy milk bun is piped full of softly sweet pandan custard. A cross over the top in pandan’s signature green, with a little snip of pandan leaf too, and it’s ready. Available Friday to Sunday, but daily during the week leading up to Easter.

Cookie-filled Easter egg from Butterboy, Manly, Brookvale, Chatswood, Broadway The northern beaches-born cookie bakery is debuting a chocolate egg. The whopping milk-chocolate egg is full of dark and white chocolate cookie crumble – with hand-painted splatters of chocolate to decorate, and a funky foil wrapper. Pre-order online for $55, pick up between March 31 and April 3.