Kittyhugs Baking Company

Kittyhugs Baking Company

Although named for the owner's cat's tendency to give affectionate embraces, the Kittyhugs Baking Company is no crazy cat lady enterprise. There's no fur flying in the kitchen and no whiff of anything less pleasant than vanilla and hot butter.

Located in a bright, airy storefront in Shoreline's North City neighborhood, the bakery began selling to the trade in the summer of 2004 and opened its doors a year later to retail customers. Kittyhugs' products range from the familiar to the comforting, and are baked from scratch and to order. The menu lists cookies, brownies, scones, muffins, quick breads, coffee cakes, cheesecake, tarts and fruit pies--nearly 100 different items, all (with seasonal exceptions) available to pick up given at least 24 hours notice. A more limited selection of the smaller items is offered for sale to walk-in customers on Fridays and Saturdays.

It pays to stop by early on retail days for the best selection--or for any selection at all, since Kittyhugs will close early if the baked goods sell out (I learned this the hard way). On my last visit, they were down to one brownie and out of red velvet cupcakes. I opted for a vanilla/vanilla cupcake (pictured above) that would be the star of any bake sale. The cake was fluffy and not too sweet, practically groaning under the weight of a generous whorl of vanilla buttercream frosting; whatever your personally preferred cake:frosting ratio, too much (good) frosting is always preferable to too little. It was also fresher, bigger, and, at $1.35, over $1 cheaper than the wares at Seattle's more glamorous cupcakeries.

Kittyhugs Baking Company
1508 NE 179th Street
Shoreline, WA 98155
206/361-5740

Wholesale Monday-Friday, 8-4
Retail Friday 3-6, Saturday 9-2