Pastries & Petals
Mission Street between Fourth and Fifth, Carmel
620-1400, www.facebook.com/pastriesandpetals
The glass bakery case at Pastries & Petals is a Pandora’s box, a glorious gateway into edible guilty pleasures that have the sugar-sweet potential to knock even the strictest dieter off the wagon and into a warm cinnamon pull-apart. Pastry Chef Jennifer Hatton has a sweet little term for the regulars at Pastries & Petals: “educated cheaters.” By her count, that’s anyone without the metabolism of David Beckham who knows the caloric consequences of a pumpkin doughnut or a banana split cupcake well enough to realize that falling off the wagon is only worth it if it’s for quality decadence. “We have something for every type of indulgence,” she says.