The Best Desserts in Austin for 2023
Trying to compile a list of the best desserts in Austin is a hard task to complete. There are so many bakeries and pastries spots in Austin city. However, I managed to compile a list of the best desserts with a multitude of styles, from farm-to-table to vegan and gluten-free, to just pure decadence.
Quick List of the Best Dessert Places in Austin
So the next time you are wondering about the best dessert places near me – this is the list you should see before choosing a dessert restaurant.
- 85C Bakery Café
- Heaven’s Bistro Bakery
- Lady Quackenbush’s Cakery
- Tous Les Jours Bakery
- Word of Mouth Bakery
- Upper Crust Bakery Café
- Elisa Pastry
- Bento Bakes
- Zucchini Kill
- Cupprimo
- La Pâtisserie
- Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop
- Capital City Bakery
- Crema Bakery & Café
- Sour Duck Market
- Capital Grille
- Barley Swine
- Uchiko
- Tiny Pies
- Churro Co
- Sweet Caroline’s
- Manolis
- Amy’s Ice Cream
- Lick Honest Ice Cream
- Dolce Neve
- Launderette
- Hayley Cakes and Cookies
- Bananarchy
- Little Lucy’s Mini Donuts
- Cold Cookie Company
- S H Donuts
- Bar Peached
1 – 85C Bakery Cafe
85C Bakery Cafe is the First on the list of Best Desserts in Austin. It has a cult-like following for a very good reason. With a variety of bread and desserts from Asian to European inspired and sweet to savory tasting, there’s something for everyone. Additionally, the multitude of teas, coffees, and specialty drinks offer a different kind of satisfaction. Also, you can check the detailed review of 85C Bakery here.
Address: 11301 South Lakeline Blvd Suite 140, Austin, TX 78717
2 – Heaven’s Bistro Bakery
This quintessentially French bakery is a must-eat for sure. Gorgeously set desserts making use of creams, custards, and curds sit strikingly in their glass case, joined by a few savory puff pastries to make you feel better about buying one of everything. Heaven’s Bakery tops off its collection with several slices of scrumptious cakes. It is on the 2nd list of the Best Desserts in Austin.
Address: 2205 West Parmer Lane Ste 100, Austin, TX 78727
3 – Lady Quackenbush’s Cakery
When it comes to cakes, Austin has a diamond in the rough in Lady Quackenbush’s Cakery. This cakery is a branch of the Quackenbush line, affiliated with 43rd Street Bakery and Captain Quackenbush’s Coffeehouse. Lady Quackenbush’s specializes in cake, the best baked good out there, and is, therefore, able to provide incredibly professional, undeniably cute cakes.
Address: 1900 Simond Ave #300, Austin, TX 78723
4 – Tous Les Jours Bakery
For the best birthday cakes, Austin has Tous Les Jours. A well-known chain, Tous Les Jours mixes French and Asian tastes with stunning results. Despite being a standardized chain, Tous Les Jours’ cakes use yogurts and creams to make cloud-soft, fluffy, light desserts that tempt the tongue.
Address: 6808 N. Larmar Bl. B-115, Austin, TX 78752
5 – Word of Mouth Bakery
Word of Mouth certainly needs nothing more than word of mouth to grow its customer base. After a bite of their cake, you won’t be able to stop talking about how you found your new favorite bakery in Austin. There are also appetizers and lunch and dinner entrees enabling you to enjoy a full meal at the bakery.
Address: 917 W. 12th Street Austin, TX 78703
6 – Upper Crust Bakery Cafe
If you ask the internet for the “tastiest bakery birthday cakes near me,” Upper Crust is sure to be on the list. With baked goods and entrees made from scratch every day, Upper Crust is a laid-back way to get through your day. The local eatery has been around for over 28 years and is sure to stay for plenty more.
Address: 4508 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78756
7 – Elisa Pastry
Elisa Pastry offers a welcoming atmosphere as you decide on the cake of your dreams alongside a dedicated consultant. Middle Eastern flavors marry European and Austinite tangs within fun custom designs. Elisa Pastry has some of the most versatile decorating expertise and any design is possible.
Address: 8863 Anderson Mill Rd Suite 108, Austin, TX 78729
8 – Bento Bakes
Nobody does fondant figurines like Bento Bakes. A childhood full of creation and diversity of experience has prepared this chef for any challenge thrown at them, and it shows in the final bakes. This is the perfect bakery to help keep Austin weird on every occasion.
Address: 13776 Research Blvd #139, Austin, TX 78750
9 – Zucchini Kill
Another quirky bakery is Zucchini Kill. The local feminist musician-owned bakery stocks vegan, gluten-free, and soy-free desserts. It also looks after the environment with its 100% compostable packaging.
