More than a half dozen distinctive bakeries in town turn out outstanding cakes, desserts, pastries and more. Our guide to satisfying your sweet tooth.
AUX DELICES
1075 East Putnam Avenue, 203-698-1066; 3 West Elm Street, 203-622-6644; auxdelicesfoods.com
This go-to gourmet spot celebrating twenty years in town is known for its morning-coffee crowd; quick, healthy lunches; and all-day takeout, as well as the patisserie.
Most popular
Chocolate homestyle cake, strawberry short cake, double-crusted apple pie, plum frangipane tart, devil dogs, French macaroons
Don’t miss
The ginger tea, avocado sandwiches and salad samplers
Biggest/most unusual orders
“We’re lucky to have a relationship with Dean & Deluca in New York,” says owner Debra Ponzek, “and we’ve fulfilled hundreds of orders of cakes for their customers. This Christmas we will be offering a Buche de Noel and Raspberry Linzertorte in their holiday catalog.” The bakery has made a 3-D deer cake, a 3-D BMW cake, a Bigfoot cake and a Rolex watch cake among others.
Fall specials
Heirloom apple tiramisu, caramel pumpkin pots de creme, cranberry clafoutis, maple cheesecake with roasted pears, baked stuffed pears with walnuts, cranberries and Poire William.
SWEET LISA’S EXQUISITE CAKES
3 Field Road, 203-869-9545; sweetlisas.com
At this custom-design bakery, co-owners and CIA grads Lisa and Steve Maronian treat their cakes as edible works of art.
Most popular
Rolled fondant cakes are most requested, but there’s a new trend recently toward “naked” cakes, which have no exterior icing but have very interesting, visually appealing layers.
Most unusual orders
A four-foot diameter Carousel Cake with a working miniature carousel in the center for a bat mitzvah with 300 guests. “It was one of the most difficult cakes to create, because we needed to make the center of the cake turn with the sugar horses going up and down,” says Lisa. “The clients loved it, and it was the centerpiece of the event.” For another event, the Sweet Lisa’s team created a six-foot-long pirate ship cake that looked like it was in stormy waters with an edible octopus coming out of the water.
Fall specials
Adding to the delicious options for cake layers are the new Cookie Dough and Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie fillings; a portion of sales will go to the local Girl Scouts.
ST. MORITZ BAKERY
383 Greenwich Avenue, 203-869-2818; stmoritzgreenwich.com
Open since 1939, this European-style Greenwich Avenue favorite is famous for its chocolate mousse cakes and its homestyle chicken pot pies.
Most popular
Chocolate mousse cake, Sarah Bernhardts, kringle (a breakfast pastry), raspberry almond tart and orange lace Florentine cookies
Most unusual orders
A Halloween monster cake filled with edible insects. Also a 3-D pine cone cake serving 100 people, and a four-foot-tall chocolate sculpture in the shape of a gorilla holding a banana
Fall specials
New gluten-free versions of favorite fall and holiday pies
SWEET PEA’S BAKING COMPANY
212 Sound Beach Avenue.; 203-990-0008; sweetpeasct.com
This Brazilian-influenced
bakery and bustling coffee shop in Old Greenwich owned by Katja and Rafael Pita also serves full breakfast and lunch.
Most popular
Croissants, pao de queijo, rustic apple tarts, cinnamon rolls, gluten-free brownies and cookies. The delicious coffee is made from beans roasted on the premises.
Unusual order
“The first Christmas we were open, I was asked by a local customer to make one-and-a-half-feet-tall gingerbread men,” says Katja. Sweet Pea’s also whips up massive quantities of cookies and supports the Old Greenwich School Pumpkin Patch.
Fall specials
Whole poached pear spiced tarts, pumpkin swirl cheesecake with graham cracker crusts, chocolate- caramel-pecan tarts as well as “adult” cakes such as Caipirinha Cake and Bourbon-Orange-Ginger Cake. For Christmas, they’re planning ginger-beer-bread cake houses for customers to take home and decorate.
BLACK FOREST PASTRY SHOP
52 Lewis Street; 203-629-9330; blackforestpastryshop.com
A German-inspired bakery run by Dan Puffer and Herb Mueller, whose parents opened its doors on Lewis Street in 1982, this shop is like a slice of Bavaria from its authentic sliding doors to the confections inside.
Most popular
Chocolate Mousse Bombe, a dome shape with layers of chocolate sponge cake and chocolate mousse with chocolate ganache outside, decorated with a chocolate buttercream rose. Also the Meltaway Coffee Cakes and custom-made birthday and wedding cakes
Don’t miss
The namesake Black Forest cake, true to its roots with imported dark Morello cherries and Kirschwasser. Also check out the authentic German pretzels sold every Saturday and the great coffee any day of the week.
Most unusual orders
A three-dimensional bathtub cake for the Showtime series The Big C. The largest order was for 1,000 undecorated gingerbread houses.
Fall specials
Haunted gingerbread houses and monster face cakes for Halloween, as well as seasonal favorites like banana-nut bread and chocolate-pecan and pumpkin pies
DIMARE PASTRY SHOP
1245 Post Road; 203-637-4781; dimarepastry.com
A family-run Riverside bakery with Italian roots, DiMare’s also has a Stamford location and is soon to open a third shop in downtown Stamford.
Most popular
Chocolate mousse and strawberry shortcake, and also the monthly specials, such as the blueberry bread for $3.50
Biggest order
Sixteen 20×20 gingerbread houses, each with a different theme, to be placed in entryways of assisted living facilities
Fall specials
“We make a delicious pumpkin bread along with pumpkin and apple pie,” says Maria DiMare McGrath. “Our iced cookies are ghosts and jack-o-lanterns.