Cupcake City: A Sweet Visit to New York Cupcakes in Bellevue, WA

The first CakeSpy visit to New York Cupcakes in Westlake Center in Seattle was not a sweet one. The display case was kind of sad, the employee was texting the entire time, and the cupcakes themselves were...well, kind of a bummer.

But since then something magical happened: they changed ownership (incidentally, location too), and the transformation is dramatic.

I was lucky enough to visit the revamped New York Cupcakes today with my friend Carrie (proprietress of Bella Cupcake Couture, a CakeSpy sponsor and all around cool company!), and I have to say, I was very impressed. Walking in to the shop, the warmth strikes you immediately: decorated with cute artwork by Everyday is a Holiday and bright pink walls and a classic checkerboard floors, you immediately sense that this is a happy place.

But rarely are sweet shops able to coast on good looks alone, so how about those cupcakes?

We picked up five just to be sure:

The "Manhattan Margarita" (pictured top);

The "Grand Central S'more";

The "Boston Cream Cutie Pie";

and a mini "Royal Red Velvet" (also pictured top) for good measure.

What can I say other than that I was very, very impressed? The cake was perfectly moist, with a perfectly tender crumb--especially on the vanilla cake. The texture was light-ish, but assertively buttery enough to make its presence known. The frosting too was quite buttery, but whipped so expertly that it practically seemed to melt in your mouth. The Margarita Cupcake in particular impressed me, with a touch of tart lime flavor beautifully balanced by a rich, buttery and just ever-so-slightly salty buttercream. I did not want this cupcake to end.

The verdict? In my mind, New York Cupcakes has not only redeemed itself, but I'd now consider it a worthy destination.

New York Cupcakes, 15600 N.E.8th Ste. A-4 Bellevue, WA, 425.283.5445; online at newyorkcupcakes.com.

Last Seduction: Chocolate Seduction Cake Recipe from Essential Baking Company

Several years ago when I was first considering making a move from New York City to Seattle, a friend offered some wise advice to help me make the decision: "before you make any rash decisions, make sure you find a good bakery there." Sage advice indeed.

I didn't exactly follow the advice though. I didn't find one bakery: I found three.

The first three bakeries I visited in Seattle--in order--were Cinnamon Works, Macrina Bakery and Essential Baking. This was basically a triple play of delicious: two weeks later, I lived in Seattle. And all three bakeries have a sweet spot in my heart.

So when one of those first bakeries I ever visited--Essential Baking--offered to share one of their recipes, I knew it was going to be good.

Called "Chocolate Seduction Cake", this flourless cake is pure decadence--redolent with rich chocolate flavor--while still maintaining a delicate crumb which isn't quite brownie or fudge, but definitely cake. It's great all by itself, but it's even better with whipped cream, ice cream, or (best of all) prettily decorated with pink buttercream frosting and decorative sliced almonds (an idea I picked up when I judged a pie contest!).

Chocolate Seduction Cake

-adapted from Essential Baking Co. in Seattle -

Serves 8-10 generously

• 10 ounces Belcolade chocolate (that's the brand Parisian Star uses; a high
• quality dark chocolate could be subbed)
• 5 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ounce cognac
• 6 egg yolks
• 6 egg whites
• 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Line 9x9" cake pan with parchment paper and grease
3. Gently melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler; set aside.
4. Whip egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Add cognac to chocolate and butter mixture and fold very gently into whipped egg yolks and sugar.
6. Whip egg whites with 1/4 cup sugar and salt until soft peaks form, then fold into the chocolate and egg yolk mixture.
7. Fill the cake pan 3/4 full.
8. Bake for about 35 minutes or until knife inserted in center of cake comes out clean.
9. If desired, let cool completely and then frost with pink (really, pink is best) vanilla buttercream (I used the one in the latter half of this recipe).

Sweet Love: A Bakery Crush on Sweet E's Bakery

I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but occasionally I develop crushes. On bakeries.

And right now, I'm crushing hard on Sweet E's Bake Shop, a Los Angeles-based special order "mini bake shop" that only offers tiny treats--each one is about 2-3 bites. Which, by my math, makes it totally OK to eat about 5-7 of the treats. 

