Coffee & Treats in Cedar Park

Winners of the critics’ choice award for Most Comforting Pound Cake in the 2009 Austin Chronicle Restaurant Poll, Nothing Bundt Cakes’ homegrown baking duo Dena and Debra hauls home trophies thanks to mouth-melting cakes crafted using natural ingredients and mom-style know-how. Choose from nine moistened cake flavors, such as ravishingly rich red velvet or swirlishly scrawled marble. Sink sweet teeth into the simple pleasures of a frosted cake ($18.50+), or let the bakery’s cakesmiths delve into their bag of tricks, ordering embellished desserts for celebrations ranging from dad’s Independence Day barbecue to mom’s bare-knuckle-boxing tournament (decorated cakes $29.50+). Regardless of flavor or appearance, every cake, from the pineapple-studded carrot cake to the streusel-like praline pecan, comes topped with thick petals of Nothing Bundt’s signature cream-cheese frosting. Sizes start as small as single-serving bundtlets ($3.99/each; $45/dozen) and grow all the way up to a two-tiered cake ($65) large enough to serve larger gatherings or use as lodging in Candy Land.

Dairy mavens at Zero Degrees Ice Cream handcraft more than 40 ice-cream flavors daily, and then pepper their creamy depths with fresh chunks of fruit and chocolate morsels. Scoops splash across homemade waffle cones, and cakes and cupcakes beat out ice sculptures of The Thinker as eye-nabbing frozen centerpieces.

Whether at the local farmers' market or neighborhood grocery store, Mrs. Melody is always on the hunt for fresh ingredients. Her method for grocery shopping, as well as baking, comes from her childhood in southwest Louisiana. Paying homage to the women who taught her to cook, Mrs. Melody follows family recipes to craft more than 10 types of made-to-order cake pops. She flavors the two-bite nuggets with Bailey's Irish Cream, lavender flowers, Mexican vanilla, rosemary, and other bold ingredients. Beyond cake pops, she prepares salty butterscotch pretzel See-Saws, sweet-potato loaves, and cupcakes. Mrs. Melody also takes requests for items not on the menu and prepares special treats for holidays and milestones such as baby's first cavity.

It’s Tuesday morning, which means the members of The Yogurt Experience’s staff are loading up the trailer with cups, waffle cones, drinks, and frozen yogurt for another day of cooling off the city. Once the trailer is stocked, it accelerates toward the North Austin Trailer Yard to nab a parking spot amid the 10,000-square-foot traffic jam of food trucks. Typically, the staff selects a few frozen-yogurt flavors to highlight each day, from thin-mint cookies to blueberry-acai tart to cheesecake made with no added sugars. They repeat this process every day except for Monday, returning their non-fat, low-fat, and sorbet treats to the storefront each night so no kiddie cones get arrested for breaking curfew.

Edible Arrangements' chocolate-covered strawberry box merges the rich flavors of chocolate with the succulent decadence of fresh strawberries. The primly packaged red box contains 12 ripe strawberries, each of which was picked at its peak freshness before being hand-dipped in a semi-sweet chocolate blend. As students trudge back to school in the coming weeks, teacher's pets seeking domestication can gift their eminent educator with something other than the traditional red apple or slab of shark meat by arriving on the first day with a box of chocolate-covered strawberries.

As the calendar begins to creep up on the summer months, the snow at Frost Bites invokes island breezes rather than polar gales. The shop’s staff shears man-made icebergs to make its signature Hawaiian shaved ice, a refreshing dessert named after the frozen bridge that allowed primeval man to migrate to the islands. Tall glass bottles brim with more than 50 choices of flavored syrup, which range from sweet strawberry cheesecake to tart Granny-Smith apple and pink lemonade. Add-ons such as caramel, chocolate, and cream complement the ice’s fluffiness with their creamy, gooey textures.