- Instagram bakeries established in the city over the past year offer everything from unusually flavoured bagels and brownies to vegan-friendly tiramisu
- We look at some of the best, including those that cater to children, with cakes featuring popular characters from Pokemon, Disney, Marvel and even Baby Shark
The number of Instagram bakeries that have sprouted up in Hong Kong in the past year is testament to the rapidly growing popularity of the social media phenomenon.
These businesses are bakeries mostly without a shopfront that, unlike their bricks-and-mortar counterparts, deliver their baked goods or meet customers at designated spots, and advertise their business mostly through Instagram.
They usually start as passion projects, and in Hong Kong must apply for a food factory licence from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.
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This process takes at least a month (the to-do guide itself is 15 pages long) and the fee is upwards of HK$3,740 (US$480) depending on the size of the factory.
Although Instagram bakeries may have their operations located in less built-up areas where rent is more affordable, provide limited pickup options - commonly at MTR stations at designated times - and typically have shorter existences, their creativity, flexibility, novelty and competitive prices make them attractive.
Below is a list of some of those that have set up in Hong Kong in the past year that you might consider using for your next birthday, engagement, wedding or baby shower celebration.
1. Deesses Bakery
This pastry shop in Tin Shui Wai, in the New Territories, is known for its funky flavoured baked goods like garlic cheese bagels and madeleines with fermented bean curd - a Chinese condiment of processed, preserved tofu that is often served with dishes like pig's trotter and water spinach.
For bigger occasions, the bakery offers three-dimensional rose-shaped raspberry cakes, chocolate mousse bear cakes and bouquets of strawberries.
However, claiming the throne at Deesses Bakery is its viennoiserie, with signature buttery croissants and croissant wheels topped with cream, icing sugar and a biscuit.
2. NUte
Founded in February 2021, NUte is on a mission to "improve human and planetary health", and works with natural ingredients in its range of vegan- and vegetarian-friendly foods.
The bakery recently complemented its selection of iced smoothies and granola jars with a series of all-natural treats like miso banana bread and cacao brownies, which are vegan, and vegetarian cranberry oatmeal cookies and peanut butter protein cookies.
Its range of granola jars - called "Functional Granolas" - includes Awaken (hazelnuts, cacao and coconut), Chillax (seaweed-flavoured crunch) and Endurance (nutritional yeast, walnuts and black sesame).
3. Rumah
This bakery, whose name means "home" in Indonesian, hopes to spread Southeast Asian flavours in Hong Kong with monthly pre-orders and pickups in Tin Wan, in Hong Kong's Southern district.
Since February, the bakery has been selling its take on the traditional Indonesian snack Pandan Kue Lapis - an 18-layer cake made of steamed soft rice flour pudding, coconut milk and pandan leaf.
This chewy snack, which typically features at Indonesian festivities like weddings and religious events, can be eaten as a whole or peeled layer by layer.
Eating the snack fresh is recommended, and the trick is to wrap your knife with cling film so the pieces remain clean-cut.
4. All Day Bakery
This Kwun Tong-based bakery aims to make "food that makes people happy" with a healthy twist.
All Day Bakery says it is the city's first bakery to offer double-layered cream chiffon cakes with toy train tracks running through them, a claim most likely to be true.
These creations are often adorned with characters from children's animations, like the princess sisters from Disney's Frozen, Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro, and Sanrio's Pekkle, or the fish, from the "Baby Shark" song video, to name a few.
The bakery's smash cakes come in the form of footballs, princess carousels and Jigglypuff from Pokemon.
Its sister company, Last Day Bakery, offers home-made farewell treats and mini snacks like mochi balls with salted cheese cream, petite jelly cups with mango and coconut, and melt-in-your-mouth cupcakes.
5. MYOK
Another Kwun Tong-based bakery, MYOK's name is an acronym for "make your own cake". The bakery has been making chiffon cream cakes since March 2022, and isn't afraid of playing with ingredients.