Address: 701 E 53rd Street Suite C, Austin, Texas 78751
10 – Cupprimo
This specialty cupcake bakery and coffeehouse sports a clever array of revolving flavors each week. These cakes may be mini, but they are mighty. Familiar childhood sweets like Nutter Butters, Heath bars, Oreos, and Reese’s make an appearance on Cupprimo’s menu alongside adult treats like margarita, mimosa, and drunk pineapple.
Address: 8650 Spicewood Springs Road Suite 105, Austin, TX 78759
11 – La Pâtisserie
La Pâtisserie leans on classic French techniques and a chemistry background to produce elegant, tasteful pastries, desserts, and cakes. While macarons are this shop’s specialty, the cakes are just as impressive. Follow the advice of your eyes as you decide on which colorful dessert you take home.
Address: 602 W. Annie Street, Austin, TX 78704
12 – Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop
Possibly the best bakery in Austin for birthday cakes, Sugar Mama’s offers highly stylized and personalized cakes. The array of options and creativity available to those ordering special cakes and cupcakes is absolutely astounding. Sugar Mama’s also has seasonal savory items like pot pies to look forward to.
Address: 1905 South 1st Street, Austin, TX 78704
13 – Capital City Bakery
Capital City Bakery is a community-driven shop with a busy, expansive menu. The shop focuses on making eating healthy a delicious experience, and all selections are cholesterol-free and vegan. Grown from a home baking business, Capital City Bakery makes a great and tasty new home away from home.
Address: 2211 E. Cesar Chavez Austin, TX 78702
14 – Crema Bakery & Cafe
This place is a local favorite of mine, being from deep south Austin. Their coffee and tea drinks always impress, but during the summer they gather Fredericksburg peaches and make my favorite peach cobbler in town. The crust-like topping isn’t too thick and perfectly moist and sweet. What makes this dessert stand out to me is the local peaches. They sell these in large format and personal sizes. I recommend stopping in and grabbing one before the season is over, and while you’re there grab some lunch. They have great sandwiches, salads, and soups as well.
Address: 9001 Brodie Ln
15 – Sour Duck Market
Sour Duck Market is one of my favorite lunch spots for great café style comfort food. However, they also have a bakery as an addition to the restaurant that features some amazing pastries. Their most popular is their Texas-sized chocolate chip cookies, chocolate croissants, and my favorite the kouign-amann. A kouign-amann is a French pastry like a croissant but layered with granulated sugar, with butter, in between the layers of pastry. This makes for a caramelized crunchy, chewy croissant-like pastry.
Address: 1814 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
16 – Capital Grille
My personal favorite dessert is a crème brûlée, and Capital Grille’s take on mixing a crème brûlée and cheesecake is one of my all-time favorite desserts. It is a classic vanilla cheesecake with a thick graham cracker crust, and the top of it is brûléed with sugar. Finally, it is served with a strawberry sauce and fresh berries that cut through the richness of the cheesecake and balance out the dish to make one of my absolute favorite desserts in Austin.
Address: 117 W 4th St
17 – Barley Swine
Barley Swine is one of my favorite places to splurge on a date night. Their tasting menu features over ten courses of purposely crafted farm-to-table dishes. Their desserts are just as local and delicious as the rest of their menu. Currently, they are serving a masa semifreddo with sage pressed apple and smoked apple butter. Also, a poblano Texas sheet cake with peach sorbet and peach chamoy jam. These are just two examples of the wonderful desserts they produce as the menu changes seasonally.
Address: 6555 Burnet Road
18 – Uchiko
Uchiko also has some seasonal desserts, but they have a few classics that stay on the menu year-round for a good reason. My favorite is the Milk and Cereal which has fried milk, chocolate mousse, and toasted milk ice cream. The ‘fried milk’ is a fried dough filled with warm vanilla pastry cream. The two other desserts that stay on year-round are their banana cake and jasmine cream. Both are great, but the Milk and Cereal is a wonderfully delicious play on textures that overshadows the rest.
Address: 4200 N. Lamar Blvd
19 – Tiny Pies
Tiny Pies celebrated 10 years in Austin this year, as the family-owned shop opened in 2011. Now with locations in 13 cities, Tiny Pies uses their family recipes to create amazing mini pies from scratch daily. They use high-quality ingredients that are locally sourced. Tiny Pies offers sweet and savory tiny pies, and you can order them gluten-free or vegan if you choose. Their apple pie and key lime meringue are my favorite pies I have tried and loved. However, they have a very large assortment from breakfast pies to chocolate cream and pumpkin chai.
