BEATRIX IN NORTH MELBOURNE
Raspberry sponge, banoffee pie & a caramel slice from Beatrix
I love humble bakes. Mouse cakes and fancy mirror glazes dazzle from behind pastry cases, but there’s nothing I find more satisfying than a delicate sponge or a jam tart with a perfectly golden pastry shell. That’s why my all-time favorite bakery is Beatrix, a little corner shop in North Melbourne run by my cake idol Natalie Paull.
It’s the type of place you could imagine Celia Imrie playing the owner of in a BBC film that has a five month run and performs best in matinees. Locals bring their own containers and KeepCups and lines form down the street for fruit-forward seasonal bakes that would be banned from competition at any CWA event to give other people a chance at winning.
To be clear, humble is not a drag. I just mean that the cakes at Beatrix don’t have to be loud about how good they are. Treats like the vanilla sourcream cheesecake with roasted rhubarb and ginger crust; vanilla slice with passionfruit glaze and puff pastry; Banoffee pie with banana, passionfruit, caramel custard, whipped creme fraiche and chocolate bark, are the arty, quiet girl at the party. Sophisticated, probably cooler than everybody else, but low-key about it.
It also helps that Nat is one of those magic bubbly people who is endlessly kind and has an infectious passion for what she does. She’s very serious about cake and has trained with legends Maggie Beer and Stephanie Alexandra but, much like her bakes, is humble about her credentials.
Nat’s cookbook Beatrix Bakes is also essentially fail-proof and I recommend it to anyone interested in baking. When it first came out, my Instagram was flooded with stories from non-baker friends successfully making her Hot Cross Buns; the only time I’ve successfully made a sponge cake was when I followed her Brown Butter Sponge recipe; and I dream of one day getting my act together enough to make her Pillowy Peach and Polenta Pie, which looks like it might be the sexiest bake around.
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