Five local bakeries that have the perfect holiday treat for you
The holiday season is upon us. Filled with crisp winter days, ice skating, cups of cocoa, Christmas lights, and the company of family and loved ones—what is there not to love about the Holidays?
Synonymous with this festive season is the tradition of baked goods and sweets. Memories of gingerbread houses and peppermint candy canes are as traditional as the Holidays themselves.
Here are five baked items from five of our favourite local bakeries for you to try out and savour this holiday season.
Auntie Aldoo's Kitchen's Handpies
With a focus on comfort foods and baked goods, Auntie Aldoo’s Kitchen is a wonderful little coffee shop in the heart of rural Cottam. Specializing in pies and pastries, Auntie Aldoo’s was founded in 2013, making goods for friends and families in ghost kitchens before nailing down a permanent location.
“We bake everything with love and good intentions, adding our witchy flair to all we do,” explains owner and head pastry chef Alexandrea Anber. “We focus on comfort food and baked goods, specializing in pies that highlight local fruits and vegetables from around Windsor-Essex.”
To sweeten the season, Auntie Aldoo’s offers their hand pies, perfectly sized personal pies in local-sourced delicious flavours such as sour cherry, peach, apple, and ginger pear. These scrumptious pies are brushed with local maple syrup and baked until they are golden and flaky.
“They are the perfect size, and you don’t have to fuss over portioning out a pie,” says Anber. “They also come in savoury form and serve well as a quick breakfast or lunch option.”
These hand pies can be bought fresh and individually, in variety packs for the family, and frozen four-packs of “bake-at-home” pies that can be made in the oven or air fryer “for a delicious, savoury, and quick meal.”
Lakeside Bakery's Fruit Cake
A true European-style bakery, Leamington’s Lakeside Bakery Deli Cafe features over 35 original recipes of fresh bread, including their popular Signature Multigrain bread, as well as specialty cakes, pastries, and more. Their splendid location features a comfortable and inviting cafe, where you can relax and enjoy homemade soups and specialty sandwiches, delectable pastries, and some of the finest local wines and cocktails from across the Essex County and Pelee Island region, or shop for a one-of-a-kind gift in their gorgeous gift area featuring items from around the world.
This holiday season, Lakeside Bakery is offering their delicious light fruit cake. “Our fresh and light fruit cake offers the same traditional tastes and flavors as regular Christmas fruit cake, but made with our moist vanilla pound cake, dried red and green cherries, pineapple and orange zest, made in a fluted bundt pan,” describes Lakeside Bakery owner Danielle Tartaro. A must-try take on a traditional holiday snack.
The Little House of Cupcakes and More's Christmas Cupcakes
In operation for nine years, Essex’s Little House of Cupcakes and More is, on any given day, a dessert delight. Starting out as a side gig for owner Heather Richardson, selling to friends and family, when orders became too overwhelming, it took over her whole kitchen. After a conversation with her husband, she decided to take over an empty storefront on Main St. Essex and the rest is history.
Featuring a delicious assortment of items, including brownies, butter tarts, and scones, The Little House of Cupcakes is, in fact, known for its amazing cupcakes. With a different flavour every day, the cupcakes are baked from scratch using a secret family recipe to achieve its super-moist cake bottom, and with a real original buttercream for perfect texture and smoothness.
With over 200 individual flavours at their disposal, the holiday season takes on a life of its own. “A popular flavour would be the Grinch cupcake: a moist chocolate cupcake, topped with our homemade buttercream—we add a touch of mint extract to the icing. We top it with M&Ms, sprinkles, Oreo chunks, and our homemade fudge brownie pieces, then drizzle it in chocolate ganache,” tantalizes Richardson. “Another popular flavour for Christmas is our vanilla sugar cookie. It’s vanilla cake with homemade buttercream, and we add some sugar cookie extract to that, topped with our homemade sugar cookies shaped into a snowflake with candy sprinkles.”
Mary's Mindful Bake House’s Holiday Pies
Mary’s Mindful Bake House took shape in early 2020 during the pandemic. Taking leave from work as a pharmaceutical scientist to tend to her two young children, owner Mary Draper rekindled an early love of baking. Starting as a vendor at the Downtown Windsor Farmers’ Market to test out a line of better-for-you baked good options, Draper excelled at making gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and refined sugar-free goods, as organic and natural as possible.
Leaving her decade-plus career behind, Draper pushed ahead, opening shop in LaSalle, catering with baked goods to the health and wellness community of the region, specializing in foods for people with complicated and multiple food restrictions—creating safe foods in the form of croissants and donuts for people who could not otherwise eat them.
Along with assorted cookie boxes and advent calendars, great egg-free and vegan options for the holidays, Mary’s Mindful Bake House features their holiday-exclusive pies to sweeten the season.
“We actually only sell our pies around the holidays, to keep them special,” explains Draper. “You won’t find them on our menu the rest of the year. We’ve made them all not just gluten-free but also totally grain free, dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free, and we use whole food ingredients like organic medjool dates or organic maple syrup to sweeten them, so they’re not overly sweet, and won’t spike your blood sugar as much.”
Available in multiple sizes, this year, Mary’s Mindful Bake House is producing four different varieties: apple crumble, classic apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies.
“Some of our customers will order several large pies so all their guests can enjoy the same dessert. or some choose to just get special items for the guests that need it,” explains Draper. “Either way, it’s heartwarming to see people going out of their way to make their family, friends, and guests feel included in the holidays.”
The Panetteria's Danishes
Amherstburg’s husband/wife team of Anna Marano and Simon Briggs are the owners and operators of The Panetteria. Founded three years ago, at the height of the pandemic, their goal was to provide a local daily spot for their small community to enjoy homemade artisan pastries and breads.
“We pride ourselves on baking fresh every single day and providing authentic European-style goods,” states Marano, adding that they are best known for their croissant products as well as their sourdough bread.
During the holiday season, families can sit together around the Christmas tree and enjoy The Panetteria’s Breakfast Box—featuring an assortment of morning pastries—or share in one of their assorted cookie boxes—a collection of various sweets to celebrate with family. However, to Sweeten the Season, The Panetteria’s danishes are to die for.
Made with the finest croissant dough and filled with daily changing fruit fillings, these delectable danishes are topped with The Panetteria’s famous pastry cream recipe before being lightly dusted with powdered sugar to the delight of their patrons!
Regardless of your creed, tastes, or health needs, the bakeries of Windsor and Essex County all have something to satisfy your sweet tooth these holidays. Please test out and enjoy these stellar bakeries and let them Sweeten Your Season!
