Some of the scrolls on offer at The Hill Kiosk in Gerringong. Photo: The Hill Kiosk.
What started as a quiet winter experiment at a Gerringong cafe has quickly turned into a viral food craze, with customers travelling hours for towering, Instagram-famous scrolls.
At The Hill Kiosk, owner Melissa Matters has gone from selling a handful of the pastries to hundreds a day, as demand for the oversized sweet treats shows no sign of slowing.
“We were staffed up ready for summer and winter got a bit quiet, so I thought, oh, well, what can we do that’s a bit different?” Melissa said.
“You always look at something different.”
Melissa, who is also Kiama Council deputy mayor, said she trained a couple of her school-aged staff who work weekends to make scrolls, from the dough through to the toppings.
“Slowly, people started to love them and we started to sell more of them,” she said.
“We started to up it by 25 per cent last week and this weekend we’re going to move it up another 25 per cent, because they’re selling out fairly early.
“We were thinking, hmm, it’s OK to sell out, but then we’re just starting to build it.”
At first, Melissa kept the scrolls to The Hill Kiosk, rather than spreading them across all three venues, which includes The Hill Bar and Kitchen and the takeaway next to the kiosk.
However, on the weekend, the scrolls were flying out the door at all three venues.
If you’ve seen the scrolls, you understand the appeal.
These are not modest pastries; they’re towering, frosting-laden spirals designed for both indulgence and the camera.
“They’re selling really well, but it is a bit of a craze at the moment,” she said.
Melissa said the turning point was a post on their Instagram account that received 1500 shares.
Then came a call from food influencer Sir Eats-a-Lot, who has 236,000 followers on Instagram.
“He said, ‘I saw how good they were and I’m going to come down and try them,’” she said.
“So he came down and I did a special batch for him and then he loved them and put something out there as well.
“Then extra people came down. Our social media took off.”
She said they were now going from a couple of hundred to a few hundred scrolls on a Saturday and again on a Sunday.
“I’ve got a goal to make 500 a day,” she said.
And the goal seems likely, considering the demand for scrolls is intense – and often starts early.
Making of the scrolls that are attracting visitors from as far as Sydney. Photo: The Hill Kiosk.
“We had some people come in early Sunday morning at half past six,” she said.
“They said, ‘Oh, have you got any scrolls out yet?’ I said, ‘Do you know how much time it takes to make those scrolls? I’m two and a half hours making scrolls’.
“They laughed at me and said, ‘Well, we’re going down the coast’ and I said, ‘Would you like me to keep your some?’
“So I wrapped some up and they picked them up at four o’clock on the way back through.”
Part of the magic is in the range of flavours.
She said the dough base was made inhouse, but the toppings and fillings turned each scroll into its own dessert.
“We do the traditional with cream cheese icing on top,” Melissa said.
“Basically I do cream cheese on all of them, and then I put a flavour on, other than the traditional.”
The line-up reads like a dessert lover’s wish list: Traditional cinnamon scroll with cream cheese icing; banoffee with a Worther’s type homemade caramel, crushed dried banana chips and brulee banana on top; biscoff with crushed biscuits on top; lemon cheesecake with lemon curd; caramel apple; apple cinnamon; and Nutella.
She’s even looking at an Easter-themed one in a hot cross bun style, with sultanas, currants and cranberries with a cross on top.
Asked which flavours were winning over customers, Melissa didn’t hesitate: “Biscoff and traditional”.
She said the workload was considerable.
“We make everything in The Kiosk — all the brownies, Mars Bar slice, everything like that. It’s all housemade,” she said.
“To make scrolls on top of it, it’s a fair bit to do.”
As the scroll craze has grown, so has the need for extra hands.
In a neat full-circle moment, one of Melissa’s earliest apprentices has just moved to the Illawarra.
“I got a phone call from a chap who was my first apprentice in Sydney at my bakery,” she said.
“He’s 41 now, and he was 15 when I employed him.”
Melissa said he was quickly recruited to give her a hand to make scrolls on the weekends.
She said while there were other dessert crazes travelling the internet, it was all about scrolls for her, believing it was likely to grow even stronger before dropping.
“The scrolls are doing so well and I love making them, so I’m focusing on that,” she said.
The Hill Kiosk is located at 100 Fern Street, Gerringong, and is open seven days for lunch from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm, bar menu from 3 pm to 4:30 pm, and dinner 5 pm to 8:30 pm.
