Poetry would be comprised entirely of haikus and sonnets dedicated to cakes and pastries if poets didn't devour their idyllic subjects before having a chance to write. Today's Groupon says what meter and rhythm cannot: for $9, you get $20 worth of bakery items at Blackmarket Bakery in Irvine. This Groupon cannot be used for retail purchases or cooking classes.

Blackmarket Bakery's pastry chef Rachel Marie eschews modern dependencies on pre-packaged additives by offering all-natural, fresh baked goods free of artificial flavors, flavoring compounds, preservatives, or shortening (only the food coloring used for colored icing is artificial). Sample a scone picked straight off the vine in buttermilk-bolstered flavors such as chocolate raspberry, apricot ginger, and the tongue-tingling jalapeño corn cheddar ($3), or apprehend all-butter croissants with your hunger's handcuffs (croissant variations include berry cream cheese, dark chocolate, and cinnamon almond, $3 each). Pass a Blackmarket Bakery tart ($4 each for 4" tarts, $18 each for 8" tarts)—such as the lemon-curd concoction of the Largo—through a 4" diameter mouth opening. Other brethren within Blackmarket's baked bounty include decorated shortbread cookies ($3 for bag of two), flourless chocolate cakes ($6 each), pumpkin-meringue tarts ($4.50 each), and gluten-free coconut meringues ($3.50 for a bag).

This Groupon can be used toward the purchase of special order items such as cakes, but orders must be placed 48 hours in advance.

Reviews

An OC Weekly blog and the OC Register mentioned Blackmarket Bakery. Yelpers give it a four-star average and Citysearchers give it a perfect five-star average. Blackmarket has more than 1,700 Facebook fans.

• The Irvine bakery, whose owner Rachel Klemek is considered the “Ace of Cakes” of Orange County… – Nancy Luna, OC Register
• This is by far the best bakery around, and the originality of the noms [sic] is second-to-none. – Loller S., Yelp