Sweet Surrender: A Suite of Sweet Bakery Visits in NYC

Have you ever wondered what a professional baker eats when they're not sampling their own goods?

Well, last month while hanging out with one of my favorite bakers in the world, Matt Lewis (co-owner of Baked in Brooklyn and Charleston, SC--as well as co-author of the best cookbooks of 2008, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking and multiple magazine articles--as well as known cupcake defender), I got to find out when we toured a small sampling of some sweet shops in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

First, we hit up Sweet Revenge in Manhattan to taste-test their namesake cupcake, the Sweet Revenge (pictured above), which is comprised of peanut butter cake, ganache filling and peanut butter buttercream. Now, a cupcake with a description which includes "butter" three times in addition to ganache might sound like too much, but really, it's just enough. It was very sweet, but the slight saltiness of ground peanuts on top really added a nice complement and we had no problem devouring it. For visitors later on in the day (or those who are feeling particularly decadent in the daytime) Sweet Revenge is also offers cupcake and wine/beer pairings too.

Next it was over to Brooklyn, where we first hit up the adorable Almondine where I scored some macarons from their gorgeous bakery case, but not before cooing over every single item in the case and hearing some very good things about their bread.

The macarons had that truly ethereal Frenchie way about them: slightly crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, with divinely rich filling; the standout for this little Cake Gumshoe was mos' def the pistachio.

After enjoying the view a bit it was across the street to the Jacques Torres shop and factory, where we not only got a free sample from the newly opened ice cream shop (more decadent peanut buttery goodness!), but also got a behind-the-scenes tour of the chocolatemaking area. Now, you definitely don't need to be told that this is an awesome thing to experience. My only regret is not picking up some of those awesome chocolate-covered cheerios.

After some walking and talking about sweets we split ways (me off to more bakeries, Matt off to continue writing and baking up some brilliant masterpieces), but oh, what a sweet afternoon it was.

Places Mentioned:

Baked, locations in Brooklyn, NY and Charleston, SC; for information, visit bakednyc.com;

Sweet Revenge, 62 Carmine Street, NYC (212)242-2240; online at sweetrevengenyc.com;

Almondine, 85 Water Street, Brooklyn (718)797-5026; online at almondinebakery.com;

Jacques Torres, multiple locations (we went to the DUMBO one); online at mrchocolate.com.

Under My Thumb: A Loving Look at the Vegan Thumbprint Cookie

Can we talk about vegan thumbprint cookies for a moment?

These nubbly little jam-filled treats are a very popular vegan choice in Seattle (possibly beyond?). They've been available at Flying Apron (and since they wholesale, also at coffee shops and grocery stores which carry their pastries too) for years, but now there are several other shops and bakeries which also carry variations on this vegan cookie. What accounts for this cookie's popularity in vegan form, though?

Well, for one thing, they're an easy cookie to veganize without sacrificing any flavor. Though many classic recipes for thumbprint cookies include butter, many also use oil; so really, in some cases these cookies are inherently vegan. And to speak specifically to their popularity in the Northwest, they're a dense, oaty cookie, and Seattleites do tend to love those vaguely healthy tasting, granola-y treats.

For me, these cookies have been sort of a gateway drug into the world of vegan confectionery: they're dense and chewy and oaty; sweet but not cloying--the perfect type of cookie to eat for breakfast. Here is just a sampling of some that I've known and loved around town: 

The vegan thumbprints at Zoka Coffee are generously sized, generously dolloped with jam (apricot and I believe raspberry), and are wonderfully nutty.

The thumbprints at Flying Apron bakery (not pictured) are not only vegan but gluten-free too; they are made with a mixture of rice and garbanzo flour which gives them a nice flavor complexity; they're finished with a sweet apricot jam.

The vegan thumbprint cookies at Whole Foods in Seattle are wonderfully spiced and have a nice, slightly crunchy oaty texture. 

The vegan thumbprints at PCC in Seattle are the chewiest of the lot, but plenty dense and flavorful--I especially love these ones for breakfast.

Want to make your own vegan thumbprint cookies? Here are just a few good-looking recipes online:

• Altered Plates makes a gorgeously dense-looking version;
• The Whole Foods website has a recipe for the ones mentioned above;
• On About.com, vegan thumbprints get their buttery taste from cashews;
• Sweet Beet and Green Bean has an extra-nutty version;
• Aprovechar has a gluten-free, soy-free, egg-free version (yes, there are ingredients left after all that!) which looks amazing.
• Everybody Likes Sandwiches has a delectable-looking chocolate version.

Do you have a great recipe to share or know of a good spot for vegan thumbprints not mentioned here? Leave a comment!

CakeSpy Undercover: A Cake Gumshoe's Thoughts on Indulge Cupcakes in Puyallup, WA

CakeSpy Note: This is a guest blog post from Cake Gumshoe Roxanne Cooke. Check out her website here!

