East London’s most iconic cake shop began as a small stall in Broadway Market, where founder Claire Ptak won fans with her dreamy cakes made from organic ingredients. The airy brick-and-mortar bakery opened in 2010, several top-shelf cookbooks followed, and Ptak became a cult fixture of the cake scene. Order ahead for celebration cakes like the iconic Violet Chocolate Cake— fudgy devil’s food cake with purple, French violet-infused icing—or stop by the cafe for a slice of whatever's on hand.

As the name suggests, Café & Conditorei 1842 has been a fixture in the Swiss city for 180 years. The neo-baroque confectionery in Zurich’s historic Niederdorf quarter is made up of several rooms filled with plush velvet chairs, high arched ceilings, and an lovelt patio—all designed to welcome lingering over a slice of flaky apple strudel and hot chocolate topped with a cloud of whipped cream.

Honeyed fig financiers with lemon-thyme yogurt. Bubble gum pavlova with rhubarb and rose. It’s hard not to crave everything on the menu at Stéphanie Labelle’s Montreal pâtisserie—so you might as well lean into temptation and sample as much as you can. The upscale bakeshop expertly balances tradition and innovation, making it a fixture of Québécois special occasions since 2010. Pick up a slice in person or pre-order a whole cake.

If you’re visiting Vienna (or looking to justify a visit for the sake of pastry alone), Demel is a must. The historic Neo-Baroque bakery, founded by confectioner Ludwig Dehne in 1786, is the platonic ideal of a Viennese café. White aproned servers glide around a gleaming wood bar beneath cathedral-like ceilings. The menu, refined for over 200 years, features rich hot chocolate, flaky strudel, and a formidable roster of can’t-miss cakes.

The oldest bakery in Seoul is so widely beloved, it even launched a Superstar sneaker collab with Adidas earlier this summer. Taegeukdang Bakery has been serving up sweet and savory confections since 1947, relocating to its current location in 1973, and their roster of traditional baked goods is made with expertise that can only be honed over decades. Some bakers have been on staff since the ‘70s, and the family’s third generation is still running the cafeteria-style shop today.

Pandan, coconut, and other treasured South East Asian flavors are on full display at this tiny pastry shop tucked away in Manhattan’s East Village. Malaysian-born owners Mogan Anthony and Seleste Tan, a husband-and-wife duo with fine dining chops honed at WD-50 and Jean-Georges, opened Lady Wong to share the region’s kaleidoscopic variations on kuih, the bite-size snacks beloved across South East Asia.

Walk around Mexico City’s Centro Historico neighborhood and you’re sure to spot people carrying blue and white pastry boxes from Pastelería Ideal. Literally called “ideal bakery,” the 1920s-era institution still lives up to its name today. Load up a pastry box with a few pan dulce, from sugar crusted conchas to garibaldi pound cakes, then head upstairs to lust over the massive eight-layer wedding cakes being constructed for lucky couples across the city.

Towering and tempting layer cakes are the crown jewel of Denmark’s oldest patisserie, which was established in 1870. Gaze across the countertops at the day’s selection, which ranges from the springtime chocolate-raspberry Forårskage dotted with green marzipan hearts to the house specialty: Sportskage, a.k.a. “Sports Cake.”

Welcome to the Ballet as Cédric Grolet and his 'conductor' Yohann Caron describe the flurry of activity that happens behind their pastry counter. Famous for its pastries that would look at home in the Jardin des Plantes, Cédric Grolet Opéra stresses that "quality rhymes with limited quantity". This means that the bakery typically has little food waste and that you need to get there early to secure a piece of this edible art.

From Lucie Started by chef Lucie Franc de Ferriere, From Lucie, has transformed cakes into floral masterpieces. Using flowers passed over by florists for their short stems, Lucie creates an arrangement on every cake. However, that's not the only use of botany in her baking, instead of using the overly sweet fondant that is typically used for cake design by certain Cake Bosses, From Lucie instead uses icing infused with flavors from elderflower to rosemary.