So popular was the Black Star Pastry pop-up pâtisserie inside Kinokuniya book store that the purveyors of the famous strawberry watermelon cake have found a permanent home inside the Galeries.
The ground floor pastry shop has been designed to look as though the pages of a giant book have been peeled back to reveal the cake counter, and if you're on a tight deadline, there's a dedicated pick-up counter for pre-orders.
Like its original location in Newtown, the CBD outlet will be pumping out Little Marionette coffees to morning commuters from 8am, and if your blood sugar can't handle daily cake they'll have ham and cheese croissants or plain butter ones. They're also bringing the black truffle toastie to the city, which involves housemade potato focaccia, button
mushrooms in a truffle bechamel, plus smoked ham and Gruyere cheese.
A casual scan of Instagram reveals the city's obsession with their blushing pink cake, but if you're a hype beast in search of the next thing in baking they've created a new sweet treat made with salted peanut caramel and two chocolate ganaches (dark and milk) on an almond shortbread base.
Here for fruit flavours? There's a dragon fruit sponge cake with pineapple and pomegranate; and the raspberry lychee number. More restrained palates might opt for the lemon and pistachio combo, while traditionalists have a Black Forest to look forward to. Or you can celebrate without dairy or egg thanks to the vegan chocolate popcorn cake.
A surprise coffee used to be the gold standard of office buttering up, but we're thinking that your next extended leave request should come with a black-striped cake box instead.