The success and popularity of cheesecake is largely due to the fact that cheesecakes are soft enough to also be used as pillows. For $12, today's Groupon gets you a hearty six-pack of individual cheesecakes at The Confectional in Pike Place Market (a $22.50 value). The dense cheesecake morsels are picked from cheesecake trees and contain the accumulated baked goodness of decadent flavors.

The Confectional is a walk-in cheesecakery where freshly prepared daily creations fight for attention beneath an ogle-proof glass display case. Equal measures of sweet ingredients, like crusts made with Maria biscuits from Spain and cage-free eggs, and soulful love go into every cheesecake batter, creating a craveable arsenal of signature flavors. Choose a half dozen of any of the individual-serving-sized cheesecakes ($22.50 value) with the likes of caramel, coconut cherry with local Chukar cherries, Kahlua white chocolate, mochaccino infused with real Columbian coffee, the strawberry-raspberry-blueberry hybrid triple berry, quadruple chocolate, and more. A moist and crumbly round of cheesy dessert gems brings culinary sunshine, exciting the hungry food-holes of friends and family who return home after a long and tiring day of not eating enough cheesecake.

Reviews

King 5 News named The Confectional Best Dessert of Western Washington in 2008:

• Head to The Confectional for some decadent desserts to die for. – King 5 News

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer spotlights The Confectional cheesecakes' top-notch ingredients:

• The Confectional gained a popular audience in Wellington, then Verano returned to the Northwest a year ago for family reasons and set out to open a Seattle spot specializing in ingredients that are as natural as he can get. Verano said he uses biscuits from Spain for his cheesecake crusts, rather than graham crackers with hydrogenated oils. Eggs are from cage-free hens, and most flavors are natural -- an exception being the Creamsicle, for which he uses a natural orange plus artificial reinforcement. – Rebekah Denn

Three Cityseachers give The Confectional 4.5 stars, and more than 100 Yelpers rate it five stars:

• Indeed, they are such cute little sweet desserts. The Confectional is truly a place for people to indulge on their sweet side by bringing a little cheesecake home to snack on. I was at Pike Place Market, and walked into the bakery as I was tempted by the aroma of sweetness and the look of tiny round cakes. I suggest you try the Seattle style New York Cheesecake! So amazing. The crust at the bottom is also filled with texture when you bit [sic] down into it. – fdawn1, Citysearch