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While being responsible and staying home, sometimes its good to go wild and satisfy your sweet tooth. During my birthday week, I decided to treat myself to the takeout desserts available in Central Oregon. Whether you are looking for special occasion cakes, a chocoholic fix, cookies, pies, or ice cream treats, you can pick up or get desserts delivered.

Ice cream is the obvious choice as the weather gets warmer. Business hasn’t slowed for Bonta Gelato, Baskin-Robbins or Ben and Jerry’s as much as it has for other types of restaurants. Locally made and owned Bonta Gelato is open at both the downtown store and the Wilson tasting room locations. Ben and Jerry’s in the Old Mill is open in the evenings from 3:00 to 9:30 pm and is available for delivery from most services.

The locally owned Baskin-Robbins on 3rd Street near Fred Meyers has remained open. Owner Todd Griffith said that business is better than expected as the weather got better. “People are looking for normalcy, and they find it when they come to Baskin-Robbins to pick up an ice cream cake for their child’s birthday.” We tried a less common ice cream treat — the Polar Pizza. The Polar Pizza is a 9-inch chocolate chip cookie covered with about an inch of ice cream, drizzled with marshmallow sauce and sprinkled with cookie dough chunks. We added a drizzle of hot fudge. It was satisfying on a hot day, and we could keep it in the freezer to grab another slice when the mood hit again.

Baskin-Robbins also offers a way to turn dessert into a family activity with the DIY sundae kit. For $25, you get two pints of ice cream, four containers of wet (i.e., fudge or other syrup), and/or dry (sprinkles, cookie crumbs, gummy bears) toppings, and a can of whipped cream.

For the chocoholic

Occasionally, I have a day where I need chocolate. Something more than a candy bar. The chocolate board from the Board in Bend food cart is the perfect prescription when you are looking for decadent chocolate in many forms. Similar to how a charcuterie board has bites of many different types of meat, the chocolate board has several different chocolate tasty treats. These include variations of homemade chocolate — flourless chocolate cake, handmade truffles, mocha-flavored beans, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate bark. All of this for $10. Each bite was the perfect chocolatey blend of bitter and sweet with fruit and nut accents. That’s a lot of sweet satisfaction for not a lot of money. Pickup at the Podski or delivery with DoorDash is available.

Bakeries

Foxtail Bakeshop and Kitchen was the perfect place to pick up a birthday cake. Although the cafe is closed, they are taking orders for cakes, cupcakes and such. Owner and Executive Pastry Chef Nicole Hayden-Cady is not only a talented baker, as the chocolate cake was true perfection; she is also an artist. The chocolate cake with Valrhona ganache chocolate frosting was moist with balanced buttery sweetness. Decorative gold balls and stars topped the cake, which was scattered with rosebud petals. The small cake was $20 and it would be a beautiful gift for a special occasion.

If you’d prefer, during the COVID-19 shutdown, Ida’s Cupcakes are delivering cupcakes to your doorstep, or you can send them as a gift. Whether its a special occasion or just to send a smile to someone, cupcakes arrive safely set in a box.

When ordering, pair a cupcake flavor with a frosting flavor. We tried a 1/2 dozen combinations: chocolate with chocolate buttercream, carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting, carrot with vanilla buttercream, lemon poppy seed with buttercream, lemon poppy seed with raspberry swirl and Oreo. All of the cakes were moist, and the creamy frosting was not too sweet. My favorite was Oreo. It had a chocolate cake to start topped with a creamy layer and crushed Oreos. It was like a gourmet Ding Dong.

If you’d prefer pies and pastries, Village Baker has galettes (basically a freeform pie). The galettes are available either frozen to bake when you are ready, or ready-baked. Choose from marionberry, mixed berry, blueberry peach, raspberry peach, or apple cranberry. We opted for the marionberry that we baked at home and served with fresh whipped cream.

Among all of Village Baker’s pastries, a chocolate pastry, the Chocolate Eddies, is one of the most popular items. Callebaut chocolate and cream cheese fill a pâte brisée crust that is buttery and flakey. The Belgian bittersweet dark chocolate is smooth and creamy and not too rich. We picked up a caramel apple tart that is also popular among the Village Baker regulars. If you are in the mood for cookies, Village Baker has a variety. Shortbread cookies are available singly or by the dozen —toasted coconut, candied ginger, poppy seed and lemon, peanut butter, and gluten-free chocolate hazelnut. The cookies are light, buttery, crumbly, and perfect with a cup of coffee after dinner.

Desserts from restaurants

Bakeries are not the only place to find tasty cakes. My favorite cake in town has to be the sticky toffee Date Cake at Joolz. Made by owner Juli Stonelake Hamdan’s mother, Willie Willadean, it has a caramel or chocolate-like richness to it. It is incredibly moist without being too sweet. It’s best if you pour the caramel sauce on top and microwave it for 15 seconds before serving. Top with the included fresh cream. You can buy it by the slice or get two small round cakes.

As much as I enjoy dinner at Zydeco, I’ve often popped in later in the evening to have one of their tasty cakes. The multi-layer carrot cake is moist with a cream cheese frosting and topped with toasted pecans. The Almond Wet Cake arrives in a small pool of butterscotch drizzle and comes with fresh a fresh berry compote and crunchy nuts to top the mild spice-filled cake.

There’s nothing like churros to finish off a Latin meal. At Barrios, it’s Churros and chocolate. The fried doughy sticks are covered in sugar, which balances with the creamy bitter chocolate.

For a gluten-free way to end your meal, try one of the luscious desserts from Five Fusion and Sushi Bar. Two mouth-watering choices are the salted caramel crème brûlée or the coconut cardamom panna cotta with passion fruit and strawberry.

If you require a little culinary pick-me-up, go ahead and indulge in the sweetness of takeout desserts.