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30 August 2012

Our favourite baker Jordan Rondel, takes us on her sweet journey through New York City’s best cake shops.

New York is amongst my top three favourite cities in the world. I visit once a year to take a break from my busy job and to renew my love for what I do, bake cakes. This time I’m here for a month with my boyfriend Stefan who is a tattoo artist, so while he’s off doing tattoo related things, I wander around visiting bakeries, eating cake, taking photos and just generally lapping up everything New York has to offer.

Here are my top 5 favourite bakeries in NYC:

1. Babycakes
48 Broome Street (b/w Orchard & Ludlow), Lower East Side
BabyCakes is a vegan bakery, which offers all-natural, organic and delicious cakes and cupcakes. I like that they use alternatives to refined white sugar and flour, such as agave and spelt; this is what I’m all about in my own baking. I bought a carrot cupcake which tasted wholesome and was just sweet enough to cure my afternoon tea sugar craving. The setting at Baby Cakes is unfussy and comfortable, plus it smells incredible when you walk in.
www.babycakesnyc.com

2. Billy’s Bakery
268 Elizabeth Street
(b/w Prince & Houston), NoLita
Billy’s is a super cute bakery offering treats your grandmother would make; it’s a sunny little spot with cabinets full of temptation. The cupcake selection is impressive with flavours such as maple pecan, mint chocolate and chai, but I was more drawn to the mini cheesecakes. They also make seasonal pies, cookies, bars and pretty pastel coloured layer cakes decorated with daisies.
www.billysbakerynyc.com

3. Little Cupcake Bakeshop
30 Prince Street, Nolita
This place might not have the most original name, but the cakes they offer are pretty spectacular. They specialise in making traditional American desserts, using sustainable, local and seasonal ingredients, and I like that. The kitchen where they bake everything daily in small batches is located street front, so you can peer in and watch the bakers creating treats like blue velvet cupcakes, strawberry rhubarb pie, lucky charms cereal ice cream and peanut butter jelly cake.
www.littlecupcakebakeshop.com

4. Pasticceria – Eataly
200 5th Avenue, Flat Iron District
Not technically a bakery, but the patisserie selection at Eataly is so impressive that I had to include it in my list. With Italian pastry chef Luca Montersino at the helm, they make the most dainty, beautiful treats I’ve seen outside of Paris. At Eataly they use nothing but the best quality ingredients, which means it’s a little pricey, but definitely worth it. I bought one of my favourite pastries, a canelé. With its soft custard center and a dark, thick caramelized crust, it was simply faultless.
www.eatalyny.com

5. Momofuku Milk Bar
382 Metropolitan Ave at Havemeyer, Brooklyn
Dave Chang’s Milk Bar is pretty legendary in NY. Their concept is to do spin offs of childhood dessert fantasies like candy bars and birthday cake, which I think is ingenious. Foodies rave about the cereal milk, which is supposed to recreate the sugary sweet milk that’s left at the bottom of the bowl when you were finished with your sugar laden cereal. The ‘crack pie’ is another must try – with its toasted oat crust and gooey butter filling, it’s delicious.
www.milkbarstore.com