10 Best Bristol Bakeries and Cakeries
Tasty, scrumptious Bristol bakeries and cakeries
You can now search within Best of Bristol to find independent bakeries that are delivering in Bristol:
These tasty morsels of Bristol’s flour filled underbelly are brought you by the brilliant Bristol food blog; With Mustard.
Nothing is more comforting than hot buttered toast, made from a loaf of real bread; slowly proved with simple ingredients. Well, there is also cake, a large wedge of cake, preferably smothered in icing and caramel. Or perhaps hugs; hugs from actual, real people. For the times you want bread or cake, Bristol is spoilt for choice. It was hard to whittle down but here, in alphabetical order, are a few of my favourites:
1. Ahh Toots
For cakes that are as beautiful to the eye as they are to the stomach, head to Ahh Toots in St Nick’s Market. From a tiny kitchen, Tamarind Galliford bakes cakes adorned with blowsy flowers, sparkling glitter dipped berries and gilded pecans. My favourites include chocolate truffle cake –thick with ganache; banana and salted caramel cake and pistachio, rose bundts complete with rose petal scattered water icing. Savouries are excellent too, particularly chorizo sausage rolls and the quiche or savoury tart of the day. In fact there are few things I don’t like here (gluten free and vegan cakes also available).
2. Bicycle Bakery
Run by Simon Dawson, who also happens to be the pastry chef and baker at Bell’s Diner and Bar Room; Bicycle Bakery may be found at the Harbour Market on a Sunday. Selling predominantly savoury pastries, this is the place to go to for sausage rolls flavoured with sweet chilli and za’atar; apple and fennel or sage and onion. Hand raised pork pies are just as they should be and, if you see an empanada or hand-pie, buy it. If you can’t bear to wait until a Sunday, head to Montpelier where you can usually find a batch of sweet pastries, pies and brownies on the bar countertop at Bell’s.
3. East Bristol Bakery
East Bristol Bakery can be found on the vibrant and diverse St Marks Road in Easton; home also to the amazing Sweet Mart. Founded by Alex Poulter, who recently opened vegetarian restaurant Flow; he and a small team of bakers make excellent sourdough and proper baguettes. Specials include potato and rosemary sourdough; Malthouse; a light rye and challah. Cake is also very good: cherry and marzipan and a treacly ginger cake make a regular appearance. Butternut squash muffins are perfect, not too sweet and beautiful spiced, but my absolute favourite is the chocolate and beetroot lava cake. Incredibly chocolatey with a molten centre, they also happen to be vegan.
4. Farro Bakery
A relative newcomer to Bristol’s baking scene; Farro Bakery specialises in Viennoiserie, making some of the finest croissants and seasonal Danish pastries in town. They also make salty sweet Kouign-Amann, a speciality of Brittany and, Canelés de Bordeaux with its crisp caramel crust and custardy centre, flavoured with rum and vanilla. With regular stalls at Whiteladies Road, Harbourside and Tobacco Factory markets; their baked goods may also be found at the excellent Number 12 Easton and Spoke & Stringer.
5. Hart’s Bakery
Tucked underneath the arches of Temple Meads Station, is Hart’s Bakery. Run by Laura Hart; it has become a firm favourite in the few years since it opened. In fact no train journey is complete without a visit to Hart’s for coffee and pastries. Sourdough loaves sell out quickly and sausage rolls or pasties filled with cauliflower cheese or white bean and merguez sausage make for an excellent lunch. Cinnamon laced Portuguese-style custard tarts are legend, but only made Thursday to Saturday –so time your trip well. Another must try is Saturday bread; doughnut-like, buttery and rippled with dark glassy caramel it is best eaten alongside a coffee. Daily lunch specials are popular, especially on a Friday and all revolve around bread.
6. Mark’s Bread
Based in Southville, Mark’s Bread bakes slowly fermented breads, many of them sourdough whilst others are pre-fermented yeast loaves. Alongside, daily specials, such as Miche on Mondays and Challah on Fridays but this may change from week to week. For me, the Chelsea buns are the draw. Beautifully spiced with succulent fruit and a thin coating of water icing, they are worlds apart from what you can buy from a supermarket. If you’ve never tried a proper Chelsea bun, you really should. Next door is a café, where they make a really good Welsh rarebit and Croque Monsieur. Look out also for their pop-up pizza nights, especially if the homemade fennel sausage is on the menu.
7. Papadeli
For those who are new to Bristol, it can be hard to believe that its food scene wasn’t always as vibrant as it is now. As little as ten years ago there were only a handful of really good places to eat and even fewer delicatessens. Papadeli was one of them and, remains a great place to buy high quality ingredients. Shelves are stacked on high with artisanal produce from Britain, Spain, France and Italy. There is also a café, cookery school and counter top full of cake. Lime and coconut is one of the best; as is citrusy Ligurian olive oil cake and the chocolate mousse cake, a corker.
8. Source Food Hall and Café
Running along one side of the glass covered market of St Nick’s; Source Food Hall is a purveyor of fine ingredients. Meat is locally and thoughtfully sourced; fish is seasonal, MSC approved and usually landed in the Southwest. There are selective boxes of seasonal fruit and veg and a lovely selection of cheeses. Most importantly, they sell cake; freshly made in their kitchen on site. The chocolate, sour cherry and salted caramel brownies are dense, rich and glorious; not even I can eat a whole one in one sitting. My absolute favourite however, is their rum baba; brioche-like, soaked in rum syrup, split and filled with vanilla cream. In fact, scrub them from your mind -they are all mine.
9. Stock Exchange Bakery
Stock Exchange Bakery on St Nicholas Street, takes its name from the impressive building in which it is housed; part of what used to be the banking district in the old city. Open for almost a year now, the baking has gone from strength to strength. Some of their baking is not for the faint hearted; Death by Peanut Butter a must for anyone who loves PB; Mars Bar slices and gooey squares of chocolate and salted caramel brownies. My personal favourites are their lemon curd slices; chocolate sourdough buns and cream cheese brownies. Sourdough loaves and bagels are also baked here and there are daily lunch specials.
10. Wai Yee Hong
Bristol lacks a Chinese bakery which makes it difficult for me to get my fix of steamed custard buns, glutinous rice doughnuts and almost candied star anise heavy, barbecue pork buns. All is not lost however, as Wai Yee Hong, the Chinese supermarket based in Eastville get deliveries from London based Chinese bakeries throughout the week. The main drop is on a Sunday when you can stock up on pandan flavoured chiffon cake; lotus seed buns; dan tat and roast pork buns. There is also a stall from Bristol based Shun Lee who sells freshly baked barbecue pork puffs, red bean paste doughnuts and Wife Cake –flaky lard based pastries filled with sweet, chewy wintermelon.
And, your bonus:
Bishopston Supper Club
Unlike Bath, a proper afternoon tea or high tea is hard to come by in Bristol. One place that does it right is Bishopston Supper Club, run by Danielle Coombs. For a minimum of ten people and a maximum of sixteen, you may have your high tea needs catered for. Dainty finger sandwiches, mini savoury tarts and sausage rolls are accompanied by sweet and savoury scones with homemade preserves. Tea is from the Bristol Tea Company and coffee from James Coffee. It is the cake however that does it and what a choice: rhubarb and ginger; toffee apple and pecan; banana white chocolate and walnut to name but a few. My favourite is the lemon drizzle; the juiciest lemon drizzle I have ever eaten and quite possibly the best.
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Still feeling hungry? Give the top 5 tapas bars in Bristol a read.
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