Christmas dinner turkey and dressing may be the main attraction for some, but at the end of the long awaited day, the Christmas Day dessert is the grand finale! Some of our favorite Columbia bakeries have shared recipes that will make your mouth water and your family robustly sing “Joy to the World” as dishes are cleared and coffee is poured.
Tiffany’s Bakery and Eatery opened for business Sept. 28, 1977, in 1,100 square feet at Columbia Mall. Their current location, which opened in May 2019 on Two Notch Road, is 7,000 square feet. They may sell more than 3,000 petits fours a year, but their fruit tart is a feast for the eyes. Family-owned Parkland Cakes, which originally sold cake supplies in Parkland Plaza, has been making cakes for more than 40 years from scratch recipes. Their custom cakes for weddings and special occasions are superb.
Lillian’s Yule Log always makes an appearance for Lillian’s family Christmas. The beautiful confection is exceptionally festive, adorned with meringue mushrooms, holly berry sprinkles, and a light dusting of powdered sugar. Cookies are ordered for all occasions from Blue Flour Bakery, but its Christmas ones make special gifts anytime during the season. Blue Flour bakers keep their cookie recipe a secret but not their amazing tips for decorating and packaging the sweets.
Aleka Selig opened Ally and Eloise in 2012, igniting her passion for tastes from her childhood, transporting patrons back to their mother’s kitchen. She shares her decadent Praline Cheesecake recipe with toasted pecans and maple syrup drizzle.
Bonnie Brunt, located just 30 minutes from Columbia in St. Matthews, makes cakes at the edge of her family’s 150-year-old farm. Her recipes preserve old Southern methods of baking but push the envelope with design and style. Their team of eight offers pure Southern hospitality. The Christmas design for the red velvet cake is magical.
Enjoy the presentation of these glorious desserts and put on your apron to prepare for the holidays!
Fruit Tart
Courtesy of Tiffany’s Bakery
Pastry Cream
1 quart milk
8 ounces sugar
6 eggs
3 ounces cornstarch
3 ounces butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Place half of the sugar and ¾ of the milk on the stove to boil. Combine the other half of the sugar with the cornstarch in a stainless steel bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the mixture in the bowl. Then add the remaining milk.
Once the milk and sugar is boiling, temper the mixture in the bowl. Pour the tempered mixture back into the pot, and, using a whisk, bring the mixture to a full, rapid boil for 1 minute. Make sure you do not stop mixing the boiling liquid.
Once it is thick, remove from the heat and add the butter. Pour it out onto a hotel pan lined with saran wrap. Place another piece of saran wrap on top to help it avoid getting a skin.

Pastry Crust
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
⅔ cup powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into chunks
Whisk together the egg yolk, cream, and vanilla in a small bowl. Combine the flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a food processor and briefly process to combine. Add the cold butter pieces to the flour mixture and pulse to cut into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 15 pulses. While the food processor is running, add the liquid through the feed tube and continue to process just until the dough comes together around the blade.
Turn out the tart dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and flatten into a 6-inch disk, then wrap it tightly and refrigerate for 1 hour. Let sit out on the counter for 10 minutes to soften slightly before rolling out. Roll out the pastry crust on a lightly floured surface until it is slightly larger than the tart pan (reference is 9-inch pan). Carefully transfer the dough into the pan, pressing into the corners and fluted sides of the pan.
Run the rolling pin over the top of the pan so that the excess dough gets cut off on the edge of the pan, making a clean edge. Patch any edges that are too thin with excess dough, trimming away the edge again as necessary. Freeze the tart shell for 30 minutes.
When ready to bake the tart shell, heat oven to 375 degrees F. Press a double layer of foil into the frozen tart shell, covering the edges of the pan and filling the tart shell with pie weights. Bake for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through, then carefully remove the pie weights and foil and bake another 5 to 10 minutes, until the tart shell is fully baked and golden. Cool completely before filling.
When the tart shell is completely cooled, spread the pastry cream over the bottom of the shell.

Fruit Topping
3 kiwis, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced ⅜ inches thick
10 to 12 strawberries, hulled and sliced in half
½ cup mandarin oranges, drained
½ cup blueberries
¼ cup raspberries
½ cup apricot preserves, warmed
Arrange the fruit in a decorative fashion over the cream, overlapping the sliced kiwi or mandarin oranges and mounding raspberries or blueberries in the center of the tart.
Melt the jelly or preserves in a small saucepan or the microwave, stirring until smooth. Use a pastry brush to gently dab the melted apricot preserves over the fruit. You may not use all of the jelly. Slice and serve.