The best bakeries in DC for their cakes, pies and other holiday delights

Called DC’s first real neighborhood bakery, Bread Furst offers “Everything But the Bird” for Thanksgiving. It’s exactly what it sounds like – all the sides and all the desserts, including the traditional Garner’s Farm cornbread with corn. And for Christmas this year, the Connecticut Avenue Bakery (just north of the Van Ness subway stop) will once again bake panettone, the traditional Italian Christmas dessert, “old-world style,” says manager Scott Auslander. That means no commercial yeast: “Others make panettone, but not with a natural starter like we do,” he says of the mushroom-shaped dessert. Once TG is over, they will start making panettone with fruits that have been soaking in rum for a few months. The bakery will also be serving the traditional German stollen dessert this December. The restaurant and Bread Furst’s owner, Mark Furstenberg, is a James Beard Foundation Featured Baker.

Two-time winner of the Food Network Baking Competition. cupcake war, Doron Petersan’s all-vegan bakery is offering some fun food projects this season. There’s a fall-themed cookie decorating kit and a ski chalet gingerbread house kit available around the holidays. In December, the bakery, with locations in the H Street Corridor (H Street Northeast) and Columbia Heights, will offer a winter cookie decorating kit, as well as mint and brownie cookie kits. There will also be Hanukkah-themed cake pops. Plus, Sticky Fingers now ships baked goods across the country; so if you’d rather not bring a tin of cookies on the plane, you can have some vegan treats delivered to you at your out-of-town event.

Located inside the new La Cosecha in the Union Market District, Taqueria Las Gemelas is serving up frozen carajillos, or Mexican coffee, this season. Beverage director James Simpson says his take on the iconic drink is a “fun icy twist” spiked with tequila, Borsci and Licor 43 along with cinnamon, cream and Counter Culture coffee. “The carajillo is an iconic Mexican after-dinner drink, and the warm notes of spices and coffee seem to hit just the right notes for shorter days and colder nights,” says Simpson. Available until mid-December, which is when they will likely introduce rompope, a Mexican eggnog.

If you need a taste of NoLa this season, chef David Guas is whipping up New Orleans’ traditional Christmas cake, the Creole Kringle Pie. The Danish-style cake is made with crispy praline, filled with Creole cream cheese, and finished with warm praline, frosting, and toasted pecans. If you want cake, you can also get it at the Arlington, Virginia-based Louisiana-style restaurant. wow, a food and wine The nominee for “People’s Best New Chef: Mid-Atlantic” is whipping up a smoky, salty, sweet, and a little spicy bacon, cayenne, and pecan pie.

This year, the ice cream shop that opened in Baltimore’s Fells Point, and now also has a bakery and coffee shop in Baltimore, as well as two DC ice cream shops, one in Bethesda, Md. and one in Reston, Va., is making its debut. two new flavors for Thanksgiving and the December holidays. Their Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream, available through Thanksgiving, contains real pumpkin. In December, the zabaglione will be collected. Pitango’s version of Italian eggnog will be made with Marsala wine. For those looking for something warm, during the holiday months there will be “Sipping Chocolate” made with imported Italian chocolate, milk and organic cane sugar. Add a shot of espresso and you order a “Maracchino”.

At Shaw, the Caramel-Mochaccino Icebox Pie is making its Buttercream debut this season. Buttercream is currently running as a pre-order-only bakery; While you can’t just walk in for a gift, you can pick up your order by appointment. They haven’t released their December holiday menu yet.

On 8th Street in the Southeast, this “globally inspired bakery and market” focuses on what you’re going to eat. prior to his Thanksgiving meal and the next morning as well. Their “Thanksgiving essentials” are a bread basket that’s all about breakfast (with a few items for the meal itself, like their separate brioche). The Barracks Row bakery is serving Brittany kouign amann, which manager Channing Hill describes as what you’d get if “a croissant and baklava had a baby.” They haven’t released their December holiday menu yet.

seen in Cake Boss, America’s Best Baker Y sugar rush christmasKareem Queeman, known as Mr. Bake, is making his Thanksgiving sweet potato pie as well as banana pudding, which was just named one of from washington The 10 best dishes to feel good. For those looking to take home a few jars of Mr. Bake’s holiday delights, you can order now and stop by his store on H Street Northeast for their “Sweet Potato Pie” in a Jar and their Velvet Cake. red in a jar , among others.

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