Live life one cupcake at a time.
Keep calm and have a cupcake.
Are you checking out my cupcake?

Inside Indulge Cupcakes in Puyallup, you’ll find a variety of cupcake sayings, as well as a variety of cupcake flavors. Indulging here is simple.

The bakers at Indulge have the classics covered: vanilla with chocolate or vanilla buttercream, chocolate with vanilla or chocolate buttercream, and red velvet with vanilla buttercream.

Indulge also offers chocolate chip mint, lemon with lemon cream cheese frosting, cinnamon swirl, caramel macchiato, and orange dreamsicle. The lemon and orange dreamsicle cupcakes have freshly squeezed juice in their batters.

The shop sells a few specialty cupcakes, including carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, coconut with coconut buttercream, cherry chip, and strawberry shortcake.
Regular cupcakes cost $2.80 and specialty cupcakes are $3.75. The rest of the menu is devoted to drinks: espresso, tea, and smoothies. There’s a shelf full of cupcake-themed items, including cards and cupcake-shaped ceramic containers. Indulge also rents its space for events, such as baby showers.

On two separate occasions in June, I visited the downtown Puyallup shop with a friend. On our first visit, it was near closing time, and we ordered the chocolate chip mint and red velvet. Both were a bit dry, but we chalked this up to the late hour. The frosting, while beautifully done, was a bit sugary for our taste buds.

Before leaving, I bought a cherry chip cupcake to go and kept it in my fridge for a few days before tasting it. The cupcake was yellow on the outside and pink on the inside. It was moist and sweet, but not overpowering.

On our second visit, we arrived early in the day and tried the caramel macchiato and carrot cake cupcakes. The caramel macchiato (pictured directly above), featuring a coffee bean on top and caramel syrup swirled over the frosting, had a delicious coffee flavor, but the frosting was still on the too-sweet side. The carrot cake (pictured below), now my favorite at Indulge, was just about perfect. The ratio of cake to frosting was more manageable, the frosting felt smoother and tasted less sugary, and the cake was rich, moist, and flavorful. Plus, it’s just cute!

I’ll definitely be going back to Indulge Cupcakes to try their other cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and to see what other specials they come up with. The people running the shop are always friendly, there’s interesting art on the walls, and their beautiful cupcake creations are fun to try.

Indulge Cupcakes, 207 N. Meridian, Puyallup, 253-904-8234; online at indulgecupcakes.com. For more of Roxanne Cooke's work, check out her website here.

Do you want to be a Cake Gumshoe too? Feel free to submit bakery reviews or great baked good related finds (with pictures, please) to jessieoleson@gmail.com.

Snap, Crackle and Pop Rocks: Explosively Delicious Fourth of July Cookies

Sure, you can make red, white and blue treats for the 4th of July. But how can you really American 'em up for the holiday?

You need to add explosions.

Like a summer blockbuster movie, these cookies are chock full of explosions: they're both infused and garnished liberally with Pop Rocks. This not only makes them crackle like fireworks but also pays homage to that other all-consuming american obsession: truly trashy candy (and I say this in the most loving way possible).

So--are you ready to make your fourth of July extreme?

Here's how you do it.

Pop Rocks Sugar Cookies (based on this recipe from the King Arthur Flour site)

1/2 cup (3 1/4 ounces) butter
2/3 cup (4 3/4 ounces) sugar
1/4 cup (2 ounces) buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, to taste
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar till smooth. Add the buttermilk and vanilla, again beating till well-combined. The mixture may look a bit curdled; that's OK.

Add the nutmeg, flour, baking soda and salt to the wet ingredients, and beat until the mixture forms a cohesive dough.

Divide into three parts, mixing one part with blue food coloring (a lot!), one part with red (also a lot) and leave one part plain. This way, you can have a mix of red, white and blue.

At this point, you'll want to break into those Pop Rocks. I put a nice little handful of red (strawberry) and blue (raspberry) into the corresponding balls of dough (you could do a mix in the white dough).

Drop the dough in round blobs onto a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet. They should be a bit bigger than a ping-pong ball, a bit smaller than a golf ball. Using a cookie scoop (or, if you have one, a small ice cream scoop, one that will hold about 2 level tablespoons of liquid) makes this task extremely simple. Leave about 2 inches between the dough balls, as they'll spread as they bake.

Bake the cookies in a preheated 350°F oven for about 12-14 minutes, or when they are just starting to brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack. While you're waiting for them to cool, you'll want to take a small bowl and mix the leftover pop rocks with whatever red, white and blue sprinkles you've got around. Once cool, either top with a generous dollop of frosting (I used cream cheese, below) or put a dollop between two cookies for a sandwich. If you've just frosted the top of the cookie, apply sprinkle mixture to the top or dip it into the bowl if the frosting consistency allows for it; for the sandwiches, you can dip the sides in the bowl so that they pick up the sprinkle mixture.

