Pop Quiz: you're in Kansas City, MO and hankering for a sweet treat. Where to go?

Pryde's Old Westport, of course. This was Cake Gumshoe MJ's latest discovery on a recent trip to Kansas City (which has the unusual tagline of "Make It a Good Place to Live In"). The bakery had looked intriguing during online research before the trip, and happily it was just as good in person. Based in the Westport section of town, this is not merely a bake shop: it is a three-story emporium of kitchen and garden goods, with an in-house bakery called The Upper Crust, which is open Friday and Saturday 10am-6pm.

So what's on show at The Upper Crust? Pies of all sorts, including fruit (apple, French apple, blueberry, blackberry, bumbleberry, cherry, crimson appleberry, gooseberry, peach, rhubarb, strawberry rhubarb), cream (banana cream/meringue, chocolate cream/meringue, coconut cream/meringue, lemon meringue, key lime, pumpkin, sour cream raisin, peanut butter) and nutty (cranberry pecan, chocolate pecan, mince, pecan, pumpkin pecan, german chocolate) varieties, including small "cutie pies" in the $7-8 price range and full size pies from $19-$22.

Our Cake Gumshoe sampled the bumbleberry and gooseberry pies, and reported that both were pretty perfect.

And though the pies are certainly the star of the show, they also carry cookies which range from $1.95 - $2.25, including Breakfast cookies, chewy oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, decandent chocolate, frosted banana, shorbread, molasses crinkle, lemon sugar, peanut butter, coconut macaroon.

MJ bravely sampled the cookies in addition to the pie (anything for the sake of research!); her favorites were the chewy oatmeal raising and frosted banana.

In fact, the only regret that MJ had was that on the last day of her trip she went back, but alas The Upper Crust was closed. Which just goes to show--while there's noplace like home, Pryde's will certainly make you feel welcome in Kansas City.

The Upper Crust at Pryde's Old Westport is located at 115 Westport Rd, Kansas City, MO; phone: 816.531.5588; online at prydeskitchen.com.