Where can you get a great cake on Sydney’s northern beaches?

Cake has become a dirty word. If you want a sweet treat, here are three cafes where baking is all part of the business.

Old favourite, new twist. Carrot cake from La Crema Lounge.

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Cake lovers rejoice. This week’s Foodie Friday samples three cafes where cakes take centre stage.

Decadent cakes fill the ­display cabinet at La Crema Lounge.

Patissier Jacopo Martelossi makes macaroons, rich Belgian chocolate cakes that pop when you bite into them, multi-layered carrot cakes and little treats with unfamiliar names.

His gianduja, an Italian chocolate-hazelnut pyramid, is made with chiboust, a hazelnut-flavoured bavarois. Cut into the centre, and sinful molten hazelnut and chocolate oozes out.

Patissier Jacopo Martelossi makes very fancy cakes.

Move away from chocolate and the Parisian-trained chef also focuses on seasonal ingredients. Plums are in season and one of the favourites is a plum tart with a twist. The plums are poached in Earl Grey tea, Mr Martelossi said.

Everything in his tiny kitchen is homemade, from the ganache to the choux pastry for the eclairs and the tempered chocolate.

“Tempering chocolate in the heat is a nightmare, but I never cut corners and I always use the best ingredients,” Mr Martelossi said.

With Allambie Public School on his doorstep, Mr Martelossi caters for less sophisticated tastes, too.

“I have brownies and chocolate crackles, and they’re made with Belgian chocolate,” he said.

Teh Duchess high tea at Passiontree Velvet.

Passiontree Velvet is a patisserie with a difference. The franchise, which started in Brisbane two years ago, opened its sixth outlet in Balgowlah Stockland last month. Number seven in St Ives opened this week.

As well as cakes and ­upmarket Parisian-style ­patisserie, high tea is on the menu, co-founder

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Chris Sheldrick said.

“We are more than a patisserie and we don’t have just cakes,” Mr Sheldrick said.

“Our high tea is a point of difference.”

Passiontree Velvet has opened at Balgowlah Stockland.

The $34.95 a head, Duchess high tea is a traditional tea-and-scones experience with all the trimmings.

The high tea showcases the range of traditional, trendy and modern cakes.

Customers can buy cakes by the slice or as whole cakes for $54.95 each. Two cakes are flying out of the door.

One is a light and moussey blueberry bouquet cheesecake, which is decorated with edible flowers. The other is a nut-spiked layered gateau. Layers include single-origin coffee mousse and cashew mousse on a matcha tea green sponge.

One ingredient is essential for owner-baker Thomas Becker. Brezel Bar, his Raglan St bakery-cum-cafe, uses imported German flour for its baking.

Brezel Bar sells a traditional range of German cakes including plum slices and well-known bee-sting and black forest cakes. It also has a fan club for its traditional cheesecake based on a family recipe.

Barbara Quintella, Thomas Becker and Silvia Martini from Brezel Bar with a baked cheesecake.

“We make a baked cheesecake using quark, a low-fat, curd cheese, not ricotta,” Mr Becker said.

“Our cakes are definitely not as sweet.”

Brezel Bar: 5A Raglan St, Manly, 8957 6429

La Crema Lounge: 12/141-151 Allambie Rd, Allambie Heights, 9451 1299

Passiontree Velvet: K05, Balgowlah Stockland, 215 Condamine St, Balgowlah. Details,