Cream Cheese Frosting (from Slashfood)

Beat 8 oz. cold cream cheese (not rock solid, but it means you can use it straight out of the refrigerator) with 5 Tbsp. softened butter and 2 tsp. vanilla until combined. Gradually add 2 c. powdered sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your taste.

Sprinkle mixture

I used two half-pouches of Pop Rocks (what was left after I folded some into the dough) and a mix of some other red, white and blue sprinkles I happened to have around.

Mmm, tastes like America.

Sweet Art: Shaky for Illustration Friday

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Shaky, which got me thinking about the strained relationships between other baked goods and trendy cupcakes. How do other sweets feel about the little cakes' popularity?

Could Cuppie be on shaky ground with these tough cookies?

Update: Reader Response! Meaghan of The Decorated Cookie and Edible Crafts has made a sweet commentary on the issue of cupcakes' popularity! Read about it here.

Cake Poll: Baking Vs. Eating Preferences

It's July, and high time for a sweet giveaway! This time, Carolyn's Kitchen, a very cool company which designs retro-inspired aprons and kitchen accessories, has kindly donated one of their fashionable aqua cupcake aprons (retail value $42!) for the giveaway. I hope I don't need to tell you that this is a totally awesome prize.

How do you put your name in the running? It's easy. Just satisfy my curiosity about sweet preferences. Is what you like to bake the same as what you like to eat? Or are they different? Just answer the following in the comments section below and you'll be entered in the running!

*Please note this giveaway is only open to US Residents. The Cake Poll will close on Monday, July 6 at 12 p.m. PST, and the winner will be contacted for their size/address/info shortly thereafter. If you'd like to shop at Carolyn's Kitchen in the meantime, click here!

• What is your favorite baked good or dessert to make?
• What is your favorite baked good or dessert to eat?

Good luck!

CAKE POLL UPDATE: WE HAVE A WINNER! Christina of the lovely and amazing blog She Runs, She Eats was chosen at random from over 350 entrants (between emailed responses and comments). Thank you to everyone who entered!

Berry Delicious: Cupcake Royale Debuts the Strawberry 66 for July!

Let's get excited about Cupcake Royale. Why? Well, beyond the obvious (they are a shop that sells cupcakes), here are two very exciting reasons this month:

#1: Their new flavor for July, the Strawberry 66. Why 66? Well, it's made with 66% local ingredients. That is no small feat! So not only is it sweet, it's a great way to support local farmers and vendors. Here's their description:

Sweet and summery strawberry buttercream swirled atop our delicious, NEW More Moisty-er! vanilla buttercake. Made with strawberries from Skagit Sun Farms, eggs and dairy from Meadowsweet, and flour from Shepherd's Grain, this cupcake is 66% Washingtonian! It's like an old-fashioned strawberry shortcake. Only better.

#2: Their long-awaited Capitol Hill location is set to open this month! Also per their newsletter:

You've waited, anticipated, and salivated. Now, the wait is over. The cupcakes are coming to Capitol Hill. We open this month at 1111 E Pike, just in time for Block Party! Watch our blog for updates. And we'll see you on the Hill!

Looks like this summer is going to be totally sweet!

To obtain one of those delicious Strawberry 66 cupcakes, you can visit any of the three (soon to be four!) Cupcake Royale locations all July long; for more information, visit cupcakeroyale.com; for instant updates, follow them on Twitter!

Cake Byte: Threadcakes Contest!

When awesome t-shirt designs meet cake, the result is awesome deliciousness!

Yup: it's time for the second Annual Threadcakes Amazing Cake Contest, in which you can enter a cake design inspired by an awesome Threadless tee, and you might just win some amazing prizes!

It's bound to be good, what with judges from the Ace of Cakes, Baking Bites,  Bake or Break and Cake Journal (just to name a few!).

For full details and to enter, visit their official entry page!

Cake Byte: Layer Cake Shop Opens!

Update: Based on reader responses to this post I have followed up here--please weigh in!

It's a funny thing about baking supply shops. They always feel so cramped and dark to me--rarely do they seem as bright and happy as the cakes the supplies are used to make.

So it was a delightful surprise to receive an email announcing a new online retailer, Layer Cake Shop, which specializes in all manner of supplies for making sweets, from specialty cupcake cups to cookie cutters; a dazzling spectrum of food colorings and sprinkles and other decorations; they even have a respectable selection of packaging supplies, and even cute little DIY kits which make great gifts. Everything is beautifully and brightly displayed in this online boutique; it's definitely one to bookmark.

Yup: the internet just got even sweeter!

Layer Cake Shop, online at layercakeshop.com.

Update: Based on reader responses to this post I have followed up here--please weigh in!