What’s yellow, a new superfood (according to the internet) and essential for hot cross bun consumption? Butter. The once-vilified member of the food pyramid is now the snack of choice for many and liberally slathered on to everything. Not even the humble soft serve has been able to escape its greasy grasp.
The butter-dipped soft serve, popularised on Instagram, is characteristic of food made for social media: the questionable flavour pairing enhances its desirability. Soft serves with pale yellow shells are already being sold by Cherry’s Goods and Air Lab in Sydney and Timboon Fine Ice Cream in regional Victoria. It is also promoted as a food highlight at this year’s Sydney Royal Easter Show, running from 2 to 13 April, being sold by the vendor Looops Funnel Cake.
Their version was inspired by a creation from New York-based chef Dominique Ansel, which went viral in mid 2025. Explaining the story behind the treat, Ansel says his stemmed from a trip he took to a dairy farm in Normandy.
Ansel has a knack for creating zeitgeisty foods – he’s also the father of the cronut.
Retailing for $9, Sydney’s butter soft serve will join other “outrageous” and “must-try food creations” in a new food section of the agricultural fair called the Winning Bite. At past Easter shows, Vincent Yeow Lim, the ambassador of the Winning Bite, says attendees “cared more” about the flavour of the food and speed of delivery.
Now, he says social media has changed our expectations – meaning vendors need to focus on presentation. “We have to eat with our eyeballs first,” says Lim.
Eddie Stewart, one of the judges who chose the Winning Bites, says “it’s a show of the times”. People want more of the interesting, creative food they may not get anywhere else, he says, and the Easter show is the best place to experience that.
He acknowledged that for some food featured, flavour falls second to aesthetics. Attending a preview for the showcase, Stewart’s words quickly became my reality.
Watching the ice-cream being rolled around in the butter, I thought about my heart, soon to roll around in butter as well. According to accredited dietician Danielle Shine, there’s approximately 10 to 17 grams of saturated fat in one butter soft serve. In comparison, Shine says a regular soft serve has two to three grams.
The national public health information service Healthdirect Australia recommends that less than 10% of an adult’s total daily energy intake should come from saturated fat – roughly 20 to 25 grams of saturated fat per day.
I tried to take my first bite, but my teeth felt like they were on a Slip N Slide, unable to gain purchase. Once I finally broke the shell, I was strapped on to the next texture rollercoaster. The butter did not melt at the same speed as the ice-cream, which resulted in chewy chunks.
With each bite, the exposed butter stretched like taffy. I expected something crisp, like a choc-top; instead, I got pasty.
Ansel says he seasons his butter dip with honey, salt and vanilla, while Looop’s dip is butter only. There was no discernible flavour to the ice-cream beyond a whisper of vanilla. But I did enjoy the savoury bursts when I got bites that included flakes of salt.
As the ice-cream started to melt between disrupted shards of butter, I covertly disposed of the treat. In the bin I noticed many of its fallen comrades, mostly half-eaten. The experience was over, but the film of grease left in and around my mouth lived on.
Shine says a butter soft-serve combination should hypothetically be “very pleasurable” and “hyper-palatable”. “Fat provides a rich, creamy texture; sugar tastes great, salt enhances flavour,” she says.
This proved to work with Stewart, who enjoyed the ice-cream, saying he “can’t wait to have another one”. But he knows it’s not for everyone: “Is it going to stand up against a Mr Whippy? Probably not.”