The treats themselves are adorable, ranging from sweetly decorated cupcakes:

to baby brownies:

to cute cake pops.

They also offer something intriguing called "Peanut Butter Blizzard" (pictured below)--a confection which falls somewhere between a brownie and fudge texture-wise, comprised of peanut butter and white chocolate fudge with marshmallows, rice krispies and chocolate chips. Like, yum.

Cupcakes are available for local delivery only, but brownies, cake pops and mini cakes can be shipped; you can find it all at sweetesbakeshop.com.

CakeSpy Undercover: A Cake Gumshoe's Thoughts on Tee and Cakes, Boulder CO

Why is Tee & Cakes in Boulder, Colorado worth a visit?

Well, first let's talk about the cute factor. Run by a pastry chef and graphic designer duo, Tee & Cakes is "a lifestyle based shop...with the quality and variety"--including sweet gift items and apparel which can be purchased alongside your sweet treats.

But of course, what you really want to know about is the sweets. They've got a full array--cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and pies, (in an impressive variety of flavors including chocolate bourbon pecan, apple, sour cherry, pumpkin, and key lime, to name a few).

Though they are probably best known for their Chocolate Bacon and faux-Hostess Cupcakes, other flavors are worth a try, says Cake Gumshoe Amanda, who says it's her favorite cupcake shop in the area. Her favorite cupcake? A chocolate variety with chocolate frosting--but as she points out, it is not a "typical" frosting, it was all shiny and smooth, and topped with raspberries.

They also do great beverages. I enjoy a hot chocolate with my cupcake in the winter and a frozen lemonade in the summer.

The only downfall? They close at at 6 p.m. most days and are not open on Sundays, so be sure to pick up dessert earlier in the day if you want your sweets after dinner!

Tee & Cakes,1932 14th Street, Boulder, Colorado; online at teeandcakes.com.

Raising the Bar: The Chocolate Linzer Bar from Baker Boys, Ocean Grove NJ

Technically, the Linzer Torte is a rich nut pastry filled with fine raspberry preserves, criss-crossed with more nut pastry. But really, it's so much more--it's a flavor concept. One that translates beautifully to other types of baked goods: consider the Linzer Cookie, or my favorite, the Linzer Bar.

And now, Baker Boys in New Jersey has taken the concept one step further into delicious territory with their Chocolate Linzer Bar.

This decadent bar starts with a sturdy, shortbread-y crust which is so full of butter that it would be a fantastic cookie all by itself. Then it's made even better with a topping of a thick slab of chocolate mixed with a perfectly tart-sweet smear of raspberry preserves dotted with seeds. Seal it off with even more shortbread-y goodness, in the form of craggy, golden-topped crumbs dotting the surface of the bar, and what have you got? You've got yourself an expanse of deliciousness, that's what. 

What exit? 100. Get yourself to New Jersey!

The Chocolate Linzer Bar from Baker Boys, 69 Main Avenue, Ocean Grove, NJ (a second location is in Asbury Park); online at thebakerboys.us. Call ahead for availability.

Beat of a Different Crumb: Colossal Crumb Cake from Ocean Grove Bake Shoppe, NJ

When it comes to crumb cake, the ratio which generally reigns in my homeland of New Jersey tends to be something along the lines of 70/30, crumb to cake. Unfortunately, this has basically ruined all other crumb cake for me: no matter how delicious or well-made it may be, if it isn't crumb heavy, I'm probably not going to approve.

So you can imagine my awe, wonder and delight when I came across the colossal crumb cake (yes, that's the official name) at the Ocean Grove Bake Shoppe.

Seriously, this crumb cake is off the hook, with a ratio of roughly 90/10, crumb to cake. One Cake Gumshoe aptly dubbed it "crumb on a cracker"; I call it a modern miracle. This work of crumb cake art has a delicious crispiness on the outside which gives way to a (surprisingly not tooth numbingly sweet) chewy interior; the brown sugar is delightfully balanced with a touch of salt, and the sliver of cake beneath the crumb adds a nice, buttery contrast to the slightly gritty sweetness.

I'm pretty sure they have other things at this bakery; maybe one day I will try them. But for now, I only have one colossal crush.

