Nine of the Best Grown-Up Easter Treats to Try in Melbourne

These days, Easter promises a whole lot more than just generic choccy eggs and plain hot cross buns. Bakeries, chocolate brands, gelaterias and dessert shops across the city are getting more inventive with each passing year, whipping up all sorts of creative treats worthy of a spot on your own personal Easter hunt.

Here, we've rounded up some of the coolest grown-up goodies to seek out, from hot cross bun ice cream sandwiches to Easter-themed high tea experiences. Dig in.

Recommended reads:
The Best High Teas in Melbourne
The Best Bakeries in Melbourne
Where to Find the Best Ice Cream and Gelato in Melbourne

Chocolate Eggs, Limited-Edition Gelato and Hot Cross Buns from Pidapipo

Most Melbourne eateries that create specials for Easter tend to make one showstopping treat. But the crew at Pidapipo Laboratorio are given the freedom and resources to dream up all kinds of delicious things year-round.

For this Easter at Pidapipo that includes hot cross bun gelato sandwiches, three Easter-inspired gelato flavours and a heap of different chocolate eggs — some plain and some filled with even more Easter treats. The team has really gone all out with this stacked selection.

Easter Eggs, Hot Cross Buns and Pre-Mixed Cocktails at Mork

Mork, best known for its range of hot chocolates, has gone balls to walls for Easter. The crew has been working in overdrive over at its chocolate foundry in North Melbourne to create a massive selection of treats. Its bean-to-bar Easter eggs return (with some vegan-friendly options) and will be joined by geometric chocolate bunnies filled with house-made marshmallows, malt balls and spice chocolate raisins.

Mork's pastry kitchen has created a new take on the classic hot cross bun which comes with chunks of dark chocolate, candied orange, sultanas, cranberries and a cacao fruit glaze. And if you want to make this Easter a little boozy, the crew has stocked up on its pre-mixed spiced chocolate negronis for good measure.

Easter Afternoon Tea at Park Hyatt

The Park Hyatt is known for having one of the best day spas in Melbourne and generally embodying classic luxury — but it also has one of the city's top high tea experiences. And for Easter Sunday the experience will step up a level.

For $135 per person, guests will get the usual high tea stand with finger sandwiches, scones, and savoury pastries, plus access to a decadent dessert buffet. This will be packed with cakes, tarts and puddings made just for the day. And for just an extra $20 per person you can get unlimited Australian sparkling wine.

Hot Cross Bun Cake from Le Yeahllow

Le Yeahllow is known for creating some of the most incredible cakes in Melbourne — leaning into the "is it actually cake?" territory. And the crew's Easter special is quintessential Le Yeahllow.

The Hot Cross Cake (above) looks like a single or six-pack of hot cross buns but each is in fact a dense and extravagant cake. Slice into this bad boy to find layers of whipped ganache, a chocolate cremeux, chocolate and a hot cross sponge. Punters can either buy a single hot cross bun or packs of six, nine, 16 and 24.

Hot Cross Buns from Baker Bleu

Baker Bleu, one of the best bakeries in Melbourne, is keeping things simple with its Easter treats this year — because you don't always have to go over the top. The focus is all on the sacred hot cross bun. It's got two sourdough options up for grabs as well as as a blended sourdough and yeasted hot cross bun.

The two totally sourdough treats either come with sour cherries and dark chocolate or raisins and pecans. And the partly yeasted hot cross bun is packed with cinnamon-spiced oranges and raisins. Simple but delicious.

Easter High Tea at Pan Pacific

Down at Melbourne's South Wharf, Pan Pacific is serving up its annual special Easter High Tea which you can book here.

The three-tiered spread will include a heap of savoury and sweet options, many with Easter-themed flavours and decorations. Think spiced orange and chocolate chip scones; a frangipane bunny; Easter vol au vent with mushrooms, caramelised onions and three cheeses; and a colourful Cointreau Easter egg.

Hot Cross Bun Gelato Sandwiches from Penny for Pound

One Easter treat hitting Melbourne that sounds the most gluttonous is coming right out of Penny for Pound's pastry kitchen. Not only has the team created three different flavour combos — traditional, double chocolate and its signature sticky date jam with caramelised white chocolate — but they have joined forces with Holla Gelato to stuff them with the good cold stuff.

Holla Gelato has paired each with a different filling. The traditional hot cross buns get a scoop of classic salted butter caramel gelato. The chocolate versions get stuffed with milk chocolate and hazelnut gelato. And the sticky date hot cross buns come with a coffee pecan crunch gelato. We're not salivating, you are.

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns from Black Star and Koko Black

Easter is a fitting occasion for two of Australia's best-loved dessert spots to team up and release something special for the chocolate fiends among us. The pastry masters at Black Star have come together with chocolatier Koko Black and launched their own dreamy take on the traditional hot cross bun.

These beauties are spiked with Koko Black's 60-percent dark chocolate, topped with a lightly spiced glaze and finished with that all-important cross — reimagined with more chocolate, of course. They're available by the single serve, in a six-pack or by the dozen, to pick up from any of Black Star's Melbourne stores up until Monday, April 1.

Gelato-Stuffed Easter Eggs from Piccolina

This Easter, Piccolina Gelateria is marking the occasion with a new line of limited-edition gelato chocolate eggs — because gelato-filled Easter eggs have well and truly become a thing in Melbourne. Available now in-store and online, you'll find three varieties, each hand-crafted, hand-wrapped and presented in a beautiful Piccolina box.

Choose from the Milo egg, featuring a malted chocolate gelato layered with homemade milo crumb and a soft milk chocolate ganache centre; the Banoffee, blending banana gelato with pie crust and caramel ganache; and lastly, the Baileys Cheesecake, packed with an assembly of Baileys and cream cheese gelato, cheesecake crumbs and a soft Baileys ganache centre. Oof.

Top images: Park Hyatt and Le Yeahllow