"Located in a snoozy residential stretch of Ballard is a self-serve bakery kiosk on someone’s property with a fridge that automatically unlocks once your online order goes through. Think of it like one of those little free sidewalk libraries, only with slabs of delicious cake instead of crockpot cookbooks and a disheveled James Patterson paperback from 1998. And you do need to pay. Are these pilgrimage-across-town slices? No, but this is still some great cake, and the novelty of it all is exciting to experience at least once. While the buttercream trends a bit loose after softening to room temperature, their olive oil cake with brown butter frosting is highly worthy of a dessert-breakfast. The crumb is moist and springy, with excellent caramelization across each layer. Though the biggest achievement here is the vegan cake—it almost eats like a muffin, tender and light between ribbons of blueberry buttercream and lemon gelée. Note that The Cake Coop is only open Friday-Sunday from 11am-8pm, but stock is pretty much depleted by noon. The early bird gets the vanilla sponge, we guess." - Aimee Rizzo