This month, let’s explore August’s American food holidays: National S’mores Day, National Rum Day, National Filet Mignon Day and National Apple Week are just a few. National Peach Month and National Panini Month especially piqued our interest. So, we set out to find the best peach product and panini in Plano.
Cobbler is Calling
Sweets have never been my thing. But holy moly, when I find myself wanting more of a sugary something, that’s when I know I’ve hit the jackpot. Sugar Ray’s Bake Shop located in Lakeside Market off Preston Road and Spring Creek Parkway does it for me.
Rachel Barbaro, aka Ray to close friends and family, is a 27-year-old who fell into baking after she made her mom a birthday cake five years ago and received several cake requests from party attendees. “I realized, ‘How was I ever doing anything else with my life,’” Rachel told Plano Profile. She put her bachelor’s degree in Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management from Texas Tech University to use and opened Sugar Ray’s.
“My main focus is on cupcakes, but our macarons will put any other macarons in the Metroplex to shame,” Rachel said.
Sugar Ray’s offers seven different flavors of cupcakes every day, macarons (also available gluten free) and made-to-order crepes, all baked in-house daily. Cupcakes are not kept overnight or available for resell the following day. A certain amount is baked each morning and once they’re sold out—they’re out.
The cupcake to keep an eye on this August is the Stuffed Peach Cobbler. Exclusively for Plano Profile readers, Rachel will bake the Stuffed Peach Cobbler every Wednesday throughout the month of August, guaranteed. The delicious details: “Our peach cobbler cupcake starts with our vanilla-bean base recipe, then we kick it up with cinnamon and nutmeg for some spice, then we add diced fresh peaches into the batter. This cupcake packs a serious punch of flavor! We cook down fresh peaches with white sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon until it is the perfect consistency to stuff inside the cupcake. We use some of the freshly cooked down peaches into our vanilla bean frosting to give it a hint of peach flavor. Once the cupcakes are frosted, it gets a generous dollop of peaches, and the final touch is a handmade lattice pie crust that sits on top. Viola!”
At Sugar Ray’s, you can expect Red Velvet, Vanilla Bean and Milk Chocolate Hazelnut every day, but the other 30-plus flavors constantly change. Rachel’s always open to innovative flavor suggestions, too. All cupcakes are $3 each, $33 for a dozen standard cupcakes and $39 for a dozen with custom chocolate art toppers.
Remember: Wednesdays in August at Sugar Ray’s Bake Shop equals Stuffed Peach Cobbler.
Where is the best panini in Plano? The non-chain and Plano’s own Great Harvest Bread Company, of course – read all about it.
Sugar Ray’s Bake Shop
4021 Preston Rd., #624 Plano, Texas 75093
Hours: Mon–Fri: 11 a.m.–5 p.m. | Sat: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. | Sun: Closed
sugarraysbakeshop.com
