’Tis the season when strange cakes in boxes appear at your local

’Tis the season when strange cakes in boxes appear at your local grocery store. Often they are a rendition of panettone, an Italian brioche cake with raisins, and often they are best left in those boxes. Grand Central Bakery, however, bakes its own panettone for the holidays; it arrived this week and will be available until December 24. The vanilla-scented bread ($13.75) is studded with raisins and—in one of those great touches the bakery is famous for—house-candied organic citrus peel. These cakes, about half the size of those in a box, come wrapped in Grand Central packaging with a dark-green holiday ribbon, making them a lovely gift to take to a party. Or just dunk a slice into your morning coffee. GCB even has a video on their website, grandcentralbakery.com, documenting the baking of them in case you’re interested.