Chewy mochi dumplings are paired with kinako - roasted soybean powder - and fresh green grapes, while sea salt is mixed with Oreo cookies and French cream and topped with a seemingly levitating box of Koala's March cookies.
MYOK welcomes challenging orders, and can mix different flavours, fill its cakes with a mochi core, and make cakes with multiple layers and fun toppers.
MYOK's cakes are low in sugar, oil, fat and use no artificial colouring.
6. Tomato Bakery
Tomato Bakery lets your imagination go wild.
Cakes here start from four-inch (10cm) "lunchbox cakes", are available round or heart-shaped, and come adorned with hand-drawn illustrations.
From Disney princesses to Marvel superheroes, simple cursive messages like "I love you", to friends' portraits, Tomato Bakery does it all.
Customers first discuss their design and then select their flavour - chocolate, vanilla, earl grey, matcha or lychee rose - before picking a topper of whipped cream or cream cheese. Finally, they select their filling from Oreo, fruit or chocolate crunch.
Add-on candied cherries are also available for a splash of vintage fun.
For those who want to get really creative, the bakery can customise individual cake slices, which can make for a personalised party, or a perfect solo treat.
7. My Ro Rose Designer Cake
As well as apple pies topped with beautifully modelled roses, My Ro Rose Designer Cake is known for its madeleine sculptures of trees, hearts, flowerpots and more, which come in myriad colours and flavours like banana salted caramel, plain chocolate gingerbread, and mandarin and pistachio.
My Ro Rose Designer Cake's madeleines are bursting with jam and come in 12 different flavours.
Lovers of traditional cake can opt for the sponge box cake topped with the bakery's signature madeleines. Bespoke designs are also available - recent ones have come in the form of a blue-and-white porcelain vase, and an orange HermEs gift box.
8. 126.cake
Founded in summer 2022, 126.cake embraces 1970s-style dessert making: think candied cherries, cream blobs, buttercream flowers, Lambeth piping and pastel colours.
Available in sizes from four to six inches, 126.cake's creations can be topped with a mini candelabrum, a crown or butterflies.
The cakes can be picked up from a few locations including Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.
9. Kitsune Bake
Kitsune Bake was founded in April and highlights imported ingredients like Korean strawberries, Okinawan black sugar and more.
This one-man-band bakery's portfolio is simple but refreshing, consisting mainly of chiffon cream cakes with home-made jam, earl grey and coffee-flavoured jelly, matcha with raspberry whipped cream and chocolate crunch, and warabimochi with tofu-flavoured cream.
Most cakes come with crunchy flakes by default, but can be changed or have mochi added for an additional cost.
Sizes of four and six inches are perfect for small parties.
Kitsune Bake's cakes can only be pre-ordered and scheduled for pick up in Kwai Hing in the New Territories.
10. The White Cake
This vegan patisserie in Kowloon Bay makes delicious healthy desserts and is favoured by parents of children with food allergies.
In its signature White Cake, dairy products are replaced with vegan organic soy whipped cream atop a vegan lemon sponge cake with an apple marmalade core.
There are fancier options, such as the vegan Taiwan Irwin mango passion fruit cake, which comes dotted with edible gold leaf and fresh dill; and a vegan tiramisu that is made with soy milk instead of cheese, and comes with home-made vegan ladyfingers.
11. Himakashi Cake & Bakery
This Kwun Tong-based bakery specialises in mille-feuille, fruit tarts, cream cakes and mousse cakes ranging from four to 7.5 inches.
Flavour are sometimes unconventional, like matcha mochi red bean with tofu panna cotta, milky tieguanyin tea, and limited-edition durian mousse cake - which comes packed with the fruit.
The bakery is also known for its small treats like matcha mochi cookies, madeleines, scones, doughnuts, dipped strawberries, palmiers, chocolate crunches and more - which are available in gift boxes.
The bakery launched mooncakes in classic custard and matcha red bean flavours in 2022, so stay tuned for its upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival menu in time for September.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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