The Sweet Spots
Check out our interactive location map to find the most creative ways across the country to satisfy your sweet tooth.
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Flip through pics of some of the most decadent, mouthwatering desserts money can buy.
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These hilarious sugar fiends take the cake (literally –– and then review it).
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Episodes
See Episode GuideLuscious Layers
We're stopping in at three unique sweet spots that deliver layers upon layers of incredible flavors and textures. Union Fare Bakery in New York City is flipping the switch on the classic croissant and baking up flavors like red velvet and birthday cake. When it comes to pies in unusual shapes and flavors, Slab Sandwiches and Pie in Seattle is at the top of their game. If you love layers, Cake Bar in Dallas displays 14 colorful layer cakes daily, and every slice brings a sweet smile.
Sweetlandia
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.
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!
Ice Cream Nation
We travel across the nation to find the most original ice cream creations. At Morgentern's Finest Ice Cream in New York, inventive flavors and unusual toppings take center stage. If you're feeling nostalgic, Publican Quality Meats in Chicago is bringing back a childhood favorite with their amazing pub pops, one push of this frozen pop and you'll be hooked. And in Colorado, Fior di Latte makes a delicious horchata affogato and a colorful cake using their creamy, silky gelatos.
Small Bites
Need a nibble of something sweet? Take a bite of sticky, stacked baklava and creative candies from Brooklyn and Queens, N.Y., or a tiny taste of decadence with twisted French classics in Chicago or upscale Farmer's Market fare in San Francisco. These treats may be tiny, but are huge on flavor.
Ooey Gooey
Whether to swipe the sticky sugar from your hands or to catch a drip on your lip, these ooey gooey desserts require a napkin or two to conquer. Dive into the stickiest of sticky buns, a coconut cake soaked with syrup, a fried apple pie dipped in spiced caramel and a sundae that's dripping with two different sauces. Take our advice and save your fingers: grab a spoon.
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.
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.
Sweet and Sticky
Sweet, sticky, ooey gooey. It's everything you want in a sweet, delectable dessert. We take a tour from the east coast to the west coast, tasting our way through unique caramel bread puddings, ooey gooey sticky buns, mini bites of caramelized goodness and old fashioned candy like you've never seen before.
Sweet Bite of the Big Apple
We're in New York City, discovering the places that are serving up the most unique sweet treats from around the world. In Red Hook, Brooklyn, check out La Newyorkina. This Mexican sweet shop specializes in paletas, ice pops made with fresh fruit. Try the milk-based Fresa Fields Forever or slurp the Chamoyada: a surprisingly addictive answer to the snow cone. On the Lower East Side we sample Thai street sweets at Juicy Spot Cafe. Here, they make ice cream to order and finish it with a variety of unique toppings. Try flavors like green tea, and toppings including grass jelly and dragon fruit. At Mocu-Mocu in Hell's Kitchen, they make a Japanese stuffed pancake called Obanyaki.The Apple Compote and Custard Cream Obanyaki tastes like a warm slice of apple pie a la mode.
Wild West Sweets
In Denver, it's all about wild sweet creations that always leave the customers coming back for more. The Shoppe is a funky full service cereal bar and bakery. Victory, Love & Cookies crafts works of art in the form of cookies. Sweet Action constantly pushes the flavor boundaries of ice cream. And at Sugar Bakeshop you'll find handcrafted sweets made with care.
Global Sweets
Zucker Bakery is a picture-perfect bakery sharing family traditions with their customers through their cookies. Flour and Tea lures you in with their Taiwanese baked goods with American influences. Stop by Las Paletas for refreshing frozen treats that bursts with flavor! Bien Cuit executes French pastry beautifully, cutting no corners to create the finest sweets in Brooklyn.
L.A. Sweets
It's a tour of the sweetest spots in Los Angeles. At Republique, French pastries are expertly crafted, and totally addictive. The Pistachio Raspberry Kouign Amann is like California summer wrapped in a buttery and flaky dough. And you'll love unwrapping the Cherry Pistachio Braid layer by sugary layer. At Churro Borough, their version of an ice cream sandwich pairs artisanal ice cream with two warm, flaky deep fried pastry disks. Then we check out the unique cloud cakes at Bo Nuage.
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.
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.
Frozen Treats
It doesn't matter what the weather is like outside, there's always room for a frozen sweet treat. We take a brain-freezing journey and discover ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, shaved ices drenched in sugary sweet concoctions, unique drinkable concoctions and cones with a surprise inside.
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.
Rise & Shine
From morning pastries to inventive brunch items, we cover the most delicious morning sweets. At Darling Coffee you can get your morning brew paired with delicious handcrafted morning sweets. Clementine Bakery creates vegan pastries that pack major flavor into each bite. Short Cake turns traditional American sweets upside down. Sky Blue Cafe is a hip Nashville brunch spot that will satisfy everyone's craving for pancakes and French toast.
Sweet Start
We travel the country finding the sweetest way to start your day! At Holy Donut in Portland, Maine, the dough for their Maine Blueberry Donuts and Sweet Potato Ginger Glazed Donuts includes mashed potatoes. At Kolache in Brooklyn, they take on the Texan kolache pastry with a Berry Sweet Cheese version filled with three kinds of berries, and Orange Rolls. Finally, there's a decadent breakfast of Carrot Cake Pancakes and Fried Chicken and Waffle Sandwiches at the Dixie Supply Bakery and Cafe in Charleston, S.C.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Sugar Central
