A & E

Expect a line but not a long wait at Paddy Cake Bakery, where checking out the dozens of pastries under glass counters takes a little time anyway.

Founded 25 years ago by Patrick Connolly, the bakery is on the strip of Liberty Avenue between the Bloomfield Bridge and Baum Boulevard -- home to many excellent eating establishments.

The most snackable products are doughnuts and cookies, but there are many varieties of French pastries and cakes to round off a meal.

"We're most famous for our wedding cakes and doughnuts," says Gina Sauers, manager of the shop and one of five employees who serve the public.

The doughnuts (75 cents plain, 95 cents filled, $7 an assorted dozen) are larger than commonly found, and made fresh daily. Toppings are sugar, glazed and iced, and fillings include custard, butter cream, jelly, apple, cherry and apricot.

Specialty doughnuts, such as apple fritters and cinnamon swirls, are $1.09, but can comprise as much as half of an order of a dozen donuts.

The trays of cookies take up two counters in the store. Pumpkin cookies are one of the basic options (69 cents, $4.99 a dozen). Holiday cookie trays are available in two-dozen ($11.95), three-dozen ($17.95) and larger orders, up to 10 dozen ($55.95).

But if you're a sweets fancier for whom "nothing succeeds like excess," consider the filled cookies, such as the double chocolate chip with a filling of chocolate butter cream ($1.19). The double peanut butter with chocolate filling is drizzled with chocolate.

"French pastries are like single slices of cake," Sauers says, but some of Paddy Cake's French pastries stretch the notion of "single serving." Gems ($2.99) are rectangular pieces of chocolate cake topped with three gobs of white butter cream and completely covered with chocolate fondant. Mini pies ($2.99) include fruit flavors such as American-style apple or Dutch Apple, and mini-meringue.

All the cakes on display are "made fresh and never frozen," Sauers says. "Our frosting is whippy-smooth butter cream."

Round cakes come in 7- to 12-inch sizes ($16.50 and $37, respectively) made from white, yellow, chocolate or half-and-half batter. Fillings add $4 to $8, depending on the size of the cake.

Sheet cakes, made from white, yellow, chocolate, marble or half-and-half batter, are $22 for a quarter sheet, $58 for a full sheet.

Wedding cakes are the big productions at any bakery. A two-layer cake serving 40 ($90) is the smallest at Paddy Cake. The biggest is a five-layer behemoth ($625), building up from an 18-inch-diameter base to a seven-inch top story, which serves 325 people.

Paddy Cake makes about 500 wedding cakes a year. Sauers laughs when asked how many doughnuts the shop makes a year. "You've got to be kidding -- thousands!"

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