These pastry shops are putting all their flour power into producing holiday desserts. Hungry for more? Check out our guide to Garden State bakeries.
The Dessert Ladies looks like an enchanted garden—except that the exquisite blossoms and blooms are extraordinarily edible. “We delight in Easter and the coming of spring,” says Geraldine Keogh, who founded the business with her daughter, Lindsay Smith. Their artful Easter creations, made with silky Swiss buttercream and Belgian chocolate, are almost too beautiful to eat. But one bite puts an end to reluctance. The cupcake bouquet, comprising 7 or 12 edible “flowers,” makes an unforgettable Easter gift.
266 Main Avenue, Stirling, 908-340-7321
Festive Easter treats await at Sweet Eats Bakery. Photo courtesy of Sweet Eats Bakery
Family-owned Sweet Eats Bakery has a massive menu, including 18 cheesecakes and dozens of flavors of Bavarian cream filling for cakes. Those flavors include beloved liqueurs (Amaretto, Bailey’s, Frangelico, Grand Marnier, Kahlúa, Peach Schnapps) and chopped-up candies (Butterfingers, Heath Bars, M&Ms and Snickers). The Easter pastry selection is myriad, too. Standouts include carrot-cake cupcakes and buttercream-stuffed cakes, topped with sugar-cookie rabbit ears, that feed at least 10.
310 South Burnt Mill Road, Voorhees, 856-429-2005
Natale’s Summit Bakery has been owned and run by the Natale family since 1938, and “everything is still made from scratch,” says Patty Karpenski Natale. “Our breads, pastries, pies, cakes, cannolis, cookies and biscotti of all kinds. Literally hundreds of items.” Natale’s is known for its cream cheese-enriched “Philly Fluff” pound cake (“which is all-season,” she notes). One of the bakery’s fast-moving Easter treats is a box of six full-size cupcakes, laden with toppings ($13.50).
185 Broad Street, Summit, 908-277-2074
At his bakery in Keansburg, David Burke carries on his childhood tradition of whipping up treats with jelly beans. Photo courtesy of Dixie Lee Bakery
For decades, Dixie Lee Bakery in Keansburg was the dessert destination for families in the Bay Shore area, including rockstar-chef-to-be David Burke’s in neighboring Hazlet. Last year, it became David Burke’s Dixie Lee Bakery. Says Burke, “I loved food-centric holidays as a kid. Easter was about chocolate bunnies and Peeps, plus new clothes and a haircut.” At the re-energized Dixie Lee, you can find 26-inch tall white, milk or dark chocolate bunnies from Jacques Torres Chocolate, and cupcakes topped with a Peeps or chocolate Easter egg. “My brother, sister and I used to make banana pancakes during Easter,” Burke says. “We’d pour in jelly beans and fold the batter so you couldn’t see them. Then we’d eat the pancakes and call out the colors we got.” The bakery’s jelly bean cake “has them right on top.”
303 Main Street, Keansburg, 732-787-0674
Bring a carrot cake from Sweet Melissa Patisserie to your Easter gathering. Photo courtesy of Sweet Melissa Patisserie
Sweet Melissa Patisserie founder Melissa Murphy Rafano has won raves for her crème brûlée croissant, custard-filled brioche “trouble bun” and more. To Murphy Rafano, “the message of Easter is reawakening, and to a baker that means joyous spring flavors and colors.” Her seasonal hot-cross buns (“which you hardly see fresh-baked any more”) are redolent with fruit and spice, and her satisfyingly dense carrot cake, which serves 8 to 10, is spiked with pineapple, coconut, walnuts and orange zest. For Easter, it becomes the “bunny butt cake,” topped with a buttercream spring garden into which a pink-pawed white rabbit has dived head-first.
56 Payne Road, Lebanon, 908-323-2460
Madame Cupcake Shop’s owner, Tatiana Tedesco, declares cupcakes “the perfect dessert.” Photo courtesy of Madame Cupcake Shop
Madame Cupcake Shop, in Hopewell’s historic downtown, bakes cakes, macarons and other goodies. But the marquee item is the focus. “Cupcakes are the perfect dessert,” opines owner and baker Tatiana Tedesco. “Dainty to eat, a single portion, nice to look at and even nicer to eat.” Her Easter essential comes in five cake flavors, dozens of familiar-to-exotic buttercream flavors and four piped designs: an Easter basket, Easter eggs, bunny ears and a spring rainbow. (Add “fun to pick out” to cupcakes’ merits!)
43 Railroad Place, Building C, Hopewell, 609-955-0076
At the Macaroon Shop in Avon-by-the-Sea, offerings extend beyond the namesake coconut confections. Photo courtesy of the Macaroon Shop
Before French macarons became a thing, Jersey Shore macaroons were an institution. They were popularized by the Macaroon Shop, which opened in 1930 in the Ocean Grove Hotel (now long gone) and moved to Avon-by-the-Sea in 1981. “Macaroons are the original gluten-free dessert,” says co-owner Claire Morrison. “Nothing but coconut, egg white and sugar, and for other flavors, almonds or a chocolate dip.” The shop has retained the recipe as well as the original mixers and graphics from the Ocean Grove era. “The simplest sweets, Jersey Shore style, are timeless,” says Morrison. Regular, gluten-free and Easter-themed cakes are also available. The shop’s flower-topped, fondant-iced, buttercream-layered Easter egg is an extra-sweet deal at $4.49.
107 Main Street, Avon-by-the-Sea, 888-588-6227
A fond memory for some Jerseyans is the kosher-for-Passover coconut macaroons that came in cans. You can still buy them in cans—but better yet, try the fresh-made kosher-for-Passover macaroons of Salomon Kosher Bakery, plain or chocolate-dipped. Open since 1957, Salomon bakes all the classic kosher treats, including seven-layer cake, babka and rugelach. Note: While everything here is certified kosher, it is baked in the year-round oven and therefore not strictly kosher for Passover.
300 Gordons Corner Road, Manalapan, 732-536-4500
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