Look no further than Sacramento for an eclectic array of desserts to satisfy any craving. Featured are three local businesses to explore and expand your palate.

Pushkin’s Bakery

On the corner of 29th and S Streets, Pushkin’s Bakery is a small bakery that has become known for its handmade vegan, non dairy and gluten-free pastries.

Danny and Olga Turner were inspired to open the bakery a year ago because of Danny Turner’s allergies and sensitivities to wheat, gluten, and dairy.

Now the husband and wife duo offer a wide variety of cupcakes, cookies, sweet breads and scones to a loyal following of customers.

However, Pushkin’s Bakery’s commitment to being vegan, gluten and dairy free is not the only reason for its success. The quality and freshness of their pastries is what stands out.

The cakes are light and fluffy, the frosting is creamy, and the cookies are rich. It is hard to believe they are free of wheat, dairy and animal products. With flavors including pineapple rum, orange ginger and salted chocolate pear it is easy to see why customers keep coming back for more.

Recommendations: No names (cinnamon popovers), chocolate peanut butter banana cupcake, almond joy cupcake, barracuda cupcake, coconut macaroon.

Ettore’s European Bakery

When swiss trained Pastry Chef Ettore Ravazzolo opened Ettore’s European Bakery in 1985, he had recently emigrated from Switzerland with only $350. Ravazzolo wanted to bring the European pastries he had enjoyed in Switzerland to Sacramento. Now, 29 years later customers crowd the bakery every morning, often selling out by noon.

Although the bakery also functions as a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, Ettore’s is most famous for their fresh handmade European style pastries. The bakery’s commitment to freshness is taken so seriously that no pastry is sold that is over one working day old.

Of those pastries, the cakes and tarts are the stars. The princess cake, a traditional swedish layered cake, features layers of sponge cake, raspberry jam, pastry cream and a dome of fresh whipped cream. An blanket of marzipan on top adds a nutty, chewy sweetness that anchors the airy nature of the cake.

Another must try dessert is the fresh fruit tart. Perfectly glazed kiwis, strawberries and blueberries make this tart beautiful, but the tart’s dark chocolate bottom is what makes this one stand out. It keeps the crust flaky and moisture free while adding the right amount of bitterness to offset the sweet fruit and cream.

Breakfast lovers can try the cinnamon roll french toast, made with the bakery’s raisin filled cinnamon rolls. Also popular at breakfast time are the sandwiches made from Ettore’s croissants. The croissants, flakey, buttery and airy, melt in your mouth.

Recommendations: Princess cake, champagne cake, fresh fruit tart, napoleans, cinnamon roll french toast

Osaka Ya

A Sacramento staple for 50 years, Osaka Ya is but one of three Japanese confectionary stores in Northern California. In the summer months, lines stretch along 10th Street for Osaka Ya’s famous Japanese shaved ice. However, the store also offers handmade, traditional and modern Japanese pastries and confections year round.

One of confections is mochi, a dessert made of rice flour and other ingredients mashed into a sticky, taffy-like paste. It can be diced into small cubes, which are often found at frozen yogurt shops as a topping or made into a small ball and stuffed with different types of fillings. At Osaka Ya there are 21 varieties of mochi made every morning.

Osaka Ya sells mochi with traditional fillings such as red and white bean pastes, as well as modern varieties. One of their specialties is the chocolate lover’s mochi – a chocolate-infused mochi coated in a chocolate ganache. Also popular is the chocolate peanut butter mochi, similar to a Reese’s peanut butter cup but silky, chewy and dense.

Another dessert made daily is manju, a type of sweet dough bun often wrapped around a sweet filling. They range from a sweet white buns filled with red bean paste called “white fukashi,” to sweet pancakes wrapped around a slice of mochi called “Chofu”.

Recommendations: Chocolate lover’s mochi, chofu, chocolate manju.

Aelx Hernandez can be reached at [email protected]