Hi, gay! It's Pride Month, and you know what that means: It's time once again for local restaurants to hawk baked goods in a rainbow of colors. We here at The Stranger took it upon ourselves to try these prismatic pastries for you and gathered a selection from around town for an informal office taste test. (We can neither confirm nor deny whether this was simply an excuse to consume sugar on the company's dime.) The delicious results are below.
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A La Mode Pies
In case you didn't know, Chris Porter's pie haven is one of the top 20 largest LGBTQ-owned businesses in the Pacific Northwest, and they're celebrating this month with their limited-time rainbow cheesecake, which features marbled stripes that make for a gorgeous cross-section shot and a dusting of edible glitter. The colors aren't different flavors—it's a vanilla bean filling—but I found this slice to be everything I wanted from a basic cheesecake, not too sweet with a pleasant tang and a crisp, slightly salty graham cracker crust.
Ballard, Phinney Ridge, West Seattle
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The Flora Bakehouse
Cafe Flora's Beacon Hill bakery sibling goes all out for Pride Month, and this year is no exception: They're offering a rainbow-swirled chocolate croissant, trans flag-colored milk bread, rainbow cake, rainbow unicorn waffle cone sundaes with an ube and Dole whip swirl, and rainbow-swirled meringue "unicorn horns." We got our hands on the croissants, rainbow cake, and unicorn horns. The rainbow cake was subtly lemon flavored and topped with cream cheese frosting, while the unicorn horns provided a playful twist on the classic meringue. The chocolate croissant’s flaky exterior was crisp and caramelized—bits of it rained down like edible rainbow confetti with each bite—and the inside was light, oh-so-tender, and buttery. Owner Nat Stratton-Clark will donate proceeds from the above items and others to the Trans Justice Funding Project, GSBA Scholarship & Education Fund, and Queer the Land.
Beacon Hill
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Cupcake Royale
It's the end of an era—Jody Hall's proudly queer-owned bakery chain, which helped pioneer the ubiquitous cupcake trend of the early 2000s, announced via email earlier this month that the business plans to close all of its remaining locations: "We’re exploring various options to reinvent ourselves to flourish for the next 20 years. This includes our decision to eventually close our retail cafes and rebuild the business to offer better cupcake pricing, richer compensation for our team, and ability to maintain a sustainable business. It’s a tough but necessary call." Still, the business continues its commitment to Pride-themed baked goods this month. In addition to the year-round signature confetti "Gay" cupcake adorned with rainbow sprinkles and a sugar rainbow, the selection includes mini rainbow "gaybie" babycakes, a trans pride cupcake (vanilla cake filled with strawberry whipped cream and swirled with blue vanilla buttercream), a lesbian pride cupcake (vanilla cake filled with raspberry jam, swirled with orange vanilla buttercream, and topped with raspberry dust and a candied orange peel), and a bi pride cupcake (ube cake, swirled with coconut frosting and topped with blue sprinkles and marionberry jam). As a notorious bisexual, it comes as no surprise that the bi pride cupcake was my favorite—I loved the coconutty ube flavor, which reminded me of my true love, the ube pancakes from Ludi's.
Various locations
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Dough Joy
One thing I love about Sean Willis and Christopher Ballard's whimsical, queer joy-fueled vegan doughnut shop, which debuted a new location in Ballard last month, is that they're committed to being "queer all year"—their vibrant rainbow sprinkle-dusted Pride doughnut is available year-round, and they also regularly contribute to queer-focused community organizations like A Space Inside and SPU's LGBTQIA2S+ space Haven. Unfortunately, the famous rainbow doughnut was sold out the day we conducted our tasting, so I opted instead for their "Popstar," a strawberry Pop Tart-inspired doughnut bar with gooey strawberry jelly filling, rainbow sprinkles, and a dusting of streusel topping. As a jelly doughnut fan, this was one of my favorites—it really scratched that nostalgic Pop Tart itch, and The Stranger’s advertising coordinator Evanne Hall noted that it had a jammy flavor profile reminiscent of a Toaster Strudel "in the MOST DELIGHTFUL way (I love you, Dough Joy!)."
Ballard, Capitol Hill, West Seattle
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Hood Famous Cafe + Bar
Stranger arts and culture editor Megan Seling writes, "The Queer-eal Milk Ice Latte at Hood Famous is espresso poured into oat milk infused with Fruity Pebbles and topped with ube cold foam and a sprinkle of Fruity Pebbles. I am very pro-cereal milk in desserts and drinks so I loved it. I especially liked that they didn’t skimp on the cereal milk flavor—it was strong, bold. Some places try to be delicate with their cereal milk and like, why? It’s cereal milk! It should be sugary and sweet! GO HARD OR DON’T GO AT ALL."
Chinatown-International District
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Tres Lechería
This Mexican-influenced bakeshop from pastry chef Kevin Moulder, who's won Netflix's Sugar Rush: Christmas and Food Network's Winner Cake All, purveys luscious tres leches cake by the slice. The bakery teamed up with The Infatuation for their Pride Bake Sale to offer an exclusive flavor dubbed "Lil' Fruity", which is available through June 29 and features a rainbow medley of fruits (peach, banana, mango, orange, and berries) blended into a classic tres leches milk soak and poured over sponge cake, topped with whipped cream, sprinkles, and a sugar rainbow. I love what Moulder had to say about his inspiration behind the special: "Growing up, this was something I was called regularly. 'Hey, fruit.' 'You’re a little fruity.' 'Stop being so fruity.' What the bullies didn’t realize was this was my superpower, and I’m proud to reclaim and channel it into this limited edition tres leches cake slice." The Infatuation will donate $50,000 to the Queer Food Foundation on behalf of Tres Lechería and the other businesses participating in the bake sale. This cake was extremely moist and saturated with fruity flavor—definitely recommended if you enjoy your tres leches on the wetter side. We also tried the seasonal sweet corn and honey flavor, which was a summery delight.
Wallingford
Still hungry? Check out our list of 20 great queer-owned restaurants in Seattle here!
