Ross Levanto makes his annual Christmas-Eve trek to Mike's Pastry and shares a hard-won tip:

... You need to feel the crowd and the lines, and look for a "soft spot" where the attendant-to-customer ratio is the highest. ...

Boston Foodie reports on the spoiled birthday cake and rude service she got when she tried to return the cake that, it turns out, had been left in a store refrigerator that had died the night before.