Little Arras
Situated on Goodramgate, Little Arras inhabits a building that now boasts a minimal, modern industrial feel. This is fitting as it’s an operational bakery and fresh bread is made on site each morning. The bakery’s staff produce what they like best: slow-fermented breads, pastries, cool cakes and nice slices. Their motto is ‘if we don’t like it, you won’t see it on the counter’. You’ll discover an ever-changing range of sweet treats here, including plenty of vegan options and seasonal specials, from florentines and frangipane to pretty palmiers. These can all be enjoyed with a cup of coffee from East London-based speciality roasters Square Mile.

The Savvy Baker
This fun and fabulous bakery started as a lockdown business selling brownies, which are still a key part of its offering. The Savvy Baker is always on trend, as evidenced by its Insta-worthy drinks. These are served in takeaway cups bearing cute slogans that can be served with an innovative carry handle, turning them into a fashion accessory in their own right. The bakery’s current drinks menu features a honey latte, strawberry iced matcha or a cool and refreshing iced white chocolate with raspberry. Spring has also seen the arrival of some tempting new bakes here, including cookie dough and ‘everything’ brownies and a strawberry cheesecake or gingernut and white chocolate blondie.

Doe Bakehouse
Located on Church Street in the city centre with another premises in Layerthorpe, Doe Bakehouse offers an ever-evolving range of boutique baked treats, including cakes, blondies, brownies and its speciality: ‘doenuts’. These are enticingly decorated with various toppings and fillings, from the yummy Hot Chocolate with marshmallows, cream and a chocolate flake, to the iconic pink Simpsons doenut. You can also try newbies like Honeycomb Crunch or White Chocolate Pistachio. These can be accompanied by a regular coffee or one of the shop’s rainbow lattes – choose from matcha, charcoal, turmeric, eye-catching sapphire, ruby or rose.

Bar Hashery
Residing in a spot on Bootham close to the historic bar, laid back, licensed café’ Bar Hashery is just the place to catch up with friends over brunch and cocktails, or simply a cup of coffee. The bar’s beans are supplied by Origin Coffee Roasters and these can be freshly brewed and served as a dirty chai latte, espresso macchiato or even an Irish coffee. This can be paired with cakes, which come from Bar Hashery’s own open bakery on Micklegate. Among its current selection are brownies, cookies and pastries, including enticing options such as pistachio buns or classic Bakewell tarts.

Heppni Bakeri
Founded less than a year ago, this Scandinavian-inspired artisan bakery has already made it into the Good Food Guide. Visit its shop on Swinegate and you’ll be able to take your pick from a range of crisp pastries, some of which take three days to make. These include a Black Forest Pain Suisse with homemade berry jam and silky chocolate custard and a Baby Guinness Danish that features white chocolate and Baileys ganache and a Heppni chocolate orange matchmaker. These can be accompanied by your favourite hot or iced coffee.

Partisan
This café and arts space is full of warmth and character with exposed timber beams and exhibitions of work by local and national artists on its walls. Here, you can sip a cup of Murmuration coffee or hot chocolate with various origins and strengths to choose from, including an Ivory Coast white chocolate. If you wish, you can turn these into even more of a treat with the addition of liqueurs such as Baileys or Kahlua. Alternatively, you can tuck into seasonal bakes like a lemon, polenta and pistachio cake, strudels or dulce de leche buns.

Brew and Brownie Bakeshop
The Brew and Brownie Bakeshop can be found on Museum Street, a few doors down from its owners’ first shop. It was created to provide the perfect place for ‘a quick call to refuel on your way around the city’ and it offers a range of homemade snacks to eat in or take away, including cinnamon buns, doughnuts, stuffed cookies, cakes, tarts, sausage rolls, vegetarian rolls, traybakes and its popular brownies. The bakeshop’s coffee comes from Dark Arts plus other guest roasters. This can be served in a variety of styles and can be customised further with your choice of milk or flavoured syrups.

Images – @kawahouseyork, @partisanyork, @doebakehouse