A Trio of Spots Where You Can Pick Up Sweet Treats for the Holidays

Why deck the halls with boughs of holly when you can deck the tables with treats instead? If you're pressed for time -- and who isn't this time of year? -- stop by any of these three eateries to pick up delicious, holiday-inspired goodies. See also: A Closer Look at So Perfect Eats 3) So Perfect Eats 278 Fillmore Street 303-862-9074 The rest of the year, this bakery-café in Cherry Creek North is known for its soups, salads and pies. But between Thanksgiving and Christmas, So Perfect Eats turns into cookie central, churning out a thousand dozen cookies. Chef-owner Lynda Campbell offers thirty varieties just for the holidays, including gingerbread men, molasses crinkles, snowballs and melting snowmen. But the most popular item remains the frosted sugar cookie, which takes twenty minutes per cookie to roll out, bake and decorate. "We have bakers all year," says Campbell. "Everyone just works more hours." While a rotating assortment of twenty or so varieties is available in the case, cookies should be pre-ordered to guarantee the selection. Keep reading for more sweet treats. 2) Glaze by Sasa 1160 Madison Street 720-387-7890 Nigiri knows no season, but one specialty cake coming out of this Japanese restaurant's imported baum cake oven certainly does: the baum de noel. A twist on the French classic buche de noel, the Belgian chocolate cake is cooked on the oven's rotating spit until it has twelve to fifteen layers. Then it is filled with Belgian chocolate mousse and decorated to look like a Christmas log, with fresh rosemary sprigs and nubby branches fashioned out of cake bits and affixed with chocolate buttercream. The cakes are special-order only and serve up to twelve. 1) Glazed & Confuzed 5301 Leetsdale Drive 303-524-9637 Whether you're trying to feed out-of-town company or just in need of sustenance as you set out for a round of holiday shopping, Glazed & Confuzed will put a little jolly in your day. Over the next week, chef-owner Josh Schwab will be rolling out three specialty doughnuts: Salted Santa, topped with a peppermint glaze, Mediterranean sea salt and crushed candy canes; jelly doughnuts for Hanukkah; and the Gable, a gingerbread doughnut loaded with molasses and fresh ginger, with a mini gingerbread man cookie propped in a caramel-apple glaze.

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