So Much Goes to New York

Your blogger spent a recent weekend in New York City, and must share two noteworthy dessert instances with you!

To start, imagine my glee while wandering near Union Square on a Thursday evening, and stumbling upon a truck dispensing a variety of free desserts! Yes, that's right - the Dessert Truck had just finished taping an episode for the Food Network, and they had a truck's worth (ha) of desserts left over that staff were giving to passersby. It didn't matter that we were on our way to dinner - we nabbed brownies, a chocolate cupcake, cheesecake, and a waffle with vanilla creme fraiche. The waffle, creme, and cupcake were tasty, but average; the other two desserts were definitely superior and memorable. The brownie was fudgy and melted in my mouth, and packed a lot of chocolate flavor in a small square; the cheesecake was smooth, light, creamy, and moist. We had so much dessert...for so little! New Yorkers and visitors to the city, check the Dessert Truck's website for upcoming locations. Enjoy the desserterie-on-wheels concept as long as you can! (Boston, please start something similar?)

The other dessert experience was much more conventional. Magnolia Bakery, on Bleecker Street in the West Village, earned some level of popular awareness thanks to SNL's Lazy Sunday skit and a Sex and the City episode. The merits of snacks for the Chronicles of Narnia aside, the bakery's biggest draw, in my opinion, is their exceptional frosting. This sweet buttercream icing comes in a range of pastel colors (standard buttercream flavor) and a rich chocolatey brown (chocolate).

Ever loyal to my favorite color, my preferred Magnolia cupcake is a chocolate cake with purple buttercream frosting - but, I had to settle on pink frosting during this most recent visit when they ran out of purple. Much like the Dessert Truck cupcake, the cake itself is average if not slightly disappointing; however, the quality of the frosting more than makes up for any batter shortcomings. The best way to eat such a cupcake is to eat away at the base of the cake, leaving a thin layer for consumption with a mouthful of frosting.

The vanilla cupcake with yellow frosting was similarly average, but a hint of lemon in the batter proved to be a pleasant surprise.

I would go to Magnolia again to enjoy the frosting, but several native New Yorkers have recommended both the cake and frosting available at Sugar Sweet Bakery. Next time...