Posts Tagged: maple

Around NY — No Comments
10
Dec 09

Marshmallow Men

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What to do when you get a delicious Foodzie package from Whimsy & Spice in Brooklyn? Well, since the purpose of a marshmallow is to add childlike amusement to life, what better way to honor them than to play.

Whimsy and Spice Maple Marshmallows

These maple marshmallows were absolutely DELISH in hot cocoa. As they slowly melt and dissolve at the top of the cup, a creamy froth forms so you sip the liquid chocolate through a sugary filter. They held their shape much longer than other marshmallows do, and since I was drinking unsweetened cocoa, they added just the right amount of sweet. By themselves, the marshmallows were sugary, spongy, with just a hint of burnt sugar and maple.

In short, if you’re looking for the perfect compliment to a warm winter beverage, maple marshmallow is the way to go. They’re fun too :) To make this guy, i stacked, and broke an M&M into pieces to make the face. Just like making a snowman.

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Around NY / Bakery — 1 Comment
4
Dec 09

Butter Lane Cupcakes

First off: THANK YOU GROUPON! I write about food on this site, but you can see an article that I wrote for another blog on this fabulous group discount service that gave me my dozen cupcakes for half the price.

Second: HELLOOOOOOO BUTTERLANE!

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Ahhh, a group of folks after my own heart! Ever since I was two and my Dad gave me a small stuffed cow that was featured in all of my childhood photos, I have LOVED cows. I have a sweet spot in my heart for the resident cow of my childhood vacation spot, Block Island, and hopefully sometime soon will have his portrait purchased 8 or so years ago framed and hung on my wall. So you can imagine my little heart jumping for joy at the site of this beautiful bovine hanging on the wall of my sweet-tooth driven destination. Everyone working at Butter Lane is unbelievably friendly, talkative, and so helpful.

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Butter Lane is like most cupcakeries in that they have two or three cake bases (vanilla, chocolate, and I believe their only other one is banana), and then the frosting combinations are where the creativity lies.

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You know something has to be good when a patron already in the store tells you to trust the employees to picking the flavors for you.

Which brings me to:

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The Cupcakes!

Ahh, such high expectations. And for the most part, Butter Lane came through. To start off with, the brief not-so-goods: the vanilla and chocolate cakes that I had were just a bit dry. They crumbled too easily, and didn’t dissolve on my tongue the way I expect cake to. I also like my chocolate cake to be a bit bolder, with a chocolate flavor that you would be happy to have in your corner in a fight between the frosting. A real hold-it’s-own kind of chocolate cake. Butter Lane’s chocolate was just a tad shy of the bar.

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Now that we’ve got that squared away, on to the good stuff!

Ohhhh that frosting! The buttercreams are absolutely DELISH. They make all kinds: vanilla, chocolate, maple, cinnamon, raspberry, strawberry, espresso. And the banana cake was ON POINT! Moist, delicious, and not too overwhelming on the banana. It’s no surprise that my favorite cupcake flavor came with a banana base. The Banana with Cinnamon Buttercream is the kind of thing that I would go back and order a whole dozen of at full price.

Overall, I give Butter Lane a thumbs and a half up. I’m going to go back to see if cake is a bit moister next time, but I’m going to protect against dry mouth with at least a half dozen with the banana base. Of course, now that I’ve said that, the next time I go everything else will be oozing moisture and the banana will feel like sand in your mouth. That’s just how the world works.

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Butter Lane

123 East Seventh Street, New York, New York 10009 (p) 212.677.2880

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Around NY / Chocolate / Food — No Comments
23
Oct 09

A long time coming: Mast Brothers Chocolate

Mast Bros Choc 2Since my foray into the world of quality chocolate, I have been jonesing for a bar of Mast Brothers Chocolate. The Brooklyn based chocolatiers are set up in an old factory and are masters of single-origin mixology–pairing beautifully tempered chocolate with high quality and local ingredients. Since, for a very long time, the Mast Brothers had been out of my vicinity (and with shipping through a certain vendor coming into the picture recently) I never had the opportunity to taste one of their amazing creations. It had been a long time since I had quality chocolate, and I had almost forgotten my love of the bold and fruity beans of Madagascar when I came across a Mast Brothers bar at a local grocery store. I picked up two: The Maple Pecan (floral pattern) and the Black Truffle and Fleur de sel (bright colors). The wrapping of each bar matches the character–the maple pecan’s gentle colored small flowers follow the creamy, nutty, gentle flavors of maple and pecan, while the bright colors, gold lacing and bold pattern are a perfect fit for the black truffle, which bursts with decadent richness the moment it hits the tongue. While I once touted the Amedei Chuao bar as being my favorite bar of all time, throughout the day I find myself glancing over at the bars on my desk and wondering if I shouldn’t allow myself just another heaven-inducing bite. I usually do.

Mast Bros Choc

The Mast brothers are truly artisans. The two bars I have enjoyed so far have been 72% Madagascar single-origin, which makes them very fruity, bright and bitter. The Mast cure for a common Madagascar bean? Fleur de sel. I’m not surprised that almost all of their bars are gently laced with this ingredient–it does a great deal to compliment the flavors of the bean and to create a multi-dimensional flavor experience. It is interesting, and addicting. Bravo.

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