The Sweet Spots
Check out our interactive location map to find the most creative ways across the country to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Sugar Porn 19 Photos
Flip through pics of some of the most decadent, mouthwatering desserts money can buy.
Meet the Contributors 16 Photos
These hilarious sugar fiends take the cake (literally –– and then review it).
Only on CookingChannelTV.com
Digital-Original Series: Sweetnr
When desserts start using dating apps, crazy mash-ups are born.
The Country's Top 5 Best Desserts 4 Videos
We've rounded-up the best pies, doughnuts, cupcakes and breakfast treats around.
Instagram Dessert Pics Actually Worth Looking At 26 Photos
Episodes
See Episode GuideSweetlandia
We're traveling to Portland, Ore., to discover some of the city's most scrumptious and satisfying treats. We start at Bushel and Peck Bakeshop, where the sweet and tart Marionberry Mint Muffin is a perfect way to start your day and the Double Chocolate Squash Scone with Espresso Maple Glaze is a great afternoon pick-me-up. Plus, if you're in the mood for a seriously sinful treat, try the Pretzel Almond Caramel Bar. Next, follow us to The Cakery for some of the prettiest -- and tallest -- cakes we've seen. The Pink Cake looks sweet and angelic, but one bite of this cake reveals a deliciously naughty chocolate center. And explore your love of lemon one layer at a time with the Lovely Lemon Cake. And at Palmetto Cafe, the Coconut Bundt Cake takes carrot cake to the tropics for a fantastically flavorful luau, featuring special guests coconut, pineapple and, the star of the show, purple heirloom carrots.
Cravings
We discover unique versions of the most sought after sweets. Chocolates that have no chocolate, brownies and cookies baked in together in perfect harmony, ice cream that's literally farm to cone and mini pancakes like you've never seen before. It's what you crave, only better.
After School Favorites
Cupcakes, brownies, toaster pastries, ice creams and chocolates -- there's nothing like that sweet treat to snack on when school gets out. These afterschool favorites are breaking all of the traditional rules and winning.
Capital Cravings
We visit some of the eateries that satisfy the sweet cravings of Washington, D.C.'s power brokers. First stop: GBD, which stands for "Golden Brown Delicious" -- the perfect way to describe the unique doughnuts at this hotspot. At Cupcakes Actually, the shelves are stocked with 10 varieties of this sweet treat daily, including its signature dipped cupcakes. And we'll sample the refreshing artisan gelato at Dolcezza, which combines local ingredients, old-world methods, and innovative flavors.
Sweet Twists on American Classics
These special spots are putting sweet spins on American classics. The Doughnut Project in New York City offers savory-meets-sweet doughnuts, including a doughnut crossed with an everything bagel, and a chocolate cream doughnut flavored with bone marrow. In Miami, Sweetness Bake Shop gives childhood favorites tropical Latin twists, like a cinnamon-spice doughnut filled with dulce de leche and topped in chocolate frosting and a crispy churro. At The Dirty Cookie in Tustin, Calif., milk and cookies combine in edible cookie shot glasses!
Brunch
There are those who order a savory brunch and there are those that go for gusto with something decadent and sweet. We're catering to the sweet tooth by visiting hotspots that take a sweet brunch very seriously and turn it into something utterly unique.
Chicago Sweet Spots
Spend a weekend exploring all that Chicago has to offer. Salted Caramel challenges the idea of what makes for a sweet treat. Lovely Bakeshop is serving a little bit of Southern comfort with homey breakfast pastries. Southport Grocery and Cafe experiments with the best ingredients to create inventive brunch treats. And a small but focused menu at Waffles makes for exciting flavor combinations.
