Caketini (2270 E. Williams Field Road, No. 114, Gilbert [480] 786-3500). Scottsdale has its Sprinkles, Gilbert has Caketini — a cute shop run by a family that’s been baking for generations. Sweet lovers will find gourmet cakes, truffles and massive, prettily decorated cupcakes. $

Udder Delights is an up-and-coming Gilbert ice cream shop looking to expand its dessert menu. Tracy Dempsey is perhaps the Valley’s best-known pastry chef and has a few months of free time on her hands. A perfect match?

I recently introduced my dad to port, the rich dessert wine from Portugal. He resembled Winnie the Pooh as he licked his chops and rubbed his belly. "It’s like nectar," he said raising his glass for another dram. "Delicious. How come I haven’t tried this before?"

Toward the end of every summer, my family and I abandon New York City for my parents’ Massachusetts farmhouse, where the fields out back are lined with blueberry bushes. Some years the crop is tiny. Other years it is so good we are overwhelmed, calling up visions of Lucille Ball wrapping chocolates in the candy factory.

Paris has long been the pioneer of the food world, but based on the popular mini-dessert trend, Arizona chefs are keeping pace quite handily with their French counterparts.

Do you make a special dessert that your friends and family rave about? Now you can share it with the rest of the Valley. Flancer’s, which has locations in Gilbert and Mesa, is holding a Dessert Showdown contest.

A man is suspected of returning to a convenience store multiple times Sunday and stealing beer, cigarettes and lighters and throwing cookies and brownies at the cashier, whom he also grabbed and hit.

Q: What are the guidelines for growing sweet corn?

American Indian fry bread can be eaten in many different ways, and Arizona Native Frybread, a strip-mall restaurant on east Main Street in Mesa, showcases many of them.

Those homemade treats you’ve been baking are sure to spread some holiday cheer. Why not delight your guests further by serving your melange of delectable sweets atop whimsical dessert plates and cake stands that make a statement?

And you thought it was tricky to bake from scratch? Try baking without common leavening ingredients like baking powder, baking soda and

April 20, 2005