Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.
Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories: bakers' confections and sugar confections. The occupation of confectioner encompasses the categories of cooking performed by both the French patissier and the confiseur.
Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate and which share features with desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies.
Girl Scout Cookies are cookies sold by Girl Scouts in the United States to raise funds to support Girl Scout councils and individual troops. The cookies are widely popular and are commonly sold by going door-to-door, online, through school or town fundraisers, or at "cookie booths" set up at storefronts. The program is intended to both raise money and improve the financial literacy of girls. During an average selling season, more than one million girls sell over 200 million packages of cookies and raise over $800 million. The first known sale of cookies by Girl Scouts was in 1917. Cookie sales are organized by 112 regional Girl Scout councils who select one of two national bakeries to buy cookies from.
A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises. Confectionery items are also made in most bakeries throughout the world.
A cupcake (AmE), fairy cake (BrE), or bun (IrE) is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations such as fruit and candy may be applied.
The fig roll or fig bar is a biscuit or cookie consisting of a rolled cake or pastry filled with fig paste.
Tastykake is a line of snack foods manufactured by the Tasty Baking Company, headquartered at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 1914 by Philip J. Baur and Herbert T. Morris and originally selling its product only in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the company now distributes its products in several states on the East Coast, south to Florida, and has been gradually expanding across the United States.
A layer cake or sandwich cake is a cake consisting of multiple stacked sheets of cake, held together by frosting or another type of filling, such as jam or other preserves. Most cake recipes can be adapted for layer cakes; butter cakes and sponge cakes are common choices. Frequently, the cake is covered with icing, but sometimes, the sides are left undecorated, so that the filling and the number of layers are visible.
Entenmann's is an American company that manufactures baked goods and delivers them throughout the United States to supermarkets and other retailers for sale to the public. They are often known to have display cases at the end of store aisles. The company offers dessert cakes, donuts, cookies, cup cakes, loaf cakes, pies, cereal bars, muffins, Danish pastries, crumb cakes, and buns among other baked goods. In the past several years, they have added designer coffee flavors along with scented candles to their product line in an effort to broaden its appeal.
Pepperidge Farm is an American commercial bakery founded in 1937 by Margaret Rudkin, who named the brand after her family's 123-acre farm property in Fairfield, Connecticut, which had been named for the pepperidge tree.
Huen Su Yin is a Malaysian blogger and cake designer. She is known for her sculpted cakes, which use cake, fondant and styrofoam to create characters and themes, including her Super Mario cake. She is also known for her face cupcakes.
Cupcake Wars is an American reality competition series that premiered on December 27, 2009, on cable television network Food Network. The show, which is based on creating unique and professional-style cupcakes, was hosted by Justin Willman and later by Jonathan Bennett.
Rose Naftalin was an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. She founded and ran popular restaurants in Toledo, Ohio, and Portland, Oregon. These were especially known for their baked goods, including cinnamon rolls, cheesecakes, and other pastries. After retiring from the restaurant business, she wrote two cookbooks and gained a national following as "Grandma Rose."
Dozen Bake Shop was a bakery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While a variety of baked goods and other dishes were offered, cupcakes were Dozen's specialty and featured product.
Paola Velez is a pastry chef and social justice activist from New York with Dominican heritage. She has worked for restaurants such as Milk Bar and Maydan in Washington, D.C., and she co-founded the organization Bakers Against Racism, as well as the donut pop-up shop Doña Dona in 2020.
Seastar Bakery was a bakery in Portland, Oregon, United States. Annie Moss and Katia Bezerra-Clark owned and operated the business, which shared a space with Handsome Pizza in northeast Portland's Vernon neighborhood starting in 2015. Seastar served breads, cookies, pastries, and toast, among other baked goods. Despite garnering a positive reception and being deemed one of the city's best bakeries by Eater Portland and Portland Monthly, Seastar closed in August 2022.
