Bakeries in North York

Columbus Bakery's adept bakers employ Colombian ingredients and enthusiasm to craft a range of traditional sweet and savoury baked goods. A completely Colombian staff stuff baked and deep-fried desserts with tropical fillings, including guava and sweet arequipe, to satisfy diners and fight off packs of roving birthday cakes. Colombian coffee complements both traditional finger foods and baked goods. Bathed in natural light, the cafe space's tile floor, tall stools, colourful hanging lamps, and shelves piled with pastries welcome northerners with a South American flair.

Seated at round, white-topped café tables, customers alternate sips of premium espresso with bites of crunchy, freshly baked macaroons. A popular specialty, the macaroons exemplify the level of craftsmanship that goes into each pastry sold at Bo&Bon, a bakery conceived as a bridge between a neighbourhood coffee shop and a gourmet pastry kitchen.

Bo&Bon’s streamlined interior evokes an upscale, European-style elegance that reappears in the bakers’ presentation of their various cakes, meringues, and other treats. Helmed by a professional pastry chef, the bakery’s skilled confectioners painstakingly craft treats that range from custom wedding cakes to small chocolates. Their commitment to all-natural, kosher pareve, and lactose-free ingredients extends to all corners of their menu, and they uniformly eschew artificial colourings and decorative machine bolts.

Mama Mia Place's owner recalls childhood days spent at his grandfather's farm, standing beside the warmth of the clay oven as he watches his grandmother bake fresh bread and empanadas. A point of family pride, empanada recipes are passed down from generation to generation and are crafted through time and expertise; Mama Mia's empanada recipe is no exception. Inside his own restaurant, chefs knead and bake fresh dough inside an open-view kitchen, crafting traditional cinnamon-dusted churros or pastries filled with dulce de leche, homemade cream caramel, which are made following family recipes handed down for three generations. Freshly baked wares travel to the gleaming glass bakery cases under the front counter for display and safekeeping in a warm, cozy environment.

Having crafted cakes for celebrities including Hugh Hefner and Cujo, Sugarbuds’ husband-and-wife duo of Greg Robb and Sabrina Singh employ their sizeable confectionary know-how to whip up freshly baked cupcakes available in various icing, filling, and eggless or regular cake options. Commission the construction of a cupped treat sporting a red velvet or lemon topping. A carrot cake deftly bridges the gap between vegetable and dessert more successfully than a broccoli lollypop. The chocolate cake also features flowers and designs with buttercream. Orders must be placed 24 hours in advance of pickup, granting patrons a chance to determine which cupcake they’ll eat first and which cupcake they will eat while walking their pet llama.

For the Love of Cake, helmed by cupcake countess Genevieve Griffin, offers dessert desirers freshly baked cupcakes made with quality ingredients. The bakery's 4-dimensional cupcake particularly stands out, with its multi-layered melding of cake, filling, topping, and garnish. The decadent treats come in 25 different flavours, and the bakery offers at least nine of those flavours each day. (Check the sweet spot's Twitter feed for daily offerings.) The Strawberry Shortcake cupcake injects juicy strawberry puree into its angel-food-cake fluff and tops it off with whipped cream and a strawberry slice, and the Crazy Carrot cupcake puts a pit of pineapple filling under a crowd of cream-cheese frosting and a candied carrot. Suffocate your sweet tooth with the chocolate overload of the Death by Chocolate cupcake, or freshen up your frosted feast with the mint overtones and moist chocolate of the Grasshopper.

Carole's Cheesecake Company's expert baking team uses halal-certified, preservative-free ingredients to handcraft a daily changing selection of delectable desserts, including cheesecakes and mini cheesecake cups. Customers can stuff their gobs or shirt pockets with individual cake slices ($5+); offerings include the caramel-brownie varietal, a circular wall of chocolate surrounding a lifeguard-supervised pool of buttery caramel. Meanwhile, groups of cherries jitterbug atop a New York–style vanilla cheesecake, and mousse-covered chocolate cheesecake rests on a cookie base. Carole's also bakes eight flavours of low-sugar mini cheesecakes ($2.50) and noncheesecake selections such as banana cake topped with fresh banana slices.