Melbourne · since 2026
Cookies, cakes and jam jars falling down a board is a genre of its own by now. This is a small blog about four of those games, what each one asks of you, and where the sweetness turns into a shop.
All four are free to download in Australia, all four contain optional in-app purchases, and all four have been played on an ordinary phone rather than watched on video.
The classic bakery board: swap two biscuits, clear the icing underneath, work through a level map that stretches further than anyone reasonably needs. What keeps it readable after a hundred stages is the colour work — the sweets are distinct shapes as well as distinct colours, which matters more than it sounds when the board is half covered in jam.
Levels are short. If you have twelve minutes and a coffee, you will finish two or three of them and feel like you got somewhere.
The younger sibling, and a different rhythm entirely. Instead of trading two pieces you tap clusters, so the question changes from where is my match to where is the biggest blob. Boosters build faster and the screen spends more time in motion.
It is the one to pick if the original felt slow. It is also the one more likely to eat forty minutes without you noticing.
Half puzzle, half renovation. Clearing boards earns the currency that rebuilds a bakery, room by room, and the decorating is genuinely the point rather than a thin wrapper. The trade-off is that progress is gated: you play to unlock the next piece of the shop, not the next board.
Rated 12+ on the App Store, which is worth knowing if you are handing the phone to a child.
The plainest of the four and the easiest to recommend to somebody who has never played one of these. No story, no bakery to rebuild, no characters talking at you — just cake pieces, a move counter and a goal printed at the top of the screen.
Because there is nothing to sit through, it is the best of the group for a two-minute gap in a day.
Why some sweet boards are easier to read · Lives, timers and the art of waiting · Sticky fingers, clean screen
Each game was installed fresh from the Australian store listing and played in ordinary snatches over a fortnight — on the tram to Flinders Street, in queues, on the couch. No purchases were made, no promotional codes were used and no studio was contacted before publishing.
The level where progress first stalled, what the game offered at that moment, whether the goal was readable without squinting, and whether the thing could be played with one hand. Everything else is opinion, and it is labelled as such.
Store details checked in August 2026. Prices, ratings and availability are set by the publishers and can change at any time.
Terms, taxes and fees are shown at the next step on the store page.
No. No studio has paid for a mention and none of the links carry a referral tag. The blog costs about the price of a coffee a month to run.
Because those are the four that have actually been played to the point of having something to say. The list will grow slowly.
Free to download, yes. All of them sell optional extras inside the game; the store page lists the price range before you install.
There is no shop and no checkout. Send the form, get an email back with the total and postage, pay if you want to. It is a private sale, not a business.
Made for sticky evenings
from $14.50 AUD
Five 15 × 15 cm cloths, washable, lint-free, cut for phone and tablet glass. They exist for the very ordinary reason that puzzle games get played next to a cup of tea and a biscuit, and a smeared screen makes a busy board unreadable.
Sold privately by Olivia Bennett. Nothing is charged on this site — you will receive an email with the total, postage and payment details before anything happens.