Sure. You can visit Seattle and eat enough seafood to make your face fall off. You can stroll through Pike Place or ride the elevator to the top of the Space Needle. But if you’ve got a “been there done that” attitude towards Seattle, allow me to lead you in a new direction: See the city through new eyes while hunting down some lesser-known sweets of Seattle. Here are a few recommendations to get you started.

The Crumpet Shop

Right up the street from the North end of Pike Place Market, in the Corner Market Building sits The Crumpet Shop. With perfectly cooked crumpets and just about every topping you can think of, the Crumpet Shop is a great place for a sweet snack! Delighted with the menu, we settled on sharing a crumpet with almond butter and honey. Other choices ranged from butter, ricotta, jam, cream, and even nutella!

They also served savory breakfast choices, sandwiches and teas. Upon our taste-inspection, we found we didn’t have anything bad to say!  The crumpet was fluffy and warm. In addition, our crumpet was only about $3. Prices will depend on how lavishly smothered you want your crumpet. And when you fall in love with the flavor, they even have a six-pack of the spongey delights you can take home.

Dahlia Bakery

This bakery on 4th Avenue is owned by Chef Tom Douglas, who won the James Beard award for Best Northwest Chef. In addition, he was featured on Food Network’s Iron Chef America where he defeated Masaharu Morimoto. In general, he’s a big deal in the food world.

Dahlia Bakery is known for its Triple Coconut Cream pie, sold as whole 9-inch pies, baby pies, slices of pie, or pie bites. The pie bite was light and not overly sweet. We both agreed that it was just the right amount of pie to appreciate the flavor. [Just a bit of advice, don’t exhale while taking a bite, because the toasted coconut flakes on the top will shoot across the table….]

We also bought a chocolate truffle cookie to share, by recommendation of Savor Seattle Food Tours. This ended up being the highlight of our whole tour. The cookie was a flood of dense semi-sweet chocolate flavor in our mouths. We couldn’t eat it fast enough. Definitely a must for any chocolate-lover visiting Seattle.

Prices can get up there depending on how much dessert you order. A whole Triple Coconut Cream pie is $35. But if you buy smartly, with the idea of sampling the sweets of Seattle, you’ll pay about $10.

The Yellow-Leaf Cupcake Co.

This little cupcakery has a sophisticated, but cutesy atmosphere that washes away any concern of calorie intake. With many flavors to choose from, it is probably best to get more than one. We settled on a lavender white chocolate cupcake, and a chocolate salted caramel cupcake. They were both decorated in that fancy-cupcake way that makes your taste buds want to jump off your tongue and onto the cake.

Prices at the Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. start at $4.00 for a full-size specialty cupcake. Other intriguing flavors include Pancakes n’ Bacon, Tomato Soup, and Drunken Red Velvet.

Top Pot Doughnuts

This place is well known for its old fashioned, hands-on style of making doughnuts.  Top Pot Doughnuts has a modern coffee-shop flare, with two stories of seating and bookshelves lining the walls. Try the lemon-glazed old fashioned doughnut. The outside has that familiar doughnut crisp to it, while the inside reflected the texture of cake. Unlike many lemon desserts, the doughnut does not have that “pine-sol lemon” taste, but instead, a light citrusy lemon that serves as a good palate cleanser.

In addition to doughnuts, Top Pot also serves a variety of beverages- mostly versions of coffee. Prices are slightly more expensive than your average doughnut shop, but that’s what you get with above-average doughnuts! See one of their several locations for exact pricing details.

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Have you found any secret sweets in Seattle? Tell me about it below!

Looking for more sweet treats in the US? Check out this self-guided Sweets Tour of Indianapolis! 

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