It’s truly the most wonderful time of the year! No…I’m not talking about Christmas, folks. It’s fall…and that means fall flavors in all their glorious splendor. For sweet junkies, this is the absolute best time to get your sugar on. Pumpkin, apple, sweet potato, cinnamon, nutmeg, maple and on and on. All the most lovely parts of the flavor rainbow. I’m constantly scouring the isles of my local grocer to get my hands on the newest pumpkin spice product. I just can’t get enough.
So if you’re looking into nabbing some fall flavors from your local sweet shops and bakers in Little Rock, here’s a short guide to help you make your decisions. I asked around some of our local shops and found a number of establishments rolling out some new flavors for the season. Here’s what you’ll find:
Sweet Love: Owner Kelli Marks always has a few wonderful tricks up her sleeve this time of year. She says, “I love fall and the flavors. It’s really a season of scents. I love the rich notes of cinnamon, how a smell can make you physically feel warmth is a mystery to me, but I love it every year.”
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find at Sweet Love this season:
- Fall cupcakes: banana’s foster, caramel apple, snicker doodle, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin latte
- Cranberry apple cake (don’t miss this one folks, I love it)
- Ginger lemon sandwich cookies with lemon curd-buttercream filling
- The monthly “Friday Pie Day” on the last Friday of every month will feature her award-winning sweet potato pie (you also don’t want to miss this one, folks. It’s award-winning for a reason)
- French macarons: pumpkin spice, snicker doodle, and apple cinnamon
Le Pops: If you can’t find something to love at Le Pops, I pity you. While the weather may be cooling down, there’s still so many great reasons to visit this Heights favorite. Owner Laurie Harrison says, “Fall reenergizes our creative spirit for making new flavors using seasonal ingredients.”
Le Pops will roll out the fall menu items in mid- to late October. What to expect? Here you go:
- Hot Pops: choose from a variety of mini-pop flavors to stir into hot cocoa or coffee
- Homemade hot cocoa and marshmallows (seriously delightful, trust me)
- S’mores with homemade graham crackers
Cupcakes on Kavanaugh: This Height’s neighborhood staple is known for a rotating list of excellent cupcakes. Owner Christie Milligan says, “The smell of pumpkin, apple pie, and sweet potatoes just makes me feel the leaves falling and see the colors changing. Makes me think of football, Thanksgiving, friends & family. So much about fall is fabulous!”
Here’s a few of the fall cupcake flavors you can find at COK this season:
- Apple pie: apples, spices, cream cheese icing
- Pumpkin: pumpkin cupcake topped with a mild lemon cream cheese icing
- Caramel apple: apple cake, topped with cream cheese icing, drizzled with caramel
- Sweet potato pie (starts in November): sweet potato cupcake, marshmallow buttercream topped with candied pecans
- French toast: cinnamon vanilla cupcake, topped with a maple buttercream, garnished with bacon
- Oatmeal cream (every Wednesday): oatmeal cake, cream cheese icing, dusted with cinnamon
- Bananas foster (every Friday): cinnamon-infused vanilla cake with a banana rum compote filling, topped with vanilla buttercream
Blue Cake Company: The talented bakers at this Cantrell shop has been rolling out a few intriguing fall items for a few weeks now. Take a look over this menu and tell me you don’t want to plunge your face into some of this food.
- Pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes with bourbon whipped cream and spiced pecan streusel: cheesecakes are baked individually in cupcake form (no actual cake in here).
- Cinnamon orange petit fours: petit fours are spiced with cinnamon and layered with citrus cream cheese and dipped in a sugar glaze
- Milk chocolate & caramel apple torte: flourless chocolate cake and nutty meringue layered with caramelized apples, caramel gelee and milk chocolate mousse.
- Opera torte: Coffee soaked almond cake layered with chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream
- Buttercream iced sugar cookies: round sugar cookies decorated with a pumpkin design in buttercream.