Colorado Sweets
Colorado has it all: Mountains, lakes and sweets. Head to High Point Creamery in Denver for unusual ice cream flavors like lemon ice pop with raspberry swirl and earl grey tea with shortbread, or have a slice of ice cream cake drizzled with hot fudge. In Boulder, Pizzeria Locale finishes off their dinner menu with three desserts done simply and perfectly. You can order the seasonal biscotti, butterscotch budino, or saltimbocca -- baked pizza dough filled with gooey, melted chocolate-hazelnut spread. And also in Denver, Glaze: They serve German layered cakes called baumkuchen that will amaze and delight your eyes and taste buds.
Shocking Sweets
We're searching high and low for New York City's most shocking sweets! In Astoria, Queens, an underground doughnut spot called Donut Diva is frying up outrageous cake doughnut creations that will make your jaw drop. At Eggloo in Manhattan's Chinatown, ice cream is generously piled in soft, puffy cones and customers get as many colorful toppings as they want. And Do, Cookie Dough Confections in Murray Hill is breaking all the rules by dishing out ready-to-eat raw cookie dough in a cup.
Breakfast Sweets
Of bakeries and brunches from the Pacific Northwest to New York City, we've found the best reasons to roll out of bed in the morning. Think outside the toaster and try a warm slice of brioche sweetened with almond paste and homemade almond syrup, a hand-forged donut, a towering stack of peanut-butter filled chocolate waffles, or a coffee cake made just for you (with a single-drip artisan coffee brew to match).
Breakfast Pastries
Nothing beats waking up in the morning to the scent of hot buttery sweet pastries. And these breakfast pastries from Oregon, California, New York and Connecticut are unlike anything you've had before. Once that morning coffee kicks in, you'll need to dig in.
Next Level Sweets
We sample nine cutting-edge creations, including the Coconut Cremeaux at The Pig and The Lady in Honolulu: an edible fantasy landscape with creamy chocolate mountains, "rocky" earth of candied sesame, and a forest of blackberries and nasturtium leaves. In New York City the creator of the world-famous Cronut is upping his game with a restaurant where desserts are made to order, like the Whole Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. And Charleston's Sweet Lulu's Bakery on Wheels puts a new spin on classic Southern comfort with its updated cakes made in travel-friendly glass jars, including the Raspberry Ice Box Cake.
Sweets All Day Long
Check out three unique places that satisfy any sweet tooth from sunrise to sundown. At the Wandering Goose in Seattle, they push the sweet boundaries with Southern goodies like chocolate chip cookies with toffee and crispy chicken skin. In Fort Worth, Texas, a neighborhood shop called Stir Crazy Baked Goods offers up the most delicious cookies, pies, scones and even quiches. At Bibble and Sip in New York City, you'll find sugary sweet treats with French and Asian influences, like croissant muffins and green tea fudge.
Classic Twists
We discover classics desserts that have been pushed into uncharted territory. Pies and cakes turned into cookies, ice cream made from goat's milk, salt water taffy that stretches the rules and pies that are renowned -- and served raw.
Kids' Treats
We bring out the kid in you with places that are sure to satisfy the sweet tooth for all ages. At Papabubble, whimsical candies that look too beautiful to eat, like grapefruit soda candies, and lollipops. Wooly's Ice frozen shaved ice in outrageous flavors like green tea and sea salt dulce de leche. It's a trip back in time when you step into Little Cupcake Bakeshop for their blue velvet cupcakes and s'mores bars. Take your cake to go at Stick & Pop where flavors such as peanut butter and jelly are served in bite-size spheres on a stick.
Cool Cookies Sandwiches
There's nothing better than the perfect cookie -- unless you take two of them and put some filling in between! At DC Patisserie they make delicate macaron with delicious American flavors. Milk Cult in Washington, D.C., has a true fan following for their unique ice cream sandwiches. And in New York, an art gallery/spice lab creates little sandwich cookies exploding with flavor.
Deep Freeze
These frozen treats go far beyond vanilla, chocolate and strawberry scoots. In Honolulu, Shimazu Store pushes the boundaries of shave ice, a uniquely Hawaiian treat. In New York, Ice and Vice uses unconventional ingredients to create edgy desserts for adult palates. In Burbank, Calif., Quenelle is changing the rules of the frozen-treat game, with creations including ice cream sandwiches with fresh, hot, funnel cakes.
