While variety is the spice of life, some visitors to your bakery are going to want tried and true comfort foods. They’ll skip the cronuts and breakfast cereal macarons and go straight to the classics. By stocking these essentials alongside your more avant-garde offerings, you’re sure to keep a smile on all your customer’s faces.

Cookies

The most popular variety is, of course, chocolate chip. They are followed closely by oatmeal raisin and peanut butter. Sugar cookies are also a crowd favorite and can be dressed up with fancy icing designs to mirror the season or approaching holidays.

Muffins

You’d think plain would win the award for crowd favorite, but blueberry “takes the cake” as the most popular muffin flavor in many bakeries. Other popular flavors are banana nut, a sweet and savory companion to a morning cup of coffee, zesty lemon poppy seed and warm chocolate chip.

Donuts

Apple cider donuts are standard in most bakery display cases during autumn months, but several varieties fly off the shelves year-round. Cream-filled donuts are the most popular variety, such as eclairs and Boston cream pies. Other favorites are plain glazed, such as crullers, icing-topped and jelly-filled.

Cupcakes

Not only do cupcakes offer your customers a quick dessert, but they also are good advertisements for your skills with larger cakes. Unlike other offerings, people like to keep things “vanilla” with cupcakes, as that tends to be the most popular flavor. Chocolate, red velvet and carrot cake are also frequently in high demand.

Other Staples

Whether or not you have an audience with Italian roots, cannoli and biscotti are coffee-house favorites. Coffee cakes and cinnamon rolls are a fixture of many Americans’ coffee or tea time. With these items, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. They tend to be universal, and too much deviation from the standard recipe tends to be a turn-off for customers.

Mastering the simple basics won’t just please your customers but can lead to more skilled innovation.