New York Bakery tour: Magnolia Bakery

Some of you who follow Her Little Place regularly will know that I have just returned from a whirlwind trip of sugary delights exploring New York's bakeries for a few baking-cooking-writing projects that I'm working on. Come back every Friday to get the next installment, but for now, here's part of day one...

What better way to start off my first day in New York than chez Balthazar in SoHo. Ok, so it's not exactly your New Yorker breakfast of pancakes or waffles, but we were there to explore the baked stuff after all and so we were presented with a warm, buttery basket of soft fresh breads - fruit foccacia, pecan and cranberry bread with a nutty crust, chocolate bread and cinammon buns...

(Above: Breakfast at Balthazar)

Well-fuelled for the day, we walked up Spring St to Broadway to pop into Dean & Deluca; no cameras allowed but it was a food shopper's delight. Baskets piled high with artichokes and asparagus; rustic breads; iced cakes, sponged cakes, little cakes, big cakes; jars of cookies, shortbread and bars. The packaging on everything was retro, simple, colourful; the sort of produce you wouldn't want to hide away behind cupboard doors.

(Above: Dean & Deluca shop front, Broadway)

Whisked away from Dean & Deluca, we walked through SoHo and down into Greenwich Village; me, trailing slightly behind snapping at everything from shop fronts to street signs. It's true what they say about New York. It is magical, warm; not haughty nor aloof. It gets under your skin. I noticed this, from day one.

As we meandered through the tree lined, slightly wider streets of Greenwich, all brownstones and Vespas, I saw signs I recognised all too clearly from Colette Rossant's Madeleines in Manhattan. We passed Sullivan St (where Sullivan St Bakery is no longer situated but once was) and Bleecker St, home to Magnolia Bakery.

(Above: Bleecker St - spot the Empire State Building peeping out the trees...)

Everyone already knows all about how the Magnolia Bakery got big for cupcakes through Sex and the City, Prime and The Devil Wears Prada.

(Above: Magnolia Bakery chalkboard)

The location is indeed very pretty for film sets. And it's certainly clear that Magnolia's 1950s vibe is what set the tone for pretty much all of London's (and the UK's) entire cupcake craze and love of nostalgia. I'll admit I'm more than a little over that now, so (forgive me for saying it) the floral aprons and cake tins were a little lost on me...

(Above: Magnolia Bakery gets ready for 4 July celebrations)

But I'll hand it to them - it's certainly pretty, and the whole place was still packed (albeit with British tourists enamoured with Carrie Bradshaw; "her" brownstone building is a few minutes walk away), despite the air con having broken and it being like a sauna in there.

(Above: chocolate, red velvet and vanilla cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery)

We bought chocolate, vanilla and red velvet cupcakes to taste. At this point, I might just make it clear that I wasn't eating everything. Being accompanied by cake buyers, I learnt that "bake"-testing is no different to any other way of food or drink testing; you simply take a teeny tiny scoop, as below...

(Above: tasting Magnolia Bakery cupcakes)

...swirl it around and, well, there's no eloquent way of putting it, then simply spit it out into little paper cups (we carried the cups around). You might think this was a terrible waste, but believe me, it is entirely possible to have too much cake. And this was just half of day one.

(Above: tasting Magnolia Bakery cupcakes)

At the risk of disappointing, the cakes at Magnolia were certainly not the best on the trip (the best ones, we really did eat) - these were more than a little dry and a bit too crumby. Perhaps it was something to do with the broken air con and the cakes left on the counter. We simply went to check out the hype - it's arguably one of the best known bakeries in town, thanks to its TV appearances. But there's better yet to come.

After Magnolia, we headed on to Babycakes and Momofuku's Milk Bar for yet more cakes and pies - and yes, this was all in the same day (now can you see why we didn't eat everything?) but for that, you'll have to wait until next Friday!

Happy cakes
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