Farina is a Sweet Treat for Bakery Fiends at The Crib

Good news for sweet-tooth Beijingers: Farina Bakery is a solid destination for slacking off on your New Year diet. How can you worry about tightening your post-Spring Festival waistline when this recently opened kiosk at Xingfucun food court The Crib is serving up tempting cakes, cookies, and pastries?

Read: An Update on Chunxiu Lu Food Court and Culinary Incubator The Crib

On a recent visit, we tried an RMB 28 slice of their sweet glazed lemon cake, which strikes the right balance between fluffy and firm. That might seem minor, but I've had one too many crumbly, dry hunk of junk cakes in Beijing. Fortunately, Farina gets it right. The tart drop of lemon cream on top was only a tease, however, and the cake itself wasn't quite as citrusy as I would've liked.

Aside from the lemon cake, Farina’s decent selection also includes chocolate chip cookies (RMB 15 for white or RMB 18 for dark), vanilla-icing smothered carrot cake (RMB 28 per slice), brownies, bread, and more.

Most memorable of all: their “healthy snack” cookies, which are made with a creative combination of shredded carrots, a cereal mix comprised of rye, wheat, and barley, and a splash of maple syrup for sweetness. While you may not be able to have your cake and eat it too, you can at least try one of these somewhat healthier maple/cereal cookies to get your dessert fix (while mitigating your post-CNY guilt).

Read: Beijing Bids Farewell to Beloved "Big Bear" Baker Jonathan Ellis

All in all, Farina makes for a very welcome addition to Beijing’s snack scene. That's especially true given the number of sweets purveyors we’ve lost in recent years, from Gertz (which is closing temporarily to relocate to the 1949 Hidden Courtyard), Sweet Tooth, Big Bear to Rager Pie (reopened as Hutong’er Pie before closing once again). But thanks to Farina and neighbors like There Will Be Bread and Comptoirs de France, diehard Beijing dessert fans still have reason to smile.

Farina Bakery
Daily 10am-10pm. 1/F, The Crib, 1 Gongti Beilu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区工体北路1号

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Photos courtesy of Farina Bakery