Perth Voice Interactive

CAKES, cakes and more cakes. Just breathing in the air at Sweet Sherbet will give you a sugar rush as you take in the stunning display on show.

Food and cooking is in the genes of owner Matt Perroni (pictured), whose great-grandmother started off the Re Store in Northbridge. He served his pastry chef apprenticeship at his parents’ cake shop in Mt Hawthorn—right across the road from an uncle’s butcher shop.

Mr Perroni bakes all the cakes in the shop, regularly changing the line-up, but keeping old favourites. And everything is home-made, including the mayo for the non-cakey items in the cabinet: “The only thing I buy is the bread,” he says.

Sweet Sherbet opened on Whatley Crescent five years ago: “Because it’s not the city, or Subi. The rents are right and the customers aren’t in a hurry,” Mr Perroni says.

Many customers drop in daily, and on a regular Saturday around 25 birthday cakes walk out the door. With guests over, I’d dropped in for some take-away delights, but the vibe was so relaxed and inviting I decided to stay for something savoury for lunch, in this case the vegetable baguette ($13.50), served with a very good long black.

Lightly toasted and filled with oven-baked vegies, including mushroom and artichoke and with a delicious pesto sauce it was so filling I struggled to finish, and wished I’d held off on the dish of gherkins and the potato chips the roll came with.

Narrowing down a choice of cakes was a challenge, but I was more than up to it and left with a mix of salted caramel tart, chocolate brownie, rhubarb and raspberry slice and a massive slice of Nonna Feliciano’s Sicilian apple cake. (Cakes are $7 and slices $5.50).

Back home, argument raged over which was best. The salted caramel could have done with more salt and less sugar was the consensus.

The apple cake was a crowd-pleaser, moist, and laced with apples and berries. But the race came down to the rhubarb and the brownie. Personally I liked the fruity sharpness of the rhubarb and raspberry best. But the final vote was weighted by the younger set and the brownie was the outright winner by a nose.

Rich and moist it was almost chewy, with chunks of soft chocolate running through the cake, so maybe the kids got it right.

Sweet Sherbet Cafe and Bake Shop
206 Whatley Cresc, Maylands
Open Mon–Fri 7am–5pm, Sat and Sun 8am–4pm