Amazing cupcake cravings - Cupcake Central, Melbourne

Photo courtesy of my friend, Mench. Cheers for making us stick around Melbourne Central in order to stumble upon this place!

Establishment: Cupcake Central, Melbourne Central
Cuisine: Cupcake bakery
Allergy information: they have vegan, gluten free and nut free flavours, however they warn of possibility of cross-contamination as products with allergens are also prepared on the premises
Suggestions: flavours vary daily but if they're available, I would highly recommend the following vegan flavours - Birthday Cake, Chocolate, Snickers and Cookie Butter - amazing!

I was unsure whether or not to include this as an Allergy-friendly Travel Eat because I don't live in Melbourne but seeing as it's still in the home country, I'll list it as a local spot while ignoring that it would take me a flight or an 8-10 hour drive to get there!

Last September long weekend, my friend and I decided to have an easy few days away in Melbourne and one thing we can always count on when visiting this city is food. Melbourne is a well known vegan paradise in comparison to Sydney, making it quite the Jel-friendly food haven.

As per usual, I wasn't disappointed, particularly thanks to this one place we found quite by accident.

On our last eve in the city, I wasn't feeling too well. My skin was being a bit problematic and when I'm that itchy, I become really fatigued so walking around is a bit tiring and grump-inducing.

My friend wanted to check out a few places in Melbourne Central before we headed back our apartment so I found myself spots to sit and rest while she did that. Eventually, we were making our way back to the escalators when she spotted a place she reckoned she could grab a snack - Cupcake Central.

So many options..!

We headed over to see what they had on offer and admittedly, in Melbourne, I tend to feel more optimistic about finding things in bakeries I might be able to eat. To be fair, I'm not sure how well backed up that idea is in reality because a lot of bakeries down there still don't necessarily cater for vegans but it is still much more likely than Sydney.

In this instance, my optimism did not go unrewarded. As we approached the glass shelves, I saw the word vegan and my fatigued brain gave way to some bubbling excitement.

They had so many options! I actually had to really think about my selection in order to avoid being an absolute glutton and I eventually made it out of there with a box of four of the nicest looking cupcakes I'd seen in a long while.

There is much to drool over in this picture.

Aaaaand we have here, Birthday Cake, Chocolate, Snickers and Cookie Butter - all vegan and allergy-friendly.

I've not yet come across a place in Sydney that currently offer vegan cupcakes in store so things like this make this 36-year-old get all giddy like a little kiddy. This isn't to say they don't exist and a quick Google has just told me that Sparkle now have a vegan range available for delivery (hurrah!) but as they're still a rarity, that little box of cupcakes I held in my hands made my dessert-loving self ridiculously excited.

When we finally tucked into some back at the apartment, they were so, so, so good. I first tried the Birthday Cake one which I assumed would be my 'least' favourite of the four and that cake was moist and surprisingly flavourful considering it was a simple vanilla cake. Paired with the buttercream frosting, it was a most happy mouthful.

I then tucked into the chocolate one and that was just as moist and rich as the first, just more beautifully chocolatey.

Fast forward to the next day and I polished off the Cookie Butter and Snickers ones and I am so glad I saved these for last. The Cookie Butter one was a chocolate cinnamon flour cake with vegan frosting and caramel with a Biscoff Lotus cookie. My. Word. That was amazing.

Then the Snickers - chocolate cake topped with peanut butter frosting, crushed peanuts and a chocolate caramel drizzle. Seriously. By this stage, my taste buds had pretty much spontaneously combusted.

Now considering their warning that they can't guarantee zero cross-contamination, I can happily report that I didn't experience any discomfort or tickles that would indicate the presence of any allergens when I ate these. Of course, I would still recommend proceeding with caution appropriate to your allergy severity.

We were heading back to Sydney that day so we decided to grab some for the road and our families back home but honestly, I just want to say, please open a branch in Sydney, guys! Till then, I look forward to paying you a revisit the next time I'm back in Melbourne.