Updated Classics
Trigger your fondest food memories with flavors you never remembered in our favorite picks for revisited retro and nostalgic desserts. Indulge in caramel corn in San Francisco, a Meyer Lemon Shaker Pie, the creamiest of cheesecakes to have all to yourself, or a slice of birthday cake unlike any mother ever made.
Grown-Up Goodies
In this episode, childhood treats that are all grown up. In Portland, Ore., an ice cream shop adds cocktails to the mix-ins. In Healdsberg, Calif., the area's bountiful produce finds its way into hyper-seasonal cupcakes. And in New York, chocolate is eaten unroasted and raw, infused with some very sophisticated ingredients.
Childhood Favorites
We found the top spots from Seattle to New York to keep the kid in you hopped up on sweets. Boxed supermarket desserts take on a grown-up twist with flavors like black sesame or passion fruit, as do the freshest of fruit pops, in two boutique shops in New York. For a more innocent indulgence, try sprinkle-scattered hummingbird cupcakes in Seattle or caramel apples dipped in cookie crumbs in Chicago.
Sugar High
It's time for the ultimate sugar high. In Miami, Brain Freeze Nitrogen Ice Cream Lab is concocting delicious creations, and offering a mad scientist challenge to eat 30 scoops of ice cream in 30 minutes. At Spot Dessert Bar in New York City, imaginations run wild with their Asian-inspired plated desserts, including a riff on the classic chocolate lava cake featuring an explosion of creamy green tea. And in Southern California, Afters Ice Cream delivers two desserts in one with their donut ice cream sandwiches!
Modern Comfort
Dominique Ansel in New York takes traditional French pastries and bakes them for the 21st century. Angel Food Bakery in Chicago satisfies the cravings for retro American sweet treats. French and Vietnamese flavors and traditions come together at Elizabeth Street Cafe in Austin. Salty Tart creates pastries with a midwestern flair in Minneapolis.
Old is New Again
Classic desserts get deliciously updated at three sweet shops across the country. Skull and Cakebones rocks vegan cupcakes in Austin, Texas, with flavors like basil berry, dirty chai and just beet it, you'll be singing a new tune about dairy free desserts. Valerie Confections in Los Angeles is resurrecting vintage cake recipes with mouthwatering results: Head here for a slice of coffee crunch cake or banana shortcake. And in Brooklyn, Hay Rosie uses unusual ingredients like champagne and hops to flavor super creamy scoops of ice cream.
Sweet Mash-Ups
We take a bite out of some of the sweetest mash-ups in the Big Apple. Dominique Ansel shares his famous Cronut, as well as a new combination of two desserts that defies the laws of physics. At Butter and Scotch, old-fashioned pies and quenching cocktails collide with delicious results and Oddfellows proves that some of the most unique flavors can make ice cream even better.
Sweet Imagination
Life's too short for boring desserts, so we're sinking our teeth into some of the country's most imaginative sweets. Moojo is helping keep Austin weird and oh so delicious with customized ice cream sandwiches made with warm cookies. Hail Mary in Brooklyn is the answer to your sweet tooth's prayers thanks to American classics with colorful, modern makeovers. At Super Chunk Sweets and Treats in Scottsdale, Arizona, mouthwatering desserts are brilliantly packaged in small bites that are big on flavor.
Coffee Break
We found the most unique sweets to suit your morning cup o' Joe. Abraco's morning pastries are packed with bold flavors like black sesame cardamom spiced cake and saffron sugar babka. Crespella adds a taste of Italy to your coffee with their crepes flavored and topped with tiramisu and cannoli. Bang Bang Pie in Chicago bakes decadent pies, from blueberry to a frozen sage lemon summer pie. Angel Food Bakery in Minneapolis serves donut bread pudding and tres leche cupcakes.
Sugar Central
