Best Desserts Around the World

The vibe is Mad Hatter meets 1950’s hausfrau at this Kreuzberg takeout bakery, where master pastry chef Andreas Minsch turns out his extravagant confections. You’ll be hard-pressed to choose between an enormous cinnamon roll or a slice of the popular Black Forest cherry cake. 49-30/2845-0894.

Adjacent to a farmers’ market just off the Circus Maximus is a pretty-in-pink pasticceria where Parisian-style tartlets are made with regional ingredients like apricots and pistachios. Order the flaky ricotta-and-chocolate-filled Romanella at the counter with an espresso—then get another one to go.

Behind a distinctive lavender façade on Inman Square, the shop’s intense, exotic flavors (more than 50 each day) include burnt sugar, licorice, honey-lavender, apple cider, and cinnamon-spiced Mexican chocolate. christinasicecream.com.

For the city’s best knafeh, follow the queue down an alleyway near downtown’s Arab Bank. The generous pockets of shredded phyllo and sweet cheese are crowned with local pistachios and syrup, and served piping hot. habibahsweets.com.

Ignore the candy-colored popsicles up front. What you want is the “mango avalanche”—shaved ice piled high with cubes of fresh fruit, mango pudding, condensed milk, and mango sorbet. It’s enough for four dainty eaters or two ravenous ones. ice-monster.com.

Even the most jaded epicurean succumbs to the Willy Wonkaesque sense of wonder at this haven for the cocoa-obsessed. Lose yourself amid the shelves of chocolate bars, truffles, and pralines—some house-made, some globally sourced—then sign up for a class in creating your own. xocolat.at.

Though it’s welcomed plenty of tourists over its 137 years—not to mention habitués like Freud, Lenin, and Trotsky—the utterly grand café inside the majestic Palais Ferstel is known among pastry-obsessed Wieners for serving the best, flakiest strudel in town.

The airy beignets (made from a 143-year-old recipe) and café au lait at this 24-hour, wood-paneled Metairie haunt leave the better-known Café du Monde in their sugar dust. morningcallcoffeestand.com.

At bite-size bakery Flour & Stone, these quintessentially Aussie squares of vanilla sponge cake, slathered in chocolate icing and dusted in coconut, come stuffed with panna cotta and berry compote. flourandstone.com.au.

A tiny bakeshop with superior tau sar piah, crumbly sesame-seed-encrusted pastries filled with sweet or savory bean paste. 65/6253-4584.

In the laid-back Tin Hau neighborhood, groups of boisterous families head to this cheery café for traditional Asian desserts, including terrific tong shui (sweet Cantonese soups and custards), durian-and-tofu pudding, and our favorite: super-rich black-sesame ice cream. 852/2508-6962.

From German chocolate cupcakes to butterscotch gingerbread cookies and banana cream pies, Billy's makes a range of sweets and treats in their 1940s-style shops. It’s won glowing reviews, especially for its cupcakes.

Bold flavor combinations from a former NYC pastry chef, are sold at this sweet shop in the arty Condesa neighborhood. Try the white peach and apricot caramel. tchocolat.com.

A Boston institution in the city’s South End, the bakery exudes a relaxed, neighborhood feel and serves a selection of delicate, sweet pastries. The meringue clouds and ginger molasses cookies are not to be missed.

Pick up the sweet-savory pan-con-tomate bonbons from Willy Wonka–like pâtissier Carles Mampel.

Evoking the laboratory-style new wave Italian gelateria, this high-design mini-chain keeps it cool with 65 intensely flavored creations under gleaming stainless-steel lids. The dulce de leche gelato is wickedly caramely with candied almonds and hazelnuts.

Offering a unique, yet still Parisian, take on pastries, this 16th arrondissement shop features the work of French sugar sultan Phillippe Conticini and centers on a futuristic display case made of steel and blonde wood, where handcrafted treats sit atop refrigerated pieces of slate underneath glass capsules. The tarte Tatin, an upside-down fruit confection, is among the most popular sellers.

This beautifully curated Marais patisserie run by a pair of Pierre Gagnaire’s former pastry chefs has a wide selection of tarts, macaroons, and homemade marshmallows in flavors like rose and angelica.

While spicy desserts such as chile-flavored chocolate have been around for a while, Mexican fusion restaurant Chego takes the trend to a fiery new level. To make its Devil’s Tres Leches, the restaurant soaks rich devil’s food cake in cinnamon-infused, cayenne pepper–flavored evaporated milk and adds tapioca pudding and spicy peanut brittle. eatchego.com.

There’s a good reason Voodoo is such a huge hit with all donut fans: the Bacon Maple Bar. It’s a yeast donut topped with maple glaze and not one, but two strips of crisp bacon. Open round-the-clock since 2003, this offbeat doughnut shop is further proof that dessert should be enjoyed anytime.

Named for the district in which it resides, this pie shop uses only seasonal ingredients, which are locally sourced whenever possible. The must-try pie is actually a tart prepared with plum and frangipane, a sweet paste made from almonds. The sweet nuttiness of the almonds comes through with impressive clarity, as does the fleeting flavor of the ripe fruit.

After browsing the boutiques in the chic Abbot-Kinney area, grab a cup of salted-caramel gelato or another one of the 15 daily flavors of organic gelato and sorbet at N’ice Cream and hit Venice Beach. ilovenicecream.com.

A New York summertime favorite, this ice cream truck expanded and opened two brick and mortar shops downtown. John T. Edge, author of the Truck Food Cookbook recommends trying the cool, white soft serve, flavored with vanilla, topped with wasabi-spiked green peas. “Dissonance never tasted so good.” biggayicecream.com.

Rome’s oldest ice cream parlor, Giolitti has a history dating back to 1890, when dairy farmers Giuseppe and Bernadina Giolitti opened a small creamery near the Pantheon. Today it is one of the city’s most celebrated gelato shops, serving such unusual flavors as champagne, ricotta, marsala custard, and watermelon with chocolate seeds.

Before you can decide between the salted caramels, French nougat, chocolate bonbons, and tuiles, a young salesgirl may dare you to take the “cupcake challenge,” eyeing one of the peanut-butter-frosted and jelly-filled monsters. It’s free if you devour it in 60 seconds or less. Fresh fruit is used to concoct sorbet and ice cream flavors such as Guinness with blackberry and white beer with peach. sweetenvy.com.

Located in a non-touristy part of town, the Dee Lite Bakery is best known for their guava chiffon cake made from a secret recipe since the bakery's opening in 1959. Other selections include the rainbow cake with alternating layers of lime, guava, and passionfruit, and a custard pie.