Address: 2032 S Lamar Blvd
20 – Churro Co
Churro Co. started with two friends from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico that shared a passion for Mexican street foods, and thus Churro Co. was born in 2014. The churros alone here are the best I have ever had. They are perfectly crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside, covered in cinnamon sugar.
You can order them plain like I like to do, or you can get one of their many combinations. One of their most popular is the Campfire which features churros tossed in graham cracker sugar, topped with Mexican chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and torched marshmallows. I highly recommend trying this dessert spot if you haven’t already.
Address: 1906 S 1st St
21 – Sweet Carolines Bakery
Sweet Caroline’s is a snow cone truck located in south Austin that serves New Orleans-style snow cones during the summer. Every time I drive past this truck the line is always at least a dozen people long, and for a good reason. This place is unique because they offer a secret sweet cream as an option you can get drizzled on your snow cone, and it is wonderful. They offer over 50 different flavors, in addition to their own special combinations as well. My favorite is the Sweet Caroline which has coconut, strawberry, and cream. It is one of my favorite ways to cool off in the summer and enjoy a delicious treat.
Address: 5700 W Slaughter Ln
22 – Manolis
My sister found this charming food truck after a stroll on South Congress. Manoli’s is a family ran and operated where everything is made from scratch. You’ll be frequently greeted by a family member’s smile as they take your order. For indecisive people like me, they will happily explain the varieties of desserts they have to offer. Manolis menu includes pastries, ice cream, paletas, and Italian ice. I’m personally a fan of their pastries so make sure you try their Fragola and Dark Cacao.
Address: 603 W Live Oak St, Austin, TX 78704
23 – Amy’s Ice Cream
Amy’s Ice Cream is a classic Austin dessert staple. Amy’s offers handcrafted artisan premium ice creams, dairy-free fruit ice, and frozen yogurt. Pick one of their many flavors in rotation and then mix in any toppings of your choice!
Address: 1301 S. Congress Austin, TX 78704
24 – Lick Honest Ice Cream
Seasonal and sustainable, Lick Honest Ice Cream is your next stop with flavors that celebrate the culture of Texas. They use the purest ingredients to use in their artisanal ice cream. With fresh ingredients, hand-made sauces and toppings, and sustainable packaging, we are honest when we say this is the best dessert in Austin.
Address: 100 S Lamar Boulevard Austin, TX 78704
25 – Dolce Neve
Next time you are craving dessert, you must try this homemade gelato from Dolce Neve. With inspiration driven from the owner’s Italian roots and raw natural ingredients locally sourced at farmers’ markets, Dolce Neve’s gelato and sorbets are among the best in Austin.
Address: 1713 South 1st street Austin, TX 78704
26 – Launderette
A popular restaurant in Austin, but with one of the best dessert lineups that we had to include in this list, Launderette has the perfect solution for your sweet tooth. They offer handcrafted specialty desserts with delectable ingredients, from mousse to seasonal ice cream.
Address: 2115 Holly St Austin, TX 78702
27 – Hayley Cakes and Cookies
A popular bakery based in Austin, Hayley Cakes and Cookies has hundreds of unique designs and wonderful flavors. With custom orders available and a large selection, these desserts are perfect for catering events or gatherings.
Address: 10601 Ranch To Market Rd 2222
28 – Bananarchy
A dessert food truck with a fun twist, Bananarchy has revolutionized dessert in Austin with its delicious frozen bananas. You can build- your own by choosing your own dips and toppings! They also offer a featured menu with great combinations to choose from.
Address: 1311 S 1st St Austin, TX 78704
29 – Little Lucy’s Mini Donuts
Hot and fresh mini donuts? Sign me up! Little Lucy’s Mini Donuts has a wide variety of mini donuts in various flavors. This mobile food truck bakery is located on Rainey street and will bring you back to your childhood.
Address: 3300 Rogers Rd Austin, Tx 78758
30 – Cold Cookie Company
An ice cream truck that will fix your sweet tooth, located west of the UT campus, Cold Cookie Company is the best stop for dessert. They serve all things cookies, ice cream, and unshakes all in unique flavors.
Address: 2512 Rio Grande St. Austin, TX 78705
31 – S H Donuts
S H Donuts is a family-owned donut shop with friendly staff, affordable prices, and the best donuts in Austin. Walk in and feel like you are a kid again, this bakery has all of your favorites from your childhood.
Address: 5313 Manor Rd
32 – Bar Peached
A popular restaurant just west of downtown, Bar Peached has one of the finest dessert selections in Austin. They serve Bingsu, Korean-style shaved iced, which brings the snowflake texture of shaved iced combined with the best toppings. From birthday cake to the match parfait, you won’t be disappointed.
Address: 1315 W 6th St Austin, TX 78703
That’s it from our guide to Best Desserts in Austin. Do check out these places.