Layered fruit cream cake, milky chocolate cake and four-tiered honey cake are among the Korea and Japanese-inspired creations at Kiki Dessert.
The best way to find Kiki Dessert, a tiny hidden cafe with delicate cakes and pastries and a Studio Ghibli-esque wood-panelled cosiness, is to follow the chef-hatted black cat licking its lips outside. This moggie, scurrying with a cake slice on an A-frame footpath sign, is the only physical pointer to the cafe’s whereabouts down a nondescript arcade opposite Railway Square.
Not that Kiki Dessert is unknown. Gaggles of people are at the counter pondering slices of cream-dolloped cheesecake, milky chocolate cake, layered fruit cream cake and four-tiered honey cake flecked with gold leaf.
They’re sitting between rustic wooden walls, stacks of mismatched vintage plates and a stained-glass lampshade, pairing plump lemon madeleines with 12-spice craft cola and layered iced strawberry matcha clouds. Feet tap to jazzy pop by South Korean singer-songwriter Yerin Baek.
And all, almost without fail, are ordering one of Kiki Dessert’s most viral menu items – Dubai pistachio chewy cookies – golf ball-size cocoa-dusted chocolate orbs in ready-to-go fluted paper baking cup packages. These regularly sell out before day’s end.
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Kiki Dessert, which opened in November, is a long-held dream for its owner Jenna Choo, who named it after the 1989 Ghibli Studio film Kiki’s Delivery Service. After moving from Korea to Australia in 2019, she left behind years of actor training to study dessert making and work in kitchens across the ACT and NSW, including Black Star Pastry. She took the plunge on opening a cafe after years of saving the capital.
Everything is made in house by Choo, who follows exacting ingredient standards, including only using fresh cream, couverture chocolate and the best quality matcha. “The matcha is actually more expensive than chocolate,” she says.
Her honey cake has fat layers of fresh, not-too-sweet whipped fresh cream between thinner layers of sponge, the latter’s honey and spice flavours subtle rather than overpowering.
It’s clear why the Dubai pistachio chewy cookies are a hit. Like a cross between a mochi cake and a dense nutty ball, their earthy (again not-too-sweet) innards – a mix of kataifi pastry, white chocolate and pistachio paste – crunch with a gentle crackle after you’ve bitten through the marshmallow coating.
Pair one with Choo’s take on an iced coconut matcha cloud, a lighter more refreshing matcha drink featuring fresh coconut water and whipped matcha, and fresh cream that resembles a rippling vibrant sea.
Kiki Dessert’s menu is small because Choo makes everything and wants it to be fresh daily. She’s a keen experimenter with daily specials – today’s is an excellently chewy salted chocolate cookie. Expect small heart-shaped cakes for Valentine’s Day and, one day, her take on a sun-dried tomato and balsamic macaron she loved in Korea.
“It tastes amazing,” she says. “I gave it to my husband and he was like, ‘What? Sun-dried tomato and balsamic, I’m not going to try that’.
“But I forced him to, and he ate all of the macarons because he loved it.”
Partly inspired by dessert cafes in Korea and Japan that Choo says she misses, Kiki is all about simple cakes and pastries made to a high standard in an unexpectedly cosy and individual spot.
“I want people to enjoy dessert with no pressure,” Choo says. “It’s unusual for a cafe in Sydney to be open after 3pm and people can come all day but also after work to eat here or grab something for after dinner.
“One guy told me that he’s just so happy to see a small independent cafe in an area that is so full of franchises. That made me very happy because that’s what I really want people to enjoy.”
Three more dessert spots to try
Less than 100 metres from Kiki Dessert, the viral sensation of crisp, golden triangles of deep-fried shokupan milk-bread with sweet and savoury fillings is still inspiring queues at Australia’s first outpost of the Japanese franchise. Try the custardy creme brulee for a teeth-jangling sweet high.
92/732 Harris Street, Ultimo, age.3_sydney
Pull apart some TikTok-famous “tissue bread”, crunchy-edged fist-sized cubes of laminated croissant dough loaded with chocolate, matcha, pistachio and more flavours, at this bakery cafe creating Korean-style dessert treats.
5 Central Park Avenue, Chippendale, butteredsydney.com.au
Tiara Sucipto and Hari Wibowo’s cafe-bakery on Sydney’s western artery has an ever-changing but always reliable menu of Japanese-Indonesian-inspired sweets. Try pandan coconut and palm sugar cookies with chewy mochi insides and the mango sticky rice monkey bread.
336 Parramatta Road, Stanmore, pantrystory_sydney
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