HEARTHE

From the creator of the ultra-famous Strawberry Watermelon cake, HEARTHE is a cake shop and cafe concept.

Black Star Pastry founder, Christopher Thé chose the name of the bakery-cafe as a portmanteau of the words heart, earth, art, and Thé, and it's here you'll see the legendary pastry chef get back to his roots: soul-warming and spectacularly creative cakes, viennoiserie, and patisserie. 

Indigenous Australian ingredients are the stars of the menu at HEARTHE. A series of signature and seasonal "Native Cakes" layers native flavours with classic dessert ideas. Like the "Paperbark Cake", made with paperbark dacquoise, macadamia, smoked ganache, white kunzea honey, and a eucalypt caramel. 

And the "Hibiscus Cake", made with basil olive oil sponge spiked with gin, raspberry gel, hibiscus marshmallow, and candied hibiscus. It goes best with a pour-over shot of Green Ant Gin. 

Yes, HEARTHE is also licensed, meaning you can pair your slice of cake with a cocktail. Try a Green Ant gin and tonic, a cherry coffee-flavoured cascara spritz, or a native digestive, alongside an edit of beer and wine. There's also coffee (of course), Tippity Tea tea, cold-pressed juice squeezed in-house, bespoke cordials by Katie Smith of Cornersmith, smoothies, milkshakes, and cascara iced tea. 

As for the viennoiserie, Thé is dishing out croissants baked fresh twice daily (will these become a contender for Sydney's best croissants?). There'll be almond croissants with OP rum, pain au chocolat with Belgain chocolate centres, and cinnamon spice sticks with caramelised croissant dough rolled in cinnamon myrtle sugar. 

Meanwhile, the patisserie selection includes CWA-style saltbush scones served with peach jam and wattleseed cream. Speaking of cream, Thé and team are making their own vegan and dairy-based creams at HEARTHE and it's available to order alongside your sweets. 

Finally—yes there is more—you can opt for a long lunch vibe at HEARTHE with a menu of substantials like rice congee with smoked barramundi dumplings, fried yam hash with hot smoked salmon, and a hot smoked meal of the day. 

Thé departed the mega-popular suite of Melbourne and Sydney Black Star bakeries back in 2021 in search of a new venture—and HEARTHE is the result.

"I found that after growing my previous business Black Star Pastry into a huge entity, my heart was really happiest when I was just cooking in the kitchen," he explains. "Just me and my small team, serving the community and giving them whatever came out of my mind on the day."

Image credit: HEARTHE