Sugar Rush

Petsi Pies is my rock, my standby. I don't think I even considered scones before them. Other scones are dense, dry and heavy. Petsi's are light and buttery. You can always find the standard lemon and currant, but they also offer a rotating selection that includes pear pecan, chocolate raspberry, and blackberry ginger. Seriously, if you think you don't like scones, just try Petsi's. Other favorites include the Blackberry Cream Cheese Crumb bar, the sweet potato breakfast bun, the snickerdoodle, and the pecan square. Oh right, she also does pies :)

Two words: frangipane tart. I put Danish Pastry House in the Harvard Sq section because during the summer, you can pick up a Danish Pastry House Treat at the Harvard Sq farmers' market, in addition to other markets throughout the city, and this is where I first tried the frangipane tart. A little description, frangipane is a creamy almond and sugar mixture that is often combined with fruit and baked in a tart. Throughout the summer, DPH takes advantage of all the wonderful fruit in season and creates to die for frangipane tarts. Fruits include apricot, blackberry, and raspberry. They are absolutely beautiful to look at and would make an excellent gift for a host at a party.

I've been going to Flour for a while now. Joanne Chang's baked goods are notorious throughout Boston. I sometimes have a bad habit of always going for the same thing, namely, cookies. I am a cookie monster and Flour's cookies satisfy. I had heard though about their pecan sticky buns. Joanne even won a Throwdown with Bobby Flay with her sticky buns. It took me until recently to finally try them. Flat out, they are fantastic. I realized I'd particularly stayed away from sticky buns because often they're dry and not that great. Not Flour's. They are moist and buttery and the topping/sauce has the most wonderful caramelized sugar flavor.

Ah When Pigs Fly. If you've ever tried their breads, you know that several of them could be confused for dessert. Chocolate bread? Banana maple pecan bread? I literally feel like I'm eating banana french toast with the latter. They're breads are nice because they give you that sweet tooth fix but in a heartier, slightly more wholesome form than your typical dessert. Though, speaking of typical dessert, the Coolidge Corner location is my preferred location because they also offer monstrously large cookies in some slightly more unusual flavors. I'm in love with the chocolate chocolate toffee cookie which they tend to always have.the cookie

Babycakes is completely off the beaten path. In fact, I had never taken the Red line that far south until I visited. Babycakes is owned and run by Kerri, who is one of the friendliest bakers I've met in Boston. It's worth a trip down there just to have a conversation with her. She'll gladly tell you about her experience going to culinary school and opening the bakery despite her family preferring she stay with something safer. It's also worth it for the vanilla vanilla cupcake. She has an awesome repertoire of special and rotating flavors, but thus far, the standard vanilla has stolen my heart, and in my opinion, says a lot about her ability. For those of you wanting chocolate, try the namesake Babycake, which is a fauw hostess cupcake.