A while back I had some awesome house guests, the twist was they we’re vegan (and I’m not), but it really wasn’t a twist since it turns out being a vegan in NYC isn’t exactly hard. There are vegan products everywhere, vegan restaurants, vegan cafes and ,of course, a killer vegan bakery Babycakes! Now, mind you, these guests being crazy well informed already knew from the start that we had to go to Babycakes no matter what… And they were right, mostly.

My friends had already stopped by BabyCakes a few days earlier, they we’re mid Vinyl buying frenzy and they raved about EVERYTHING, but they might have been a little biased since being Vegan in Brazil is definitely not easy.

I was dieing to go and finally we did, amidst the big snow storm in December, we made our way to to the tiniest cutest little shop that is Babycakes in the Lower East Side. Even in a snowstorm people we’re coming in all the time we we’re there, and we lingered and ate everything, since we we’re enjoying the food and also the warmth after a day of cold soggy feet!

You’re probably thinking “Tell me about the cupcakes, already!” So I will. The cupcakes we’re good (and cute!), the cake itself was a little dry but the frosting more than made up for it! They even sell frosting shots, and I almost bought one it was that good! We also had donuts which I had read on Yelp we’re better than the cupcakes, while they we’re indeed good, they seemed to be a little old.

The winner, dear reader, isn’t even pictured since the four of us ravenously devoured it, was the crazy delicious Chocolate Crumb Cake Banana Pound cake! This cake was awesome, moist and rich, we all loved it even the 50 percent of us that are not Vegan. Just found my notes from when we we’re there and the Cinnamon Crumb Cake was also good but a little dry.

So there you have it, keep in mind that while the goodies are a little pricey, BabyCakes is a worthy stop in the LES, specially for the Vegan and Gluten Free folks.

Have you been there? What did you think?

When I met my ICE Admissions director, she quickly put me in touch with two ICE alums that we’re also from Brazil. One of which was just about to come to NY for a class and that’s how I met the awesome Priscila from Make the Cake (the website is  Portuguese but pics are universal!!)  She is a very skilled and talented cake designer and owns an amazing cake shop in São Paulo. She visits NY often (yay!), and this time we hung out at MacarOn Café, it’s the coolest frenchest little tiny Macaron shop in midtown!

Among the many Macarons we tried, was the delightful Espresso and also the Dark Chocolate however the Lavender Honey was not to my taste. Now look, I will give Lavender the benefit of the doubt until I have anything with it again, but based on this baby Lavender in desserts is not for me. It could have been too much Lavender or it might just be me, but I felt like I was eating my grandma’s perfume… I couldn’t finish the macaron, and if you have ever seen me you will know, I seldom leave anything on a plate!!

Definetely check out Macaron Cafe if you are in Penn Station area, specially considering that area is pretty barren!

The Raspberry Framboise is my kind of desert! The vanilla custard was so light and pure, the raspberries perfectly ripe and plump! They worked so beautifully with the cake around it and the vanilla custard. It was like music was playing in my mouth and I am not kidding.

Now for the breakthrough my favorite Tiramisu of all time! I realize yours truly seems to be hyper enthusiastic pretty much on every post but this is real thing (cue song).  Let’s start with the presentation, semi sweet chocolate coffee cup (come on!)  filled with a  fresh, well balanced Tiramisu, not heavy on the coffee, or coffee liqueur at all! So balanced, so light and incredibly decadent at the same time.

Everything we tried at de Gascogne tasted crazy fresh, and you can tell everything is made with skill, care and high quality very  ingredients.

Montreal I bow to your bakeries! As I said before this trip was one of my bestest weekends ever! Thank you to my friends who took us to all these great spots! And thank you Montreal!!!

A bien tout!

Peeps, Ms Cherryspoon has been on this eating blogging path for a short while compared to my other blogger friends. However the knock my socks off bakeries have started to become somewhat less frequent. Fortunately there are places like Pâtisserie de Gascogne. (ooh la la!)

This traditional Montreal bakery has been knocking Quebecois socks off since 1957 and the founder’s rag to riches stories is even published. A very awesome friend had the thoughtful and brilliant idea to take husband and I there.

This Halloween (Halloween?!? Yes, this trip was all the way back in September) themed cutie pie, in case you can’t tell,  was a very good Pumpkin pie, the crust was delectable and the filling so light and fresh the spices were present but not overpowering there and the pumpkin still tasted like such. Little secret, first pumpkin pie I ever enjoyed!

More yum to come!

Bakery Itiriki is (as I said above) a Japanese, Chinese, Brazilian and French Bakery. A little piece of heaven right in the middle of the (also awesome) Asian neighborhood in São Paulo (Liberdade). Years before I even thought about being a baker or having a blog, I spent many Sundays there drinking yummy bubble tea, yours truly was lucky to live close by!

That was my tray when we stopped by this past July! You can see a Chocolate cake (to sweet for my taste) , an AMAZING apple mini cake (top left), puff pastry Pão de queijo (yes you read it right, they got Pão de queijo and made into puff pastry!!! ZOMG) and a yummy braided bread with Leeks.

Upon entering the bakery, you’ll find trays and tongs, you pick up all the goodies you like and you make your way to the cashier. It’s not cheapest place, but it won’t break the bank specially considering the exchange rate. While paying you can get yourself a ticket for Bubble tea, coffee or Juice, which you then pick up upstairs in their small siting area. On weekends you’ll have to wait for a booth but on a weekday it was a breeze!

Check out the sweets aisle below.

This pic is also from sweet_tempura, who very kindly allowed me to use it in this post.

All the classic from all the countries I mentioned before are available, from Kare Pan (Japanese Curry Bread), Chinese Steamed Breads, Dim Sum (sometimes), Adzuki Bean paste filled Mochi to the most basic goodies such as Croissants, Baguettes and Pão de Queijo.

If you ever visit São Paulo, you should definitely stop by, if anything just for their killer Bubble Tea, but I doubt that’s all you’ll walk out with!

Bakery Itiriki is here.