Flying Tarts Bakery & Cafe

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For inner-city afficionados, one of the most challenging aspects of a day trip to the 'country' (ie. somewhere beyond Coburg) is finding a suitable watering hole where they can revive with a great coffee and delicious food. After all, while the forests and fresh air are a novelty, they do like to retain some of the comforts of home!

Popular with locals, day-trippers, motorcycle tourers and lycra-clad cyclists, the in Kinglake West, north-east of Melbourne, really hits the spot. With a distinctly urban sensibility, the attention to high quality coffee and bakery items ensures this place is always busy.



Trained baristas brew coffee that is roasted at Brunswick's Beans and Bagel Cafe, and both artisan stone-baked sourdough plus regular bread is baked fresh daily on the premises. There is also an excellent range of savoury pastry items, covering all the favourites such as steak and mushroom pies, steak and onion pies, curry beef pies, plain or cheese and bacon sausage rolls. Occasionally they will trial a new pie flavour for a week or so, which is always worth a try. (I may have been the only person to buy the tuna mornay pie - more than once - but I am still mourning the fact that no-one else liked it enough for it to be a permanent part of the menu).

If you are not a pastry fan, you can also get a range of delicious sandwiches, wraps and rolls for lunch. The cooked breakfast is also excellent value (though only served on weekends).

However, the true stars at Flying Tarts are the sweet pastries. Baked daily, using real fresh ingredients (no mock cream here!), there is a beautiful array of regular and seasonal items to choose from. Mouthwatering lemon, custard and fruit tarts, slices, biscuits, cakes and sweet pastries make choosing difficult, so why not buy a couple and share with friends? Kids are well catered for with gingerbread men, iced doughnuts, cinnamon doughnuts, jelly cups, cupcakes and more.

All of these are quality productions - for example, the cinnamon doughnuts (my daughter's favourites) are light and fluffy with a lovely hint of nutmeg. And my German grandmother, a fabulous home baker and notoriously fussy consumer, gave the cream-custard filled yeast pastry Bee Stings ('Bienenstich') a big thumbs up.

So let the fresh air of the Kinglake Ranges whet your appetite and let Flying Tarts satisfy it.

#kinglake
#north_east
#coffee
#cafes
%wnmelbourne