Little Pebbles is a teeny tiny bakery cafe selling wee little cute desserts that borrow from the heavy-hitting traditions of French and Japanese cuisine. They use Japanese juhakuto sugar in all their desserts to create an inimitable moist texture and subtler sweet, rich flavour.

Owner Dada Ahn came up with the name Little Pebbles because many of the desserts here are small and round. She also didn’t want a name that tied the cafe exclusively to coffee or dessert. She wants both to be of equal standing here.

The interior is very minimal, designed to be a look-alike of cafes in Japan, all white with a sleek design. A simple poster of Mount Fuji hangs on the wall. Looks are deceiving, though, as all the baking is done in the back sunken area of the space.

One divine dessert that isn’t so pebble-like is the chiffon cake which comes in matcha ($5.50), kinako adzuki (adzuki as in the beans, and kinako is a roasted soy flour) and black sesame flavour ($5.25).

We try rich matcha garnished with edible gold leaf and nutty kinako adzuki with red bean paste on top. The cake is like a literal sponge that melts.

More pebbly but equally melty macarons ($3, $3.25 for matcha) are lighter-than-air outer cookies sandwiching flavourful centre on their yuzu, matcha, black sesame and rotating berry flavour. The flavour today is blackberry and I love the sweetness and pop of the flavours and crunch of the cookie, not to mention its cute flower shape.

A surprising cousin to the macaron that you may not have heard of is the dacquoise ($3.50). To put it simply, dacquoise is layers of meringue sandwiching cream, and these use the exact same ingredients as the macarons: almond, egg white meringue, and sugar. This matcha dacquoise ($3.75) is soft and crumbly.

Their Swiss roll cake ($5.25, matcha $5.50) is definitive. They’re Osaka style, which typically means the outside is not decorated and the inside is only cream, though this one is studded with a few sweet and juicy strawberry segments. It’s fluffy and spongy and not at all heavy, balanced and perfectly browned on the outside.

Coffee is provided by de Mello Palheta, and you can even take a bag home with you. They’ll also grind the beans for you at Little Pebbles based on your preferred brewing method.

Matcha lattes ($4.50 - $5) come out fast and smooth as silk, the surface of the drink as glassy as an undisturbed pond. They use imported matcha, and you can get it sweetened or unsweetened.

If a classic latte is more your style, those go for $3.95 - $4.95. There’s also a range of local teas by Herbal Infusions in blends like Moose Tracks.

For refreshment from the sweetness, there’s Calpico soda ($2.50), sort of like Ramune but derived from the Calpis drink made with dry milk.