Something Sweet Dessers | Washington, D.C.

Choosing Thanksgiving dessert is usually as easy as (pumpkin and pecan) pie.

But with an ambitious, multicourse turkey dinner, who wants to end on an easy note?

Steal a shortcut to a better finish with Something Sweet's clever holiday desserts. The Cleveland Park bakery is offering alternatives to the traditional meal-enders, all available for pickup by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, November 23.

Top holiday cake plates with pumpkin layer cake ($55 for 12 servings). Thick with baking spices and layers of cream cheese frosting, the cake gives a Southern spin to the final course. As an alternative, ginger adds a spicy bite to moist slabs of the bakery's frosted pear cake ($38).

For a smaller serving, cakey pumpkin cookies ($2.75) are glossed with a coating of vanilla-scented brown-butter icing. Whoopie pies ($4.50) are also available in dark chocolate with fluff, or pumpkin with a maple filling.

For morning festivities, the bakery offers three crumbly coffee cakes ($40 for 10 servings). Cinnamon-pecan and apple-cinnamon feature the warm spices of the season, but the tartness of cranberry-orange–strewn with a brown-butter sauce–hints at the starring meal ahead.

Traditionalists should note that Something Sweet will offer its excellent pumpkin, pecan and apple pies, too.

Something Sweet, 3708 Macomb St. NW (at Wisconsin Ave.); 202-364-2525 or somethingsweetdc.com