Between bartending, cooking and baking with coffee, it’s hard to say which yields the best results. While there are arguments to be made for any of the three—the coffee-infused burgers at Burgundian in Seattle, the Spanish Coffee at Huber’s in Portland—baking is perhaps the most popular route, because good coffee’s complex flavor profile shines in everything from truffles to tiramisu. Considering the following, five of the best espresso-inspired desserts you can get in the Northwest, it’s hard to argue against baking. Add all five to your Northwest must-try list.
Extra-Dark Caramel, Espresso & Rye Milkshake at Hot Cakes, Seattle: Famous for her classic Take-n-Bake Molten Chocolate Cakes in Mason jars, Autumn Martin (ex-head chocolatier for local Theo Chocolate) has also published a full book of recipes for her other specialty: milkshakes, especially boozy ones. This particular espresso-infused offering blends espresso, rich house-made dark caramel sauce and spicy Old Overholdt rye whiskey into a boozy, creamy mess of goodness unlike anything you’ve tried before.
Chocolate Espresso Almond Cake at Colville Street Patisserie, Walla Walla, Wash.: Immensely popular with college students and locals alike, and rightly so—Walla Walla’s downtown French-style patisserie offers sidewalk café-style coffee and downright beautiful desserts hand-crafted by the ex-pastry chef of Walla Walla’s fine dining staple Whitehouse Crawford. The compact cakes, with curls of chocolate of varying darknesses gracing their tops, are a must for a wow-factor birthday offering.
Mocha Buttercream Cake at True Confections, Vancouver: True Confections cuts up truly gargantuan classic cakes into slices sized appropriately for the $7 to $9 price tags. To put their output and popularity into perspective, in 25 years the café has gone through 3.5 million eggs, enough to stretch from Vancouver to Seattle. The mocha buttercream offering, with mocha sponge cake, mocha buttercream and Kahlúa, is a perennial favorite.
Caramel Macchiato Cupcake at Sugar Rush Cupcakery, Boise: Compared to cupcake flavors like Tomato Soup and Sweet Potato, Caramel Macchiato seems almost tame. But there’s a reason Boise’s Sugar Rush has reached a point where they’re able to experiment with wild flavors – because they’re so good at the basics. Espresso cake, caramel filling, whipped icing, caramel-espresso drizzle.
Coffee Mallow Pie at The Sugar Cube, Portland: The Sugar Cube bakery in Portland’s artsy Alberta neighborhood is “Where Sugar + Love = Happy!” This particular pie exemplifies the equation, bringing coffee marshmallow mousse, milk chocolate and salted caramel together into an all-butter crust to be sliced and served as pure bliss.
