Favorite Bakeries in Philadelphia

Philadelphia boasts a wealth of wonderful bakeries, and that is good news for those of us with a sweet tooth.

We've been talking cakes of late, but we recognize that this heat can be a significant deterrent to baking.  Unless you opt to do your baking early in the morning or late at night when the temperatures are slightly cooler, you may feel that you yourself are cooking along with your dessert.  Even when you avoid the heat of the day, the weather of late has been rather steamy, so turning on the oven is simply not tempting.

Fortunately for us,  there are plenty of local places to procure a delicious cake without the swelter of your kitchen...

In Reading Terminal Market alone, there is an enormous selection of baked goods....

Termini's--we liked this chocolate glaze cake: a chocolate cake topped with a vanilla glaze and chocolate drizzle.   This is only one of dozens of tasty treats created by Termin's.

Flying Monkey offers a veritable bouquet of cupcakes and other treats; if you think they look good wait til you taste them.

Flying Monkey Cupcake Assortment [photo used with their permission]

Metropolitan Bakery, known predominantly for their artisan breads, is no slouch in the dessert department--as demonstrated by their chocolate torte and fruit tart.

Bieler's Bakery offers a staggering array of choices...

While we are rabidly devoted to Reading Terminal Market, we do stray from there occasionally.  In such cases, Brown Betty Bakery fills our need for sweets.   We brought a dozen of their justly famous cupcakes to a friend's house for dinner last weekend, thus assuring that we will be invited back soon.

And if you are looking for fancy, nobody maneuvers fondant like Allison's Cups and Cakes.  There is no sculpture, no shape, no theme too ambitious for Allison; she has of course, created beautiful, traditional multi-tiered wedding cakes adorned with flowers.  But that is the tip of the iceberg.  She once made a cake shaped like stacked Tiffany boxes (in the signature blue, of course) with 'jewels' spilling out of them.  With equal skill and attention to detail, she has sculpted a transformers, Elmo, Hello Kitty, a Louis Vuitton bag and dozens of other awe-inspiring cakes that are (almost) too beautiful to eat.

One of Allison's simpler creations, a spider cake for Halloween.

So, if cake is your wish but turning your oven on is your dread, Philly's got you covered.

What's your favorite bakery?