Coffee & Treats in Saint Matthews

While training at New York City’s French Culinary Institute, pastry chef Claudia DeLatorre learned that making incredible desserts often involves many steps but rarely many preservatives. At her bakery, Cake Flour, creations range from simple savories such as cheese scones to fancy, French-inspired sweets such as mini tarts and petits fours. Though their recipes differ, eschewal of artificial sweeteners and hydrogenated oils brings them together in a NuLu District shop teeming with the scents of cinnamon and toasted nuts. Certified organic ingredients such as unbromated flour, unbleached sugar, and free-range eggs infuse goodies with more flavor and freshness than a rapping watermelon.

Determined to serve the most memorable baked goods her customers have ever tasted, Claudia and her team craft each goodie from scratch, plucking rosemary from the shop’s garden to spice fresh focaccia and mixing rich ganache to glaze a flourless chocolate cake that’s been featured on the Food Network. In addition to building bite-size confections for Cake Flour’s bakery case, Claudia designs more than 600 types of wedding cake and tailors treats to the needs of vegan and gluten-free diners. To shrink the bakery’s carbon footprint, she paints its walls with low-VOC paints and pours steaming coffee into compostable cups insulated with corn-based linings, not diamond-stuffed long johns.

A mere scone's throw from the boutiques, art galleries, and upscale restaurants of Frankfort Avenue, Nancy Haner Grantz lures diners with aromas of Columbia River Coffees and fresh-baked muffins. Inside her shop, more than 13 bagel varieties—including spinach feta and rosemary parmesan—join forces with unique cream cheeses of jalapeño and honey walnut. Flavorful sandwiches and whole-wheat wraps complement Nancy's homemade soups, which are served hot during the winter season, chilled during summer months, and frozen during Ice Ages.

Looking around at the hardwood tables and plush red sofas of her own bakery, Adrienne Holland may occasionally be reminded of where her culinary journey began: in Niagara Falls, watching her mother, Myra, craft elaborate homemade cakes for western New York residents. Carrying on the family legacy, Adrienne opened her own 5,000-square-foot bakery in Jeffersonville in 2001, and recently helmed a full renovation of the space that included painting the walls a vibrant red. The real renovations, however, are still happening behind the scenes, as Adrienne and family prepare warm baked scones, grilled sandwiches, and Italian pastas in fresh basil-walnut pesto. Adrienne continues to pursue new creative avenues in cake-making with her novelty 3-D cakes, whose intricate designs have been commissioned for Muhammad Ali and featured on Fox's WDRB in the Morning.

The aromas of warming butter and sugar have called to mind the Heitzman legacy since 1891, when Jacob Heitzman baked and iced his first cake. It didn't take long for his airy desserts to build a fan base, one that grew each time the bakery added to the menu with new items, such as butter kuchen and strawberry whipped-cream cake.

Today, a full-scale deli joins the original baked goods at the Heitzman Traditional Bakery and Deli. On the sweet side of the shop, spice cakes burst with raisins, pecans, and fresh jam, protected from poking fingers by a caramel coating. Fresh-made pies, signature butter kuchens, and loaf cakes teem with fruits and nuts, and specialty cakes come in classic variations such as german chocolate and red velvet. The deli satisfies savory teeth with kettle-boiled bagels from Dooley's Bagels, as well as a selection of fresh soups and sandwiches. Salads bring together morsels of chicken, tuna, and fruit cut by hand, and catering trays carry turkey and ham dinners, box lunches, and casseroles to family meetings and business sing-alongs.

Gleaning her baking skills from her mother and grandmother, Gigi's Cupcakes' eponymous owner opened her first cupcake hub in 2008, drawing upon her entrepreneurial spirit and gift for crafting beautifully topped cupcakes. The franchised cupcakery now has 50 locations, each of which churns out 11 daily-rotating flavors that are made fresh every morning. The shop's selection of more than 40 flavors includes Canadian Maple, Southern Comfort, and Champagne—a bubbly-flavored base topped with an edible pearl. Patrons can pick out sweet treats from the daily selection or preorder them at least one day in advance online, by phone, or via singing telegram.

Great Harvest Bread Co.'s expert bakers specialize in mixing together tasty delicacies and healthy, homemade breads crafted from scratch daily with freshly milled flour. Like a child's favorite stock picks, Great Harvest Bread Co.'s bread selection changes each day of the week, aligning to a daily and seasonal schedule that often includes luscious loaves of honey whole wheat and Dakota bread—a baked bundle of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and millet—as well as gluten-free and high-fiber varieties ($3.50–$5.50/loaf). Deli sandwiches ($5.25–$6.25 for a regular size, $3.75–$4.25 for a kids' size) are also available, ranging from loaded veggie specialty sandwiches to The Great Harvest club, which piles high turkey, ham, bacon, provolone, cheddar, and a bevy of toppings. For carb connoisseurs who prefer breaded delights that are easily juggled, Great Harvest Bread Co. bakes scones, muffins, and cookies.