Just Donut: Apple Cider Donuts by Delicious Orchards

What is Fall? More than just dates on the calendar, it's a season of colors, flavors and sensations. Fiery-colored leaves, the taste of hot apple cider, piles of leaves that all but ask to be jumped upon. Blustery days that make your body and soul cry out for sweet, cakey treats.

And what could be a better marriage of seasonal flavors and comforting cake than apple cider donuts?
Happily, Delicious Orchards of Colts Neck, New Jersey, offers these wonderful fall treats online. The orchard and gourmet market, based in Central New Jersey, serves as proof of why it's called the "Garden State" with their beautiful and seasonal selection of gourmet foods and baked goods. These donuts are the stuff of dreams: beautifully spiced and thick, they're perfect with hot coffee or apple cider; we love how they taste after having been heated in the toaster oven for a minute. They come in two variations: plain apple cider, and powdered sugar coated apple cider.

They'll leave you full of happiness--and energy for diving into your neighbors' leaf piles (and running away after).

Available online at deliciousorchardsnjonline.com.

Napoleon of the Stumptown: Portland Coffee Takes Seattle

Stumptown Coffee has opened in Seattle, and it's caused quite a stir in the
city. To some, it's seen as an invasion in an already saturated boutique coffee market: are Caffé Vita, Espresso Vivace, Caffe Ladro and Uptown Espresso really not sufficient? And yet at the same time, there are the coffee enthusiasts who are flocking to the newly-opened Capitol Hill location.

But Cakespy is here to report on something much more important than coffee alone: what's going on in their pastry case?

Well. We're happy to say that Stumptown has embraced their new hometown by stocking their pastry case with lovely carbohydratey treats from Seattle favorites Mighty-O Donuts and Macrina Bakery. Beautiful cake doughnuts, biscuits, dill scones with cream cheese--we have to say, they have a major leg up on nearby Caffé Vita's pastry case, which always looks a little sad.

Oh, and the coffee is pretty good too; their espresso was strong and smoky yet still remarkably smooth; in fact, our only complaint is that they serve their French press coffee from a pump-top dispenser (which, granted, might just be a personal thing).

Stumptown Coffee Roasters, 1115 12th Ave (near Madison St.); second Capitol Hill location opening soon at 1605 Boylston Ave. (at Pine St.); online stumptowncoffee.com.