Sweets With an Accent
Swedish lingonberry-mousse cake from Ikea (10100 Baltimore Ave., College Park, 301-345-6552; 2901 Potomac Mills Cir., Woodbridge, 703-494-4532; $3.49) makes an airy finish to a heavy meal.
Stollen—a light and not overly sweet German holiday coffee cake—at Leopold’s Kafe & Konditorei (3315 Cady’s Alley, NW; 202-965-6005; kafeleopolds.com; $22) is studded with dried citrus and almonds and sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Go festive with an ornate tin of lebkuchen cookies from Nuremberg decorated with chocolate and nuts at the German Gourmet (7185 Lee Hwy., Falls Church; 703-534-1908; german-gourmet.com; five sizes, $20.99 to $120). Or celebrate French-style with the log-shaped chestnut-and-chocolate bûche de noël strewn with marzipan-and-meringue mushrooms from Patisserie Poupon (1645 Wisconsin Ave., NW; 202-342-3248; three sizes, $31.50 to $72).
Though accountant turned baker Natalia Kost-Lupichuk doesn’t have a storefront yet, her inventive Euro-style sweets can be ordered at nataliaselegantcreations.com or 571-239-0256. One of our favorites: Hungarian hazelnut torte—layers of hazelnut cake, buttercream, and brandy-spiked apricot preserves topped with candied hazelnuts. Six-inch cake $34, eight-inch, $37, nine-inch $40.
