I had a doughnut from Self Raised a few months back and vowed to return. And I did.

They only make two types of doughnuts – Boston Cream and Lemon Meringue. This time I got the Lemon Meringue.

One of the reasons I started doing the DomNuts blog was to share with the doughnut-loving world where the great doughnuts out there are that don’t get the marketing hype of other places. The doughnuts at Self Raised are perfect examples.

They are amazing. Arguably the best in Sydney.

But because doughnuts make up just a fraction of what they produce, they will probably never be seen as being among the great ones, which is usually reserved for specialty doughnut makers.

So what makes these so special? I’ll talk about the Lemon Meringue Doughnut because that’s the one I got recently.

The dough is fantastic. Soft, chewy, airy, light – everything you want from the dough of a filled doughnut. Some filled doughnuts are too light, but this one nails it perfectly. Not over-cooked, not undercooked. Perfect.

The topping is a great big dollop of meringue. It too is delicious. Gooey and sweet, like meringue should be with a firm outer shell.

The filling was lemon custard. Again, perfect. Just the right proportion for the size of the doughnut. Not too sweet. Not too runny. A good amount of lemon tang. Just the sort of filling that belongs in a Lemon Meringue Doughnut.

This doughnut really was superb. It’s no wonder the place is always packed when I’m there. I haven’t tried their other sweets, but I’m sure they too are wonderful.

If you love doughnuts, get to Self Raised in Carlton.

Self Raised