2025 Pyney’s 🥧 Reviews
Review No 50
Johnny Baker
(Castlemaine VIC)
June 2025
With Blumes bakery ticked off the list, I made the short trip south to the beautiful town of Castlemaine for my next review. Castlemaine is known for its rich gold rush history, vibrant arts scene, and growing reputation as a foodie destination. Speaking of food I was on my way to meet the team at Johnny Baker.
Johnny Baker has two thriving locations uptown and downtown Castlemaine. Sadly the day of my visit one of the owners John wasn’t available but Josh the other owner was more than willing to meet up and show me around. Both John and Josh are qualified, chefs, and together with the help of their team produce an exciting range of artisanal gelato along with all the classic delicacies.
The down town location has a real industrial theme about it. The open layout and kitchen gives customers the chance to see the process behind the scenes. The cabinet display is stunning and the delicious products that are in these cabinets are even better. This place gets super busy and I couldn’t believe the amount of people that were walking in and out. After checking out the impressive prep and baking area it was time to check out the menu and choose a 🥧 to review.
The variety of flavours on offer here is fantastic. As soon as I started perusing the menu, Josh asked me to try one of there gourmet 🥧’s and one that is quite popular. The 🥧 he wanted me to review something I’ve never tried or would not normally ask for. The 🥧 of choice was a “vegan green curry with tofu and pumpkin” This 🥧 was very different and despite having no meat whatsoever, I was keen to give it a go.
🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧
1. Value for Money – $9.50 is up there, but this 🥧 could easily be categorized as gourmet. It was a very generous size in both depth and diameter. The last time I looked tofu wasn’t cheap and that needs to be considered. 8/10
2. Meat/Fill Ratio – About 95% full, a few small holes here and there but overall you’d be pretty happy with the fill of this 🥧. 9.5/10
3. Flavour – The flavour totally surprise me, and in a good way. There was plenty of flavour in this 🥧 and the green curry whislt only mild still had a little bit of a kick, which was nice. The tofu blended in brilliantly with the pumpkin. This flavour was nothing quite like I was used to, but still very enjoyable. Excellent flavour team. 9/10
4. Pastry – The pastry was excellent, particularly the color, which was golden and incredibly flaky. The stability was excellent, while there was a little shrinkage it was only very minor. The bake thicknesses were both on point as was both bakes. Overall the team have done a really good job with this pastry, well done. 8.5/10
5. Serving Temperature – Perfect serving temp. No issies at all. 10/10
Overall Rating
🥧🥧 45/50 🥧🥧
I’m going to give my first vegan 🥧 experience a massive thumbs up. I was totally out of my comfort zone, but in the end I had nothing to worry about as this was a beautiful product. Yes I’m not gonna lie, I would never have this flavour at all, but I’m so glad I gave it a go. The scores were very consistent right across the board, and for me, the flavour was the best part. In saying that the pastry was also of the highest quality and the 🥧 was almost full. Fantastic job guys, highly recommended.
Johnny Baker both uptown and downtown are must visit. The place has a great vibe to it and the choices of food are endless. If your around the Castlemaine area 100% add this place to your list.
A massive thanks to Josh and his team for having me in. This was very much an impromptu visit and Josh whilst extremely busy took time out to show me around and share his 🥧 journey with me. It’s a shame I didn’t get to meet John, but this is an area I’d love to come back to and explore more and will hopefully catch him next time. These guys are ultimate professionals and i’m so lucky to have had the opportunity to spend time in such a fantastic bakery.
As always thanks for the ongoing support and keep supporting 🇦🇺 bakeries and don’t forget to invite all your friends to the page.
