Best dessert places to score sweets in New York City 2012

Dominique Ansel, the haute wunderkind formerly behind Daniel’s four-star desserts, delivers sugary delights like pastel meringue kisses; bright, airy macarons; and chocolate-slicked éclairs at this stunning bakery. But his exotic offerings are the most memorable. Ansel's DKA is a caramelized, flaky take on the Breton specialty kouign amann. And his cotton-soft mini cheesecake, an ethereally light gâteau with a brûléed top, leaves the dense old–New York classic sputtering in its dust.

Andrew Carmellini's seductive, family-style Italian fare is the main event at this Tribeca hotspot. But don't forget about dessert. Karen DeMasco, one of the city’s most acclaimed pastry chefs, is a maestro at perfecting treats at once homey and over-the-top. The seven-year vet of Tom Colicchio's Craft empire, James Beard Award winner and cookbook author raids the savory pantry, using ingredients such as extra-virgin olive oil and the sherrylike white balsamic vinegar to add flavorful, aromatic accents to cakes, ice creams and sauces.

The Provence-born Jacques Torres cut his teeth constructing cheeky, baroque French desserts at Le Cirque in the '90s (his famous "chocolate stove" featured a cake served inside an edible chocolate oven). These days he juggles a gig as dean of pastry studies at the French Culinary Institute and a cocoa empire that includes several stores throughout New York City. Whimsical chocolates by the piece are his specialty: from compact, meticulously decorated bonbons to Cheerios enrobed in milk chocolate. If you’d rather sip your chocolate than munch on it, indulge in the famously suave, rich hot chocolate.