Pastry shops in Addis Ababa

Where the cake houses are

Bole has the biggest group, ahead of Olympia, Lancha & Kera and the streets around Meskel Square. Bilo's Pastry has a branch with outdoor tables on Cape Verde Street in Bole and another in Olympia. Münch German Bakery is at Cameroon Street 221, and Wikivoyage describes Cupcake Delights Bakery as a café for cupcakes, cakes, juices and coffee.²

Near Meskel Square are La Patisserie and Sweet Pastry & Café. In Piassa, Gâteau Café is on Churchill Avenue. In Merkato, the sign of በላይ ተክሉ ኬክ ቤት (Belay Teklu Cake House) on Burundi Street spells out the trade, and Donut Stop covers the Mexico and Sar Bet side of town.

Fasting days and vegan baking

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 250 fasting days, 180 of them obligatory for lay people. They include Wednesdays and Fridays outside the 50 days after Easter, and Great Lent, which lasts 55 days.⁵ The faithful avoid all animal products while fasting, dairy and eggs included, which is why Ethiopian cooking has so many vegan dishes.³ The 40-day Advent fast is stricter still, with only one vegan meal a day.⁵

Butter, milk and eggs are what most cakes are made of, so look for bakers who work without them. CaffeOl in Kera makes a vegan croissant without butter, and Moyee's Bole Medhanialem café pours a tsom macchiato with creamer in place of milk.⁶

Hours, chains and what to drink with cake

Dido Café, a bakery-café in Kera, keeps the earliest hours: 06:45 to 15:00 every day. Gâteau Café in Piassa runs from 07:00 to 20:00, late enough for an evening slice. If a shop gives its hours in Amharic, they may follow the Ethiopian clock, which counts from dawn, so 1 o'clock means 07:00.⁷ Where a cake counter also cooks breakfast, look for fatira, a large fried pancake often layered with egg and eaten with honey.³

Kaldi's Coffee, which Wikivoyage likens to Starbucks and credits with 22 locations around the city, serves cakes and pastries with cappuccinos and mochas in modern sit-down rooms.²⁸

If you can't choose between coffee and tea, order a spris: it combines the two and usually arrives with a heaped spoonful of sugar.⁹ For an order without caffeine, some cake cafés also serve fruit juice.²