East Bay Bakeries Roundup: These Spots Take the Cake

Photo courtesy of La Farine’s Facebook.

This round-up focuses on bakeries in the East Bay. If you’re in San Francisco, see our SF Bakeries Roundup: Stop and Smell the Flour feature.

East Bay bakeries dutifully stamp your pastry passport with French croissants, Chinese custard tarts and Hungarian Krémes, to name a few. Take a tour of international recipes of old or try out innovative new combinations at an experimental spot. Regardless of your preference, there are sugary choices that will keep your dessert plate full, your hands sticky and your napkins busy.

Hop off BART and pop into one of these aromatic bakeries in Oakland or Berkeley. You probably won’t want to leave, and when you do depart, keep your hands free to hold a box of oven-fresh sweets to go.

Oakland’s La Farine continues to bring the refined flavors of a French patisserie to the Rockridge neighborhood.

La Farine

Rockridge (Oakland)

The formidable croissant reigns supreme at this bakery, but Swiss Twinkies (filled with a nut puree), Orange Currant Scones and savory Pate Feuilletés (filled with ham and cheese) are also on the menu.

Napoleon Super Bakery

12th St. Oakland City Center

Sweet Adeline Bake Shop masterfully makes custom wedding cakes for the big day and everyday treats for the drop-in sweet tooth.

Sweet Adeline Bake Shop

Ashby (Berkeley)

Berkeley’s Crixa Cakes heats things up with globe-trotting goodness: Hungarian, Russian and American delights are the baker’s obsession.

Crixa Cakes

Ashby (Berkeley)

by Linda Koffman

Linda Koffman is an SF-based freelance writer and editor. Also a beginner gardener by day/performing songwriter by night, she feels grateful to live a life of extremes balancing plenty of contemplative silence with rocking out in a band. When not writing, she keeps her hands busy (and dirty) with old guitar strings and soil, and enjoys engaging with the Bay Area’s diverse environmental and cultural beauty. She loves puns to a fault and shamelessly laughs at her own jokes.