Screenshot from Amanda Oakleaf Cake's website

A life-sized Stormstrooper cake was almost completely edible

​The team at Amanda Oakleaf Cakes created what might be the best cake in this galaxy or that galaxy far, far away: an enormous Stormtrooper cake, almost completely edible from boot to helmet. When completely assembled, the Stormtrooper stood 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighed a little bit more than 300 pounds, and fed some 600 sci-fi convention attendees presumably very hungry for dessert after attending panels like "Harry Potter, My Love for You Will Never Die" and "Lightsaber Combat of the Sword Masters."

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Guzzle & Nosh

Medlar rolls at Proof Bakery

​Here's a little fuel for the fire of our slow-burning medlar obsession. About a week-and-a-half ago, Proof Bakery in Atwater Village began selling medlar "Tootsie Rolls" made by Jessica Koslow of Sqirl. Made from the ancient and rare fruit (rare in Southern California, anyway), the chewy little candies sell for $2.50 each and have been described as tasting like spiced apple, dates, honey and autumn leaves.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Mini Pies To-Go From Simple Things

​When we define a bakery primarily by its crusty, or at least savory, loaf endeavors, a sweet shop follow-up to those 10 Best Bakeries in L.A. is a must. And so we offer our 10 Best Pastry Shops in L.A. for your commentary.

Did we leave some great ones off the list? Absolutely. Ten is not as many slices of pie as we'd ideally like in any given week. And so we also give kudos to Simple Things for those tiny cutie pies (photo above), Sarkis and Aras Pastry for baklava, SusieCakes for obvious layered reasons and Magnolia Bakery on the Laker's cupcake front, just to name a few (several of those not listed here that specialize in a certain tiny cake you'll soon see in our 10 Best Cupcake Shops follow-up). Also note that we went with the more classic "baked" definition of pastry here, so chocolatiers and confectioners of note like Valerie Confections and Mikawaya, the 100-year-old mochi king in Little Tokyo, are noticeably missing as well (Yeah, we're hoping for a Top 10 Candy Shops follow up, too).

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A. Scattergood

Bread At Milo & Olive

​San Francisco sourdough? You may have noticed beneath that smoky (wood-burning oven?) haze, L.A. has a new whole grain baguette, flaky croissant (even at LAX) and yes, crusty sourdough advantage. Here are our picks for the 10 Best Bakeries in L.A.. It's the savory bread starter course, if you will, as bakeries specializing in cakes, pies and the like are getting their just desserts in a sequel (10 Best Pastry Shops in L.A.).

But L.A. has really upped the crusty loaf ante in recent years, so even with a sweet-savory dividing line, we're inevitably going to leave some of our other beloved baguette stops off this list. All the more reason for you to add your picks below.

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Magnolia Bakery

Lakers cupcakes

​Lakers fans have had a tough time of it lately, between losing Lamar Odom to the Mavericks and Chris Paul to the Clippers and Kobe Bryant to the divorce court. About the only people who've been enjoying this are the folks at TMZ, who at least get to take the Khloe Kardashian show on the road. Things may get better before the season opens on Christmas Day, but if we don't all get a big Dwight Howard-sized present under (well, beside) the tree, we can at least drown our sorrows in buttercream frosting.

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D. Gonzalez

Not your usual plate of Porto's: Dulce de Leche Kisses

​There are always certain points a holiday parties. The point at which someone has had just enough to drink to say something catty about the person who just happens to be standing right behind them. Then there is the point of the party when someone walks in carrying those distinctive yellow boxes. The sign that the Porto's has arrived.

Is it a box of potato balls? Those guava filled refugiados? Maybe cheese rolls? When we are bearer of those coveted bakery boxes, while we make sure to bring those pastries that Porto's Bakery is most well known for, we also include our own favorite: the dulce de leche Kiss cookie.

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L.Aghajanian

​On the post-Soviet streets of Eastern Europe and Eurasia, the piroshki is the fast food of choice. A fast fried doughy bun stuffed with warm, savory fillings like potatoes, meat or mushrooms, the piroshki boasts just the right amount of dough-to-filling ratio for your eating and holding pleasure.

Lucky for Los Angeles, piroshkis have made their way here, thanks to Armenian and Russian diasporas who have set up bakeries from Van Nuys to Glendale and West Hollywood where they serve up these cultural staples, usually bought a dozen at a time, that can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner or while you're sitting in traffic on the dreaded 405 and wondering if there's any hope that you will eventually make it home. Just make sure you have napkins nearby.

We've included a list of places in L.A. that make their piroshkis in-house, fresh and piping hot for your eating pleasure. It probably doesn't beat your babushka's (that's grandma to you) fried dough treats, but it does come close.

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Guzzle & Nosh

The frisee lardon raft (left) and the bar (right) at Short Order.

​Now that burger hub Short Order is running smoothly, the bakery component of Nancy Silverton and the late Amy Pressman's Farmers Market foray is set to open. Short Cake will debut this Friday at 9 a.m.

Bakers Hourie Sahakian and Ramon Ramirez, formerly of La Brea Bakery and Anisette Brasserie, have been working on a cornucopia of pastries made mostly from local, organic ingredients: croissants, muffins, scones, cookies, bars, pies, quiches, bread pudding and cakes. During opening weekend, look for free samples of their baked goods as well as samples of Nik Krankl's single origin cold brew coffee.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Black Cat muffin

​To celebrate their first year anniversary, Black Cat Bakery will be handing out complimentary cake tomorrow (Thursday, Dec. 15) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. We're suckers for their chocolate and sour cream muffin as well as their bread.

A. Scattergood

Milo & Olive butternut squash flatbread, etc.

​The folks who brought you Rustic Canyon, Huckleberry and Sweet Rose Creamery have now officially opened the exceedingly pretty doors of a new restaurant, a pizzeria named Milo & Olive, which begins serving lunch and dinner today.

Milo & Olive is thus the fourth Santa Monica eatery from Josh Loeb and pastry chef Zoe Nathan, who named their new pizzeria after their 1-year-old son Milo. (And Olive because they just liked it.) Rustic Canyon executive chef Evan Funke is running the open kitchen, making pizzas in the impressive wood-burning Mugnaini oven (almond wood at the moment) and overseeing a menu that functions pretty much as his translation of the produce and products from the nearby Santa Monica farmers market into slightly more articulated form.

The bakery opened about two weeks ago and has been serving breakfast as well as coffee and pastries. Starting today, the place will be open every day of the week, from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m., since chefs and the parents of small children never sleep anyway.

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