Help me eat some delicious cake!

April 25, 2013 9:49 AM

I don't eat baked goods very often any more, so when I do I want them to be as amazingly tasty as possible. I've been working up a pretty serious cake craving, but where (in NYC) should I go?

I tend to prefer my cake to be moist without going all the way into "basically flavored butter" territory. Italian cakes with pastry cream filling are an old favorite of mine, but I'm open to just about anything.

I'd prefer a place where I can sit and hang out for a while, maybe with table service. Bonus points if I can have some great coffee or tea while I'm there.

I live in Brooklyn on the D train, but I'm willing to spend an hour on the subway for an excellent cake experience.

posted by Narrative Priorities to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

I'd head over to Betty Bakery.

It looks cute.

Located at
448 Atlantic Ave (between Bond St and Nevins St)
Boerum Hill
Brooklyn, NY 11217
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 9:54 AM on April 25, 2013

I assume you already know of Veniero's on 1st and 11th in Manhattan, yes?
posted by elizardbits at 9:59 AM on April 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

My suggestion is not entirely practical since the place doesn't have seating and probably takes longer than an hour to get to using the D to the A (transfer at 145) to the 1 train (transfer at 168) and (get off at 242) then a short walk (north on Broadway), but the cake is so damn good, so here goes nothing:
Lloyd's Carrot Cake is located at 6087 Broadway in the Bronx. It is a storefront. They sell carrot cake two ways: with carrots and nuts and without carrots or nuts. Don't bother with anything else they sell.

I am not a huge carrot cake person and I really like their carrot cakes. They are known in the cross country running community because they are across the street for one of NYC's more popular x-country courses in Van Cortlandt Park. You can bring your cake across the street to the park and sit there and watch a soccer or cricket match, or some runners, or baseball.
posted by sciencegeek at 10:07 AM on April 25, 2013 [4 favorites]

Baked, in Red Hook! Their cake is amazing. Last time I was there I got brownies, but I remember they had cake by the slice. (I've baked several cakes from their cookbooks and they're amazing.)
posted by soleiluna at 10:24 AM on April 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

YES. BAKED. YOU WANT BAKED.

Um. Sorry. Clearly I am much more impassioned about this than I thought. Take that as a good thing.

They don't have table service as such, but they have coffee/tea/etc., and you can sit for a while, and they also have wild flavored brownies and loaf cakes and something called the "Brookie" which is a chocolate-chip cookie baked on top of a brownie and YOU WANT BAKED.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:27 AM on April 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

OK, I think I hear you. You don't want _clever_ cake combinations. You don't want architectural frosting. You want cake, with perfectly balanced flavor and superb texture, the kind made by someone who would care about the hidden joinery in a woodworking project.

I happened upon such a place in Chelsea on a recent visit. Billy's Bakery. The German Chocolate Cake? No frosting, just the nutty/coconut stuff that's supposed to be there, in proportion. No one was trying to overwhelm or impress me _before_ I tasted the cake, only after I put a piece in my mouth. That's what everyone wants, only they don't know it yet.

Anyway, that's what I recommend.

> http://www.billysbakerynyc.com/

Here's a photo I found:
> https://plus.google.com/111084632380386469395/about?gl=US&hl=en-US

They have tea, too. Stuff like that. Go during a non-busy time because the seating is microscopic.

If you really care, though, you could consider baking your own. Use cake flour -- that's the secret. Look up seven-minute frosting. You're welcome :)
posted by amtho at 10:53 AM on April 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I agree that Baked is really good though I'm more partial to some of their other stuff (grasshopper bars!) than cake per se.

Buttercup Bake Shop on 2nd Avenue in midtown Manhattan makes a superlative red velvet cake. Not sure if Cake Man Raven in Fort Greene is open anymore, but theirs is also great.

And Ladybird Bakery in South Slope's Brooklyn Blackout cake is amazing--I think 3 or 4 different types of chocolate go into it.
posted by mlle valentine at 11:04 AM on April 25, 2013

Seconding Billy's Bakery (best cupcakes in the city, IMO) but if you don't mind the trip, everything I've had at Lady M on the Upper East Side (I can only vouch for the E. 78th Street location) has been amazing. It's also a lovely space with table service and you can hang out there for awhile.
posted by LeeLanded at 11:12 AM on April 25, 2013

If you love Italian desserts, I HIGHLY recommend Pasticceria Rocco -- it's a family-owned place with tons of options and I've loved everything I've ever had there -- from Italian cookies to various cannoli and cakes/pies (their cheesecakes are out of this world). My boyfriend and I have spent many nights chatting away here after dinner and it's become one of my favorite New York spots.
posted by OnTheWing at 11:25 AM on April 25, 2013

two little red hens is a bit far from you (upper east side), but it's my new obsession!
posted by sabh at 6:16 AM on April 26, 2013

Lloyd's carrot cake is DEFINITELY worth the trip, especially in nice weather when you can go sit in the park.
posted by the twistinside at 9:18 PM on April 27, 2013 [1 favorite]