Colossal crumb cake from the Ocean Grove Bake Shoppe, 55 Main Avenue, Ocean Grove, NJ; online at oceangrovebakeshoppe.com.

Cakespy Undercover: A Cake Gumshoe's Thoughts on Retro Bakery, Las Vegas NV

CakeSpy Note: This is a guest blog post from Betsy of Java Cupcake. To get the scoop on what sweet stuff she's been sampling, be sure to visit her site, and keep updated with her twitter feed!

When I spent last week in Las Vegas, NV with my husband, I knew that we needed to stop at Retro Bakery. Boy, it did not disappoint!

Just about 20 minutes from The Strip in Vegas, Retro Bakery is located just off the highway in a quaint little shopping center. I was greeted by a super cute, super friendly bundle of joy named Kari, whom I had messaged via twitter earlier that day to let her know I was coming.

Most importantly though: on to the cupcakes. There were so many delicious cupcakes to choose from--it was very hard to pick. My husband and I decided we'd each pick two.

I chose the Peanut Butter Cup (chocolate cake topped with peanut butter buttercream and dark chocolate shavings) and the Cinnamon Toast (vanilla cake topped with cinnamon buttercream dusted with cinnamon and sugar) while my husband chose the Cotton Candy (vanilla cake topped with pink cotton candy buttercream and blue glitter sugar) and the Creamsicle (vanilla cake topped with a vanilla/orange swirl buttercream).

The tag line on the bakery's business card is "It's All About the Buttercream" and they aren't kidding! The buttercream on these cupcakes was absolutely to die for. Creamy, flavorful, smooth... it just rolled across my tongue with each bite. Each buttercream flavor was distinctly the flavor it said it was going to be--so, for instance, when I bit into the peanut butter, it actually tasted like peanut butter, and surprisingly, the cotton candy buttercream tasted exactly like cotton candy!

As I look back, I wish I had tried one more cupcake with a different base flavor. We had three with vanilla and one chocolate. The chocolate was so delicious... moist and chocolatey; however, I have got to give it to the vanilla because it was by far the best vanilla cupcake I have ever tasted! It was dense, but not mushy, springy and moist, full of flavor and baked to perfection. I could have eaten those vanilla cupcakes alone if the buttercream had not been so heavenly!

So thank you to Kari for being so sweet when we came to visit! And thank you to Retro Bakery for making such delicious cupcakes! I can't wait to get back to Las Vegas to try four more flavors.

Retro Bakery, 7785 N. Durango Dr. #130, Las Vegas (702)586-3740; online at retrobakerylv.com. You can also follow them on Twitter, and if you want more of the inside scoop be sure to read the CakeSpy interview with owner Kari!

Pastry Road Trip: Deliciously Dense Donuts at Wall Drug, South Dakota

CakeSpy Note: This month I drove to and from Chicago on a Pastry Road Trip: here's the beginning of several installments detailing the deliciousness I discovered!

Wall Drug is a tourist trap of epic proportions: you've barely entered South Dakota when you start to see billboards proclaiming "Wall Drug--Only 500 Miles!". From that point on, every few miles you'll see another Wall Drug sign or billboard, some advertising products or services, some simply updating you on how much closer you are.

By the time you've actually reached Wall, South Dakota, you'll be so curious that you've basically got to stop.

Of course, I had a reason beyond mere curiosity: I had heard the donuts were fantastic.

I pulled into Wall at about 5 p.m. and unfortunately the "Donut Factory" section of Wall Drug had already closed for the day, but there were still fresh donuts (and ice cream and cookies too) available in their cafe. I picked up two cake donuts: maple frosted and vanilla frosted.

I offered to share with some of the little critters nearby, but it seemed they had no stomach for donuts.

How to describe these donuts? They were extremely dense--none of that light-as-air business here. The cake was very moist and pleasingly greasy, but tastefully so--it didn't leave an oily slick in your mouth. The frosting was rich and flavorful--the maple had a deep, earthy-sweet flavor and the vanilla was surprisingly thick and rich--and it was soft and held together beautifully (nothing is worse, to me, than donut frostings that are hard and flake off!). To put it in a nutshell, these donuts tasted very old school. In a good way.

