With Easter around the corner, the sweet smell of hot cross buns is starting to waft out of bakeries across Melbourne/Naarm. With so many on offer, it’s hard to know who makes the best hot cross buns in Melbourne. Is it the traditional take? Is it a chocolate-filled number? Or is it the undignified 'fruitless'? Luckily, you have Urban List doing the hard yards for you.
For the best hot cross buns Melbourne has to offer for 2024, keep on reading:
Wild Life Bakery
90 Albert Street, Brunswick East
Image credit: Wife Life Bakery | Lauren Bamford
The gang at Wild Life are of course getting some buns in and out of the oven, too. For Easter 2024, Wild Life's iteration is a play on a traditional HCB; you've got all the essentials in there balancing those sweets and spices, but for that extra kick they're adding in a health splash of straight rye whisky courtesy of their mates at Gospel Distillery. Wild Life's hot cross buns are available now, but your best bet is to order ahead—more here.
Bread Club
Various Locations
The cult-following of Bread Club is unlike any other. The loyal baked good community rallied hard for the Hot Cross Buns from Bread Club, and obligingly we agree, they’re an absolutely perfect 10.
The glorious sugary glaze over the top of the dense fruit and spiced-filled bun is like a shining beacon of glistening flavour. They're lovingly made using a three-step 24-hour process in which the pre-fermented dough is mixed with a variety of classic dried fruits and spices as well as a couple of more modern additions like cranberries and blueberries. Alongside their traditional range, they've also just released a mind-melting twice-baked almond croissant hot cross bun, and decadent chocolate-on-chocolate (with chocolate chips, of course) buns. Get it all here.
Penny For Pound
Various Locations
Image credit: Penny For Pound | Supplied
There's hot cross buns, and then there's hot cross buns stuffed with gelato—Penny For Pound have both. A strong contender for the best hot cross buns Melbourne has to offer, you can go all-natural with the traditional fruity bun, die and go to chocolate heaven with a choc-soaked bun, or be that little bit fancy with the sticky date HCB.
You can stick to that, but we recommend going all out with a HCB gelato sandwich, courteous of Holla Gelato—traditional bun stuffed with creamy salted brown butter camamel gelato, chocolate packed with decadent chocolate gianduja gelato, and the holy grail combo of sticky date with an Axil coffee peacan gelato (with extra crunch). It can be all yours now by walking into one of their three stores across Melbourne, or pre-ordering online.
Tivoli Road Bakery
3 Tivoli Road, South Yarra
Not one for half-measures, the institutional bakery destination, Tivoli Road Bakery has long been lorded as one of the finest establishments in Melbourne to tackle Easter buns. Made with elite precision and featuring a to-die-for brown sugar glaze, this is a recipe that’s been refined year on year, down to fine art, with that perfect mixed peel twinge to every bite. Even though they churn out a staggering amount of the hefty buns each day they still walk out the door at a staggering rate so ensure you’re there pre 11am if you want to secure one.
Black Star Pastry
Various Locations
Image credit: Black Star Pastry | Supplied
This Sydney bakery is famous for their Strawberry Watermelon Cake, but they make a pretty mean hot cross bun too. It'll mark the fourth year in a row we can get these buns here in Melbourne, and we reckon they’ve been worth the wait.
Black Star Pastry’s buns are 100% vegan and beautifully glazed. On the cards for 2024 is a perfectly dense and sticky-glazed bun with all natural ingredients including thick chunks of tempered Koko Black chocolate as well as a spiced tinged glaze to the bun and chocolate cocoa cross on top. You can also opt for a cushiony, allspice traditional bun with a brush of frankincense glaze on top. This contender for the best hot cross bun in Melbourne will be available in-store and online. Check more out over here.
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Cobb Lane Bakery
Various Locations
We’ve been a big fan of the Cobb Lane team for quite some time, their dedication to the craft is something you can taste in every bite. Coming alive every Easter season, the Cobb Lane HCBs incorporate just about everything we love about the Yarraville-originated bakers; very decent in size, equating to around the width of your palm. They're soft but dense to the touch, comprised of rich orange puree, citrus peel and generous mixing of dried fruit you're tangoing with flavour with every bite. If you want to go to HCB heaven, head this way.
Falco
Various Locations
Image credit: Falco | Supplied
A local favourite and Collingwood icon (now with a store in Abbotsford), Falco is the small-batch bakery known for its rustic loaves and flakey pastries. Their hot cross buns are some of Melbourne’s finest, and if there’s one thing this city needs in 2024, it’s a healthy dose of wholesome baked goods from some small businesses. The best part, Falco's HCBs are available right now. Get to it.
Ned's Bake
Various Locations
Ned's Bake knows the importance of doing a classic right, and their traditional hot cross buns might just be one of the best available in Melbourne this year. Dried sultanas, currants, and candied mixed peel are all balanced out by the perfect splashes of mixed spice and ginger set within those delightful brioche buns.
Frank & Harri
259 High Street, Kew
Image credit: Frank & Harri | Mandy Couzens
Kew's sweet patisserie, Frank & Harri, is baking some of the best hot cross buns in Melbourne. This year, they've got the two types up for grabs: a delightful traditional HCB with cider-soaked fruit and spiced glaze, and triple choco buns with rich Belgian dark chocolate, milk and white. You can get those bad boys in singles, half a doz or the full dozen.
Woodfrog Bakery
Various Locations
Woodfrog Bakery is known for crusty baguettes and hearty sourdough loaves, but their hot cross buns are a seasonal treat we simply can’t resist. The sweet syrupy buns are perfectly filled with fruity goodness. Buy them in a pack or individually—we dare you to stop at just one.
Chic de Partie
Online
One of the silver linings of Melbourne's lengthy lockdowns were the various order via DM bakeries, and one such account that caught our eye was Chic de Partie from Aidan Robinson, an ex-Dinner by Heston pastry chef. You can't go wrong with any of his creations, but it's his boozy brioche hot cross buns, complete with orange zest brandy cream, that take the cake. Keep an eye on their Instagram for when they're up for grabs—and be ready, they usually get snatched up pretty damn quickly.
Leading image credit: Wild Life Bakery | Shelley Horan
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