The crumble has long been a beloved dessert here in Australia. It’s easy to whip up, it’s a sweet, textural delight to eat and it always manages to conjure up comforting images of warm hugs from your Nan and pleasant hours spent over Sunday lunches with the family. But it’s not the sort of thing you can just pop out to the shops for when a craving strikes. Or is it?

Crumble dessert shops have been trending in the UK for a while now, with ‘the world’s first crumble bakery’ Humble Crumble (along with copycats like crumbld.) going absolutely bonkers on social media. But these are not your average common or garden crumbles. Rather, small tubs are filled with stewed fruits, custard, crumble and various toppings, from marshmallow cream to melted chocolate, nuts or rose petals. They’ve even spawned the creation of a whole new dessert – the crumbrûlée.

Now the crumble craze has arrived on our shores. In Melbourne, you can get your crumble fix at The Crumble Corner, which has been open in Grazeland Melbourne since last year.

The latest to join the crumble rumble Down Under are Crumble Cave, which opened in Brisbane’s Newstead in mid-May, and Perth craft ice cream chain Kuld Creamery, which has just added a crumble offering to its menu.

The premise might be simple in theory, but it’s easy to see how quickly this thing will most likely take off. Much like the endless chains of frozen yoghurt stores that are still everywhere, this is a DIY kind of dessert destination. Choose from warm or frozen soft-serve custard, which you can combine with stewed fruits like rhubarb or berries, as well as several varieties of crumble. Then there are the toppings to agonise over – should you go for sprinkles and melted chocolate or ice cream and Biscoff bickies, or should you Frenchify things with a brûléed top? Best try them all, just so you don’t get FOMO.

So, does this mean that we’ll soon be seeing a whole lotta crumble in the coming months? All signs point to yes, please. This author is of the opinion that the power of Instagram and TikTok will ensure that there’ll soon be a jumble of crumble bars, with queues snaking out the door, in every town.

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