Wall Drug, 510 Main Street, Wall, SD; 605-279-2175. Online at walldrug.com.

Bonus! Though I couldn't find their donut recipe, the Food Network does have a pie recipe donated by Wall Drug; check it out here!

CakeSpy Undercover: A Cake Gumshoe's Thoughts on Common Ground Coffee and Cupcakes, Renton WA

CakeSpy Note: Since it had been a while since I sampled the cupcakes from Common Ground, I was delighted to see a new review on their current offerings via this guest blog post from Cake Gumshoe Roxanne Cooke. Check out her website here!

Common Ground Coffee and Cupcakes in Renton offers a variety of interesting cupcake flavors and uses fresh, local ingredients—the perfect recipe for a small downtown cupcakery.

Mini cupcakes cost $1; large are $2; and “Special Occasion” cupcakes cost $2.50 to $3. The shop produces its homemade cupcakes on-site and uses locally produced cream and sweet butter, according to its Web site. Common Ground uses Caffe D'arte in their espresso offerings—and even makes a Caffe D’arte cupcake with latte-flavored frosting. Smoothies and bubble teas are other tasty options, especially the avocado bubble tea.

Inside Common Ground, there’s plenty of seating and even a corner with children’s toys. Though it was usually full, there was never a long wait to order. The décor and atmosphere seemed hip and yet homey. Baristas were friendly and prompt but not pushy. The mini cupcakes sit on a tray near the main display case, where the large cupcakes are presented neatly and labeled clearly.

On my first visit, I went for one of my favorite combinations: chocolate and mint. Once I took a bite of the Peppermint Patty cupcake (pictured top), I savored everything about it. This was one of the most delicious I’ve had. It felt heavy in my hand, and the cake was very dense, moist, and flavorful. The frosting wasn’t too sweet, but instead complemented the cake well, with just the right amount on top. I could have done without the nonpareils, though they look cute.

My second visit took place on a very warm day. I bought a Strawberry Fondue cupcake and “The Smoothie” cupcake to go. Unfortunately, the beautiful strawberry banana frosting on The Smoothie didn’t fare well in my hot car, so I won’t be reviewing it. However, the Strawberry Fondue cake fared just fine. The frosting was a tad too sweet, but the cake was still moist and yummy. On a later trip I noticed real strawberries on these cupcakes—I bet that would have added an extra oomph.

On my final trip to Common Ground, I tried the Sweet Sixteen and Double Dutch. The Sweet Sixteen, covered in pink frosting and flaked coconut, had a great texture, but the frosting was too sweet for me. The white cake was fine, though a bit plain compared to the topping!

Dutch chocolate frosting and chocolate cake—how could you go wrong? Well, I was spoiled by the Peppermint Patty, and so I was slightly disappointed that this cake wasn’t as rich and dense. It was still good and chocolaty, though, with flavorful frosting.

Since this shop offers seasonal cupcake flavors, I plan to go back and check them out this fall. It’s a cute place with nice staff and a wide variety of drink options and cupcake flavors. Hard to resist when it’s only a few miles from your office!

Common Ground Coffee and Cupcakes, 900 South 3rd St., Unit A, Renton; online at commongroundcupcakes.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.

Sweet Spot: Cakes by One Tough Cookie in NYC

Are you in NYC and in need of a super sweet special occasion cake? Or cupcakes or cookies, for that matter?

Well, according to CakeSpy reader Marie, One Tough Cookie, an NYC-based special order bakery, is the spot. Here's what she had to say:

My fiance Gabriel and I were hosting an engagement party in the Hamptons for our friends and family; being an absolute cake and cookie addict I had to get myself a perfect engagement cake. That's when I discovered OneToughCookie (a friend told me about her), who creates delicious, custom made cakes which she decorates with cookies - real works of art!

I just want to spread the word about her, because by creating my engagement cake she contributed to a perfect day in my life and I will definitely ask her to bake my wedding cake as well (the wedding will be next may...)! I thought you might be interested in her since her cakes are really unique and so tasty...I am absolutely amazed by her work and the cake was a dream!

Based on the pictures, it looks like a great find! For more information, visit onetoughcookienyc.com (warning: music plays upon opening the page).