On an unassuming stretch of Nickerson Street, a Scandinavian café makes a decadent lineup of classic cakes (carrot and cream cheese, chocolate ganache, vanilla raspberry). But the real winners at Byen are its Scandinavian specialties. Try the kransekage, a Scandinavian celebration cake with towered rings of crusty-yet-moist sweet-almond cake. Or the aptly named Swedish gooey cake (a.k.a kladdkaka), a flourless chocolate cake with powdered sugar topping. Give the store a call for custom lettering, but trust that no fancy decoration is needed—the delicate pastry layers are perfection already under their powdered sugar dusting.

The Hawaiian-toned cakery has been a work of family pride since the ’90s, when Mary Buza-Sims would bake Portuguese sweet breads and guava chiffon pie—flavors that recalled her upbringing on Kauai—for Kauai Desserts. Her son, Mosi, continues her sweet-toothed traditions in a shop that’s hard to miss thanks to its tropically hued signage. The lineup of island-inspired cakes includes pineapple-coconut or that classic guava: a two-layer Barbie-pink strawberry cake held together by guava filling and topped with whipped frosting.

Hobbyist-turned-pro Rina Syjuco started baking partially out of homesickness, launching with flavors inspired by her home country: ube, mango, and Philippine caramel. Now, the custom cakery turns out a whole slate of flavors, which Syjuco decorates into the exact cake of her clients’ dreams: a pastel vintage-style Bluey, a succulent garden in a dozen shades of green, or an elegant purple ombré. An added bonus: Her Instagram decorating videos are absolutely mesmerizing.

Charlie Dunmire and her team offer flavors like London Fog (Earl Grey cake held together by bergamot mascarpone cheese) and the chocolate-rich 9lb Porter in the form of soaring cakes (the vanilla bean custard reaching nine layers of milk-soaked pastry). Since moving a few blocks to a larger location in late 2023, the lines for slices and cupcakes have lessened. Last-minute revelers can check in at Deep Sea’s website starting at 8am to see if they can snag one of the premade whole cakes on sale each day.

This pastry institution has garnered a committed following of Eastsiders since Ed Hoffman opened his original shop in 1984. Husband-wife duo Eugenia Velez and Carlos Covelli took over the shop in 2006 and staunchly preserve the integrity of the shop’s traditional European recipes. The marzipan-wrapped princess torte draws devotees, but Eugenia’s favorite is a tiramisu-inspired, espresso-soaked sponge cake topped with enough dark chocolate shavings to get lost in.

The best friend team behind Lady Grey Cakes, an online custom cake storefront, whips up artful creations that range from unexpected (blueberry pancake–influenced cake, anyone?) to comforting classics like dark chocolate with Nutella buttercream. The two-woman operation divides the work—Becca Hapke guides the menu, while Alia Al-Hatlani uses her background in oil painting to guide the pastel-swirled buttercream designs. They can satisfy any age, but these elegant wedding cake–adjacent decorations seem better suited for grown-up celebrations.

Each of Melizza Rosich’s cakes looks like it could belong in an art museum. Her sophisticated style imitates watercolor, oil paints, and stained glass, and the option to add sugar flowers and gold leaf to any design only makes them more impressive. Go ahead and put them into a science museum, too: Rosich has managed to create gluten-free cakes that mimic the classic texture without sacrificing any flavor.

The pastry case at Mittens, a small shop off Jefferson Street, is a riot of color and beauty, filled with an outsize variety of soufflé cheesecakes, colorful tarts, brownies, cube doughnuts, and more. Among the shop’s many gems are the multilayered mousse cakes, which show off Misato Sakuma’s deep background in Japanese and French pastry technique. The striations of dacquoise, sponge cake, and multiple colors of mousse (raspberry pink and pistachio green, recently) are as delicately flavorful as they are pretty.

Though under new ownership as of last year, this gluten-free bakery maintains its cake repertoire of simple yet satisfying proportions. All cakes are decorated in the “naked style” (a hint of frosting on the outer edges, generous heaps between the layers). The bakery doesn’t do custom designs, but its carrot or classic chocolate flavors—and imaginative seasonal options like pumpkin spice or vanilla chai—should please both GF and gluten-loving party guests. Vegan options are also available, ensuring that everyone can get a slice.

With light, fluffy sponge, bright fruit flavors, and a subtle sweetness, the cakes from this doughnut shop win over the toughest crowds, including kids and even people who claim not to like cake. The ordering chart somehow manages to simplify the five shapes, five cake flavors, 19 fillings, 11 frosting options, and dozenish extras (like a doughnut on top) into digestible form. I won’t do the math on how many possible combinations that makes, but it means a range from traditional round chocolate birthday cake with rainbow sprinkles to whatever you can dream up using options like matcha cake, goat cheese filling, basil sweetened whipped cream, and toasted meringue coating.

For nearly 30 years, this stalwart has been the neighborhood go-to for birthdays, holidays, and celebrations of all sorts. The signature tres leches can be filled with mango, guava jam, Oreos, fresh fruit, and more, soaked in rum or rompope, and decorated as a unicorn, with more fruit, or with Disney characters. While the custom cakes need to be ordered ahead of time, the best part of picking up a Salvadorean Bakery cake is pausing for some fresh pupusas and browsing the small market of Latin American products.

When Alina Muratova quit her job as executive pastry chef for the Washington State Convention Center, she planned to sell her desserts wholesale. But that was in late 2019, so she ended up pivoting to pop-ups and farmers markets for a bit. Even though she’s back to the original plan, when she found a bakery space with a storefront in Phinney Ridge, she couldn’t resist opening to customers again. The pastry case holds individual treats like tropical shortcake and strawberry mochi cake, but the bulk business model means Sweet! has enough cake on hand at any time to help out the procrastinators of the world. Muratova says she can get one of her multilayered chocolate cakes ready to go in as little as 30 minutes.

In a compact brick storefront, baker Kara Burfeind builds fanciful creations out of a range of classic cake flavors like chocolate peanut butter and lemon cream. The SweetSide has a stable of go-to specialty designs, from a spray of tasteful frosting flowers to mermaid or macaron themes. But Burfeind’s happy to put her pastry degree to use on mega-custom cakes shaped like Lego characters or a fondant-wrapped calculator.

Christina Wood earned fans for her pastry perfectionism with her laminated treats—the sugared cruffin and rye pain au chocolate—and regulars know to snag a bag of English muffins when they can. But far fewer people know Temple also makes an excellent cake: incredibly moist, thick with buttercream, and bright with fun seasonal flavors. Look for the Citrus Kiss (white cake with yuzu-mandarin curd and honey cream) in winter or the Tuscan Dream in fall (olive oil cake with fig compote and mascarpone whipped cream).