New York bakery tour: Babycakes and Momofuku Milk Bar

Those of you following my New York bakery diaries will know that it was really only after the obligatory Magnolia Bakery visit that the real cake fun started. From Greenwich, we cabbed over to the Lower East Side to make a trip to Babycakes, the acclaimed "healthy" bakery that, according to its cookbook's sub-title, is the "Most Talked About Bakery in New York."

(Above: Babycakes, NY)

Everything in Babycakes is free from dairy, eggs, soy and gluten, with sugar replaced by agave syrup and fat substituted with coconut oil. But what I loved about Babycakes is that while everything was (relatively) healthy, with the focus being on cleaner, lighter cake, the bakery itself still exuded this old school, messy, cakey vibe that was effortless - cool without trying to be cool, much in the same way that some of its favourite clientele (Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Portman) are. It's a complete contrast to in the UK, where it feels that everything is contrived to look a certain style, rather than just evolving that way.

(Above: Babycakes interior, NYC)

There's a wall of scribbled post-stick notes by customers and random postcards on the wall, while hanging in the window were beachballs and bunting (but not in a chintzy way)...

(Above: Babycakes staff putting the finishing touches to cupcakes)

...and the staff were all a little kooky-cool.

I met the equally-cool founder and owner, Erin McKenna, who talked at length about the bakery's healthy-allergen free focus to contribute for my latest baking feature (soon to appear in British Baker magazine). In typically casual Babycakes style (which I loved), we sat outside on the pavement, Erin talking, me scribbling notes, and then we ate gluten-free strawberry cupcakes and doughnuts, (and this time, we really did eat them).

(Above: Babycakes gluten-free cakes)

From there, we jumped in another cab and headed to Momofuku. We were in the restaurant for lunch and then nipped into the bakery next door, Milk Bar, for a spot of infamous crack pie. I really wanted to love this place. Just about everyone I spoke to said Momofuku was not only cool but that the food was great. They must have all been heavy, heavy meateaters; the place was more than a little abrupt when it came to asking if they did any non-meat options. I settled for a plate of pickled veg, zingy and refreshing, and killer prawns with some sort of amazing avocado concoction, but atmosphere wise it was more cold than cool.

(Above: Momofuku Milk Bar's neon sign)

(Above: Milk Bar's chalkboard dessert menu)

As we moved into Milk Bar, the idea of insanely sugary crack pie on an insanely hot day was enough to turn even the cake buyer nauseous, so we cancelled that crazy idea and asked for a slice to take back to the hotel instead.

(Above: boxed up slice of crack pie)

I'd like to tell you it was amazing, but it got left in the bottom of the press officer's bag; the next day when she discovered it, the crack pie vanilla-butter-sugar filling had oozed into curdled nothingness. Not good. So a few days later, I went back myself to pick up a slice - trying just a little before my sugar-quota had definitely been filled. I can see how it drives people to obsession (they're on to something with the gooey-but-crunchy oaty combo) but maybe not so much on a hot, hot summer's day.

On Satuday, my friend Sarah made a version of the crack pie oat crust inverted as the topping on a tropical fruit crumble, full of slushy stewed mangos and pineapples and maple syrup. Now that's what I call seriously clever, without the Milk Bar hype - and just about perfect as a summer sweet should be.