Badash Bakes

The laminated cinnamon roll sets the case

A cinnamon roll made with laminated dough is the signature here, so it comes out with croissant layers in a bun shape, flaky where a cinnamon roll is usually soft. It is the pastry that put the bakery on people's routes, and it is still the first thing the case is judged on. Everything else is scratch baked around it, in small enough numbers that the display changes through the morning.

The rest of the case runs wider than that one item: ube croissants, Earl Grey morning buns, miso brown butter cookies, vegan Pop-Tarts, cakes, cookies and seasonal bakes that rotate. The flavors pull classic technique against other pantries, purple yam in the croissant, tea aromatics in the morning bun, fermented miso folded into browned butter, which is what keeps the counter from reading as a single-hit bakery.

A counter in Old Pasadena

The room is a counter-service bakery with limited seating rather than a sit-down cafe. People queue, choose from what is in the case, order at the counter and take the box with them. That keeps the attention on the display: what is left, what has just come out, and which seasonal piece has appeared that day.

The founder opened after a soft-opening run in spring 2024, with the grand opening at the end of April, and it is one of the newer arrivals in a Pasadena pastry scene where dessert shops are now destinations of their own. It is a Black-owned neighborhood bakery serving the shops and restaurants of Old Pasadena, which means regulars through the week and a line at weekends. Saturdays bring the fullest case and the longest wait, so a weekday visit is the better chance at the whole range. The atmosphere is warm and unhurried, shaped by the founder's stated idea of baking with love.

Start with the cinnamon roll, then branch out

Order the laminated cinnamon roll if it is in the case. It is the clearest expression of the bakery's craft, layered dough, butter and cinnamon in a form that holds its structure. If the matcha version is out, that gives the same format a tea-flavored variation, and the Earl Grey morning bun is the other laminated piece worth queuing for.

Then take something with a different profile. The ube croissant brings purple yam into a classic croissant, the miso brown butter cookie is smaller, nuttier and half savory, and the vegan Pop-Tarts cover a plant-based order. Cakes, cookies and seasonal bakes fill out a case that is never quite the same twice. Two pastries is the right size of visit: one signature, and one thing you have not had before.