National Pastry Day

National Pastry Day timeline

1440

The Paris Pastry Guild

The Paris pastry guild recorded its first constitution.

1788

Puff Pastry Party

The first puff pastry is introduced to the world.

1850

Best Workers Strike ever

A bakery workers strike in Denmark caused owners to hire foreign workers, who brought along new pastry recipes such as the Danish.

2010

A Pastry in Time

The most detailed book on everything about pastries is published - Pastry: Webster's Timeline History, 1404 - 2007.

National Pastry Day FAQs

When is National Pastry Day?

National Pastry Day 2026 falls on Wednesday, December 9, offering a perfect mid-week excuse to indulge in your favorite baked goods.

What are the most popular types of pastries?

Globally, some of the most popular pastries include croissants, danishes, éclairs, tarts, and puff pastry creations. These often feature flaky doughs and sweet or savory fillings.

How many pastries are consumed annually?

While exact global figures are hard to pinpoint for ‘pastries’ specifically, the broader baked goods market is valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars, indicating massive consumption worldwide.

What is the difference between a pastry and a cake?

The primary difference lies in their structure and preparation. Pastries typically involve a dough made with flour, fat, and water, resulting in a flaky, crisp, or tender texture. Cakes, on the other hand, are usually made from a batter that bakes into a soft, spongy crumb.

National Pastry Day Activities

Go to your neighborhood bakery

No matter whether you live in a tiny, remote town or a huge city, we pretty much guarantee that you won’t have to travel too far to find a delicious bakery. Walk in, don’t you dare think about the word “calories,” and buy as many pastries as your heart desires. You’re supporting a local business, after all.

Watch cooking shows

Eat with your eyes and binge-watch a bunch of pastry baking shows. There’s the recent mega-hit “The Great British Bake Off,” or the singular-pastry-focused “Cupcake Wars.” If those aren’t enough to satiate you, try “Ace of Cakes,” “Top Chef: Just Desserts,” or one of our personal favorites: old YouTube footage of Julia Child.

Make pastry dough

We know it can be tempting to take a pastry shortcut and buy premade dough from the freezer aisle at the grocery store. But in honor of National Pastry Day, why not try your hand at making pastry dough entirely from scratch? It might not be easy, but it will be extremely rewarding. Plus you’ll get to channel your inner child and sneak bites of the unbaked dough. Set aside an afternoon, throw an apron on, and get to kneading. Just make sure you have plenty of butter on hand.

Mouthwatering Desserts That Will Have You Drooling

Bomboloni

It might sound like "bomb baloney," but the similarities end there. This vanilla cream-filled, sugar dusted delicacy is closer to a donut than anything else. I'll take 17.

Toasted-Marshmallow Butterscotch Pie

This isn't your ready-in-a-jiffy dessert. Decked out with chocolate, cream, brown sugar, and a WHOLE lot more, this one'll have jaws dropping.

Jam-Filled Cronut

Croissant? Donut? We don't even care. We'll go nuts for cronuts any day of the week.

Nutella Palmiers

Peanut butter might be more popular, but there's no convincing us that Nutella's not the best spread out there. When combined with pastry? Heaven.

Brookies

Hold up, croissants — there's another hybrid dessert on the block. After trying one of these gems, there was only one question: why didn't someone think of this sooner?

Caramel-Filled Chocolate Munchkins

In case the bombolonis were a bit vanilla for you, we've got something with even MORE decadence. Meet this majesty — they've probably got enough sugar to give an elephant a rush, but who's checking labels?

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

You're probably more familiar with this cupcake's cousin, the snickerdoodle cookie, but it's time to get to know the real star of the family. Snickerdoodle cupcakes are SURE to be a crowdpleaser.

Why We Love National Pastry Day

It gives you an excuse to indulge

Carbs, fat, and sugar: they're three things we love, but aren’t necessarily the healthiest foods to put in your body. But hey, if there’s only one day of the year where we get to celebrate all things pastry, bring on the donuts. And croissants. And eclairs. And fruit tarts.

It celebrates skill

In the culinary world, becoming a pastry chef is no cake walk (see what we did there?) It takes a ridiculous amount of professional training—baking is, after all, more of an exact science than cooking. There’s a lot of chemistry involved! It’s very easy to screw up a pastry if you don’t get the measurements or temperatures just right. The job also requires a lot of creativity to take the different kinds of pastry dough and make them into a vast variety of desserts. Pastry chefs don’t often get as much acclaim as regular chefs, so we’re glad we can take this holiday to applaud them.

It has a savory side

When we say the word “pastry,” we imagine your mind immediately jumps to dough-based sweets. But there are tons of delicious savory pastries out there, too. Think quiches, vegetable tarts, biscuits, and popovers. Yes, that does mean that you can celebrate this holiday by having a pastry for your main course and a pastry for dessert. We won’t tell.