Now presenting reviews of my favorite thing to eat: Sweets. (In case you hadn’t figured that out already.)

NAME: Pinkberry (website)

LOCATION: 635 N. State

WHAT I ORDERED:  Small salted caramel frozen yogurt, topped with caramel sauce, crepe crispies and waffle cookies

EXPENSE: $5.46 (after tax)

NOTES: Several weeks ago, I read about a magical concoction called salted caramel frozen yogurt. I tried not to think about it. But I couldn’t shake the idea of cold, sweet frozen yogurt, flavored with salted caramel. So one night after work, I waded through humid summer sidewalks to Pinkberry. The line inside moved quickly, and the employees were super friendly.

That’s all beside the point. Let’s discuss the amazing deliciousness that is salted caramel fro-yo. I don’t know if it was the yogurt alone, or the combo of the sauce and crisp toppings, but I have one word, and three letters: y-u-m. Was it salty? Not outright. The idea of salted caramel is that a hint of salt draws out the sweetness of the caramel, and that’s certainly the case here.

The real question: Is this worth $5 (for a small, to boot)? I say this is an indulgence you should try at least once in your life. The bad news for you? They’ve changed their seasonal flavor to PB+J. I would give salted caramel fro-yo two thumbs up, but my hands are busy typing this review and wiping drool off my chin.

Now presenting reviews of my favorite thing to eat: Sweets. (In case you hadn’t figured that out already.) For my first excursion, I kept it hyper-local and visited a place just up the street. I hadn’t been in for at least a couple years, so it was pretty much a new experience.

NAME: Sweet Cakes Bakery (website & yelp)

LOCATION: 901 N. Damen

WHAT WE ORDERED:  Medium coffee/rhubarb pie a la mode mini-cupcake/spinach and mushroom quiche (me) & large coffee/cinnamon roll/mango-something mini-cupcake (the Hubbs)

EXPENSE: $16

NOTES: I didn’t intend to have a mini-cupcake for breakfast. I was going to have a nice, well-rounded, seated-at-a-table brunch, but our restaurant of choice had a 30-minute wait. And we were hungry. For you, dear reader, I sacrificed a few inches of waistline and started my Sunday with baked goods.

I decided quiche was an acceptable, hearty breakfast choice. They warmed it up for me in the kitchen, which is viewable from a big, street-front window on Damen. The egg part of the quiche was downright custard-y in texture — super soft and much “looser” than what I’m used to making it home. The vegetables had great flavor though, and the crust — oh, the crust. Firm, but just enough give. It supported all the right places. REAL crust. My mom may be right. I might need to start making my own pie crusts. Sigh.

But now let’s talk about the real reason we visited a bakery for breakfast: Rhubarb pie a la mode mini-cupcake. Frosting = divine. Cupcake = delicious. I might have snuck a couple bites of the Hubbs’ cinnamon roll (in the name of science). This was a cinnamon roll that had a light syrupy glaze on top, instead of the cloying, gluttonous globs of cream cheese frosting that some places use. This was a cinnamon roll in which you could taste the flavor of the dough, see the texture of the crumb and the lovely golden-brown color. (The Hubbs says he prefers his cinnamon rolls “on the sweet side,” thus this was not his cup of, er, cinnamon.)

What he DID like, though, was “the mango thing.” He is a man who would happily eat cupcakes for breakfast every day. Clearly we’re a good match.