Food Recipes:Delicious and Fun

Okay not really wars, there were no battle lines drawn, no bombs dropped and no deaths. In fact its more like accidental cupcake comparisons. I actually didn’t plan on eating any cupcakes in NYC, I had other things on my mind. Over the trip I actually ate 4, maybe my sub conscious just desires cupcakes maybe I am powerless to resist. After not planning on eating any, I had my first after not being in the city for a full 2 hours, even before I got to my hotel. 

I was walking through the East Village on the way to my hotel when I noticed Butter Lane cupcakes and I remembered a post somewhere (Blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com ?) about their Banana Cream Cheese Cupcake. I dragged myself across the street with my suitcase in tow and bought one. It was beautiful, really well flavoured frosting and a spongy light cake (no picture as I was packed up still). My second cupcake came from the super (over?) hyped Magnolia after a visit to “Top of The Rock”. When I walked passed I thought why not see what the fuss was about. Sorry magnolia fans but I really disliked it. I got Chocolate Vanilla but the cake was dry and pretty tasteless. I know many are not fans of the frosting but I didn’t mind it too much, but in the end though I wouldn’t recommend Magnolia. 

Readers of the site (is there any regulars?) will know my love of the “Baked” cookbook so I had to pay a visit to Redhook in Brooklyn. I had really wanted to try the famous Sweet and Salty cake but they had none in, so I tried the cupcake version (pic at top). The cake was great very chocolately and moist with a little dollop of caramel in the top. Something seemed a bit off with the frosting though, it was unbelievably soft which actually made it a little difficult to eat. I can only assume that the heat we had that day (I think it hit at least 30c) softened it a bit and im going to give them the benefit of the doubt. You do however get an amazing view of the city if you take the free Ikea ferry

The final cupcake came at the end of a long day spent in Brighton Beach with Robyn of seriouseats.com where we had Uyghur Food (post soon). We came back into Manhattan and got gelato from L’arte De Gelato (YUM) and a cupcake from Sweet Revenge. We got the “Dirty” chocolate cupcake but as its been two weeks since I ate it I actually cant remember what the cake tasted like but the frosting was a really strong fudgy chocolate that reminded me (in a good way) of a Betty Crocker fudge frosting I remember from childhood. Of the four I ate my definite favourite was the Banana Cream Cheese from Butter Lane, but apart from magnolia none were bad and I would happily eat the others again so im declaring a ceasefire.