Sweet Bakery & Cakery

If Mary Poppins created a cafe, this would be it.

Trekked up to Karori for coffee, cake and catch ups with a friend this morning and have left feeling full of sugar, spice and all things nice.

As you would expect, this place is all about the cake. The cabinet is full of delicious looking treats and they even cater for us GF, Vegan Problem Children. I had a mini Peanut Butter cupcake just to sample the goods. Between you and I, I have the adult version saved for dessert this evening. I wish I could turn time forward so I could munch on it now. It was light, fluffy, full of flavour. Practically perfect in every way.

My Long Black was supreme. Literally. They use Supreme coffee and the ladies made a good brew. My friend (a fellow coffee connoisseur) had two. Granted... she was off to visit her mother after our catch up...but still.

The place is small but cute. It's constantly busy with people picking up pre-ordered cakes or sweet treats for morning tea. I particularly loved the reaction of a wee girl who was picking up a Birthday cake with a big spider on it. She was so excited and the staff made sure she saw it before Mum and Dad. Made me heart melt like warmed butter.

This place is a wee gem and I will be back. Just don't tell my Personal Trainer...

The baking is always great and the hot chocolates are the best in Wellington. Love the variety that this place has and the customer service is great. The look of the shop is very cute and suits the place well.

A simply charming wee gem tucked away in Marsden Village. Service was prompt and friendly. A decent variety of delectable delights in the cabinet...it was a tough decision but I ultimately decided on the S'Mores slice. Bloody good, too. No sky-high prices either, everything was very reasonable. 

The coffee (Supreme) was faultless. I would definitely recommend to anyone in the area wanting a cheeky sweet fix.

Dropped in for afternoon tea on a cold and miserable day. Had a Soy Mocha (which was OK) and a slice of Pinky Bar cake which was delicious. Also tried the Peanut Butter Jelly cupcake, the pb frosting was really full of flavour and the cake a lovely delicate sponge. Cute, cozy shop and friendly service.

Continuing on from “Hey George” in Kilbirnie, next (7th) stop in my quest for a good cup of tea was “Sweet Bakery and Cakery.”

A very cute little shop – although from the outside it looks a little uncool and off-putting - like a retirement home café - but is slightly more interesting inside. White walls, purple spots, lime green plastic lights, turquoise cushions and a two group espresso machine. The sign outside says “cake and coffee” but there’s a display inside with tins of tea from Harney’s (American and already, at Soho Browns and Kirkaldies, Ive seen some issues with their recommendations as to the correct ratio of water to tea – I’m starting to wonder whether American tea is the same beast as English).

There was one black tea – English Breakfast, but there were plenty of cakes – A delicious looking mars bar cake, indulgent brownies, cup cakes and some donuts with a chocolate ganache filling. I had two of the latter to take away.

The EBT arrived in a cute green-blue pot, one called a Stump Pot advertised by Harneys on their web site and containing 530 ml. Which translates as 18oz. But wait, on the web advert it says that you add one of their tea sachets to the Stump pot, but elsewhere they say to add one to 12oz and in other places 1 to one cup and elsewhere one to two cups. A cup can be many sizes but cappuccinos are often 5-6oz but can go to 8-10 or I guess higher. Peering inside the stump I saw one sachet – it was doomed. Harneys may have been wildly optimistic in suggesting one sachet to one stump or perhaps Americans like weak tea. And yes indeed out came (after 5 minutes) the weakest tea I’d had since my visit to Astoria. It was flavourless, fawny grey, bouquet-less except for the milk. Oh dear – it had the best of intentions but it fell at the finishing line.

1. Specialist tea offerings (the variety of unflavoured teas): 1/5
2. Brew temperature (the likelihood that the tea was brewed with boiling water): 5/5
3. Cup temperature (how much of a heat sink was the cup – a thick, cold pottery cup scores 0, a warm thin china cup scores 5): 2/5
4. Milk requirements (was I asked about milk and what type of milk): 0/5
5. Strength (too weak or strong =0, just right = 5): 0/5
6. Taste (bad=0, excellent=5): 1/5

Sweet Bakery and Cakery Total 9/30

Scoreboard:
Soho Brown : 8/30
Sweet Bakery and Cakery : 9/30
Bellagio : 11/30
K and S Cafe : 11/30
Astoria : 11/30
Hey George 16/30
The Little Tea Shop : 18/30

My suggestion : Add two sachets per pot, ask about milk requirements, add other specialist black teas to the menu. Also the little milk jug is very cute but because it has no handle its hard to get out of the cup if you tuck it there. Maybe put it to the side.

OK so I’m starting to understand things a bit better. There’s a real issue in cafes about 1) brew temperature – you need to put the water into the tea, not present the bag separately (even though Harneys pyramidal sachets look “luxurious” they should be in the pot, not on display – as at Soho Brown’s) 2) the ratio of tea to water – you need to ignore American recommendations (especially Harney’s) and 3) the flavor of the brew – stop using teabags and use a quality loose leaf tea in the right proportions. What is becoming surprising to me is that no two cafes do things the same way, there’s so much variation, and so many that are simply wrong.

Where next? – “Rosina’s” in Karori, a bog standard café in the Karori Mall that seems to cater for a lot of older customers.

We go here about once a week for a treat. It's really cute and yummy cupcakes. Not good if you don't have a sweet tooth! Lovely place for a coffee and cake.

Lovely place, just wish they would have warmed up my brownie ;)

Ordered the Raspberry Ripple classic cake online, and had it delivered . So easy to organise and a beautiful & delicious cake. 10/10, will definitely recommend and use again. Thank you so much x

Thank you very much for the delicious Lemon and Raspberry cake we had today. Everyone thought it was lovely. Would certainly recommend cakes from here. Will certainly use you again.

Nice little place, has a great feel sit and enjoy a cupcake. They have some of the best looking cupcakes.