7 minute read
Have your Pie and Eat Cake Too
If you’ve got a craving for something sweet or a perfectly baked savoury treat, read on. Monique Ceccato has done the hard yards discovering the region’s best bakeries.
Images by BIANCA TURRI.
ONE SLICE OR TWO A carrot cake of your dreams from Coffee + Flour in Bunbury (left and pie, opposite) or the flakiest pastry from Miami Bakehouse are just some of the treats in store in the region.
It’s the quintessential Aussie meal: a chunky steak pie with flaky, buttery pastry. Follow it up with a thick cut of creamy vanilla slice and you’re living the Australian dream. If it’s a top-notch feast full of baked goods you’re after, look no further than these Bunbury Geographe bakeries.
Miami Bakehouse
It’s now even easier to enjoy one of Miami Bakehouse’s famous homemade pies with their newest Myalup Café. Always baking things better, Miami has revolutionised the bakery experience on your BunGeo road trip by adding a drive through service at Myalup. Or you can stretch your legs at the free, outdoor art gallery featuring 16 lifesized kangaroos painted by local WA artists.
With locally sourced ingredients and unique gourmet pie recipes like Garlic Prawn, Ginger Chilli Pork and all the Classic Steak combinations made with Stirling Ranges lean beef, it’s no wonder the team has won more than 900 baking awards. So if you’re heading to the south west, make sure your trip is complete with a coffee and gourmet food stop at any of the three Miami Bakehouse Cafes located along the Forrest Highway. 14 Taranto Rd, Myalup
The Crooked Carrot
The Crooked Carrot owners, Sonia and Joe Castro, moved
FLOUR POWER From the Dardanup Bakery to the Crooked Carrot, you'll find all the traditional favourite bakes of your childhood as well as twists on traditional ingredients.
to Myalup as humble carrot farmers. With a lot of inspiration and ambition, they later expanded their business to take over the lease on the famous ‘emu pie’ stop in 2015. Now, as well as being a buzzing familyfriendly cafe, they’re serving up some of the region's most scrumptious baked goods. Call in and pick up a chocolate scroll or jam and cream doughnut for the road, or take a seat and watch the kids run amok while you fill up on a delicious salad or one of four (yes, four) different parmi options. Forrest Hwy & Rigg Rd, Myalup
Dardanup Bakery
Housed in a red tin shed adjoining a modest 1960’s brown brick home, the Dardanup Bakery is entirely unassuming. But, don’t let this tiny pie, cake, and pastry shop fool you; it’s legendary among Bunbury Geographe residents. If people aren’t driving out to the countryside for their rustic fruit Danishes and sticky cinnamon scrolls, they’re definitely heading out for the surprise daily pie - think chicken in a rich, Thai green curry sauce, sticky soy pork, or slow-braised lamb shank encased in an impossibly flaky pastry. For the traditionalists, their steak
pies - with actual chunks of steak - are always a winner. 13 Charlotte St, Dardanup West
Capel Bakery & Cafe
All of their baked goods are considered top-notch, but it’s Capel Bakery’s range of bread that have earned them quite the reputation. They bake all of the good old favourites - a white loaf, sourdough, and cob - as well as rave-worthy charcoal, beer, and jalapeno loaves. While you’re in and stocking up on bread, give their pastries and slices some attention. A nice cut of coconut slice is best enjoyed with a side serve of Yahava coffee and some sun in their cute garden courtyard. 2 Forrest Rd, Capel
Old Boyanup Bakery Cafe
Blink and you most definitely won’t miss the Old Boyanup Bakery Cafe as you’re coming through town. Taking up prime position on the main drag, this long-standing lunchtime favourite makes a statement on the street in all its vivid orange glory. Just like any good country town bakery, filling-packed homemade pies and sausage rolls abound. But, sweettooths will have the most fun at Old Boyanup Bakery Cafe as they’re known for their decadent cream doughnuts and thick slabs of vanilla slice topped with just the right
DON'T MISS...
According to Richard Young at Harvey Visitor Centre, the Harper Street Bakery in Harvey is “absolutely amazing" and the building has a long history of hosting the town’s go-to bakery. Also the Brunswick Bakery, located in the IGA, is quite famous supplying many shops and cafes around the greater Bunbury region”. Editor Gabi Mills also recommends Coffee + Flour in Bunbury - their carrot cake is 'unmissable', she says, as well as their pies.
amount of pink icing. 23 Southwest Highway, Boyanup
The Passionate Baker
Find Coffee and Flour Cafe on Spencer Street in Bunbury and you’ve discovered The Passionate Baker. Housed inside the popular plant-filled cafe, this bakery has been supplying Bunbury with quality baked goods for more than 30 years. Dinein for a scrumptious benedict breakfast served on bakery fresh bread, or just duck in to grab some fresh lemon and meringue tarts, cream profiteroles, or one of their famous cinnamon buns takeaway. 50 Spencer St, Bunbury
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Perth florist, Matthew Landers, has brought his unique brand of floristry to the Bunbury Geographe region and found a home for it on Bunbury’s main drag.
fabulous Absolutely
By MONIQUE CECCATO. | Images SHOT BY THOM.
Elaborate floral installations dripping from bridal tables, a touch of industry satire (‘Phlars’ anyone?), and a spot of ‘snackfluencing’ for good measure: it’s all in a week’s work on Instagram for Perth florist Matthew Landers. But, there’s so much more to the man behind the brand than the incredible floral artistry and wicked sense of humour he portrays online.
“I don’t ever want to be undermined as some bimbo that’s funny; or someone that just happened to land in some money and is making something beautiful,” said Landers. “Every now and then I actually have to do a serious post or have a little rant or do a little live video because I also need people to know that I’m actually bloody smart.”
A multi-award winning florist, Landers got his start in the industry at the ripe age of 12, when he started working in the family business. He won his first floristry competition at 13, landed the title of ‘Australian florist of the year’ for the first time when he was 17, and started on his journey with his namesake brand in 2012. Over the past nine years, he’s opened the doors to three stores and amassed a large, engaged, and hyperlocal digital audience.
Building his following is a strategic move, and a move that was made with every intention of building the Matthew Landers brand into a household name.
“What I’m trying to really push is that idea of ‘ok, so you want a quick food fix, you drive through McDonalds and, if you want flowers, you go to Matthew Landers’. What I do online is all calculated. It is leveraged. And it is very pointed.”
“In my industry there’s no one that’s ever become truly wealthy,” says Landers. “It’s not an industry that you can really grow capital wealth in. The only way I was going to be able to live a comfortable
