Pichet Ong’s New ‘Spot’

 If you werent looking for Pichet Ong’s latest venture ‘Spot‘, you might not find it. Nestled in what looks like a basement at first glance is a dessert bar whose products are a mix between Asian street food and American Comfort. Upon entering the cafe, I immediately fell in love with the faux grass on the floor. Ong tries to replicate a barn with his grass floor, raw wood furniture, and stone accents. Its really cute and kinda comfy too.

Onto the desserts, the wide array of sweets at this joint made deciding difficult: cupcakes, cookies, puddings, ice cream, bubble tea, coffee floats, and even dessert tapas. I decided to go with the cupcakes and a Thai milk coffee since I was in a semi-hurry and wanted a treat I could eat on the train.

Here’s the taste rundown:

Mocha Maldon Salt Caramel cupcake has mocha buttercream, salt caramel middle, and a moist chocolate cake base. This cupcake was a delicious salty/sweet mix with a hint of slightly bitter mocha. The frosting itself isnt really super out-of-the-ordinary BUT it did have edible glitter ontop of it: HUGE PLUS. Verdict: enjoyed this one quite a bit!

Chocolate Green Tea Fruit Jam cupcake has an apricot jam, soft green tea icing, and again a moist chocolate cake base. This frosting was much different in consistancy than the Mocha cupcake. It was softer, smoother, and much more interesting plus it had the same edible glitter ontop. The fruit jam paired wonderfully with the hints of green tea and chocolate. Verdict: He’s got himself a winner here! Possibly Ongs best cupcake.

Vanilla Caramel Vietnamese Coffee cupcake has a coffee-ish type buttercream frosting with a salty caramel liquid middle and a moist vanilla cake base. This is a great cupcake for those of you who like vanilla since the actual cake is so delicious. My only problem is that is tasted very much like the Mocha Maldon Salt cupcake. I think they are the same cupcake with different cake bases - which is fine with me, just change their names. I was expecting a real punch of Vietnamese coffee in this one and was sorely disappointed. Verdict: Very good, but probably wont be back for this one.

My only real issue was with the container holding the Thai Milk Coffee. Out of the few sips I was able to get while walking to the train station, the coffee was very good.  But by the time I got off of the train and to my final destination half the cup had leaked out and all over my bag! Ugh!! I couldnt even pinpoint where the coffee leak was coming from! I threw out the rest out of  anger. If you are getting coffee at Spot - get it to stay. Or if you dont mind getting coffee all over yourself and your clothes  then by all means get it to go.

A Tale of Two Cupcakes

For starters I have to admit, I hardly ever go out for cupcakes anymore. Why? Mostly because I have been so utterly disappointed with the dry/tasteless/sugary loads of crap most people consider good. I’ve had many of the NYC standards: Magnolia’s (the frosting is crap), Cupcake Cafe (the cake is dry), Crumbs (they are too big and are overloaded with too many ‘toppings’), Buttercup Bake Shop (too sweet and always slightly stale).  After awhile, I just stopped attempting to enjoy cupcakes made by other people…until last week.

Don’t ask me why but whilst Christmas shopping I had the urge to take another stab at cupcakes so I decided to hit up 2 spots: Butter Laneand Tribeca Treats. Why these places? They were close to my shopping destinations. Here’s my review on both establishments:

Butter Lane- I walked into their temporary Soho outpost and was immediately hopeful. The atmosphere was simple yet homey. Also the cupcakes didnt look covered in goop/sprinkles but still had interesting flavors like pumpkin and blueberry. I purchased a pumpkin frosting/chocolate cake  to go and began consuming as I walked out the door. I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, they werent mind blowing but they weren’t awful. The frosting was soft but was still substantial and the cake was moist. The drawback, I didnt taste pumpkin AT ALL. I dont know where the pumpkin was or how they tried to infuse the festive flavor into the frosting but it didnt work. Boo. It wasn’t a total loss but was certainly not a win. Onto the next cupcake…

Tribeca Treats- I had avoided this place for years because my sister had insisted that it was a horrible with gross

treats/bad service and I took her word for it. The atmosphere was typically bakery-esk: a few tables, chocolate pictures on the walls, window cases filled with chocolates and baked goods, etc. Maybe it was because I went about 40 minutes before closing, but they did not have too many cupcakes to chose from which started to worry me. I decided to go with the S’more cupcake because it had everything I would want: chocolate cake with marshmallow icing and topped with graham cracker crumbs. Once again, I started consuming as soon as I stepped out the door. After the 2nd bite I knew I had found it: the cupcake of my dreams. The frosting was soft, billowy, and sweet without being cloying. The cake was moist, delicous, and fresh. The graham cracker crumbs ontop of the frosting werent stale or hard, they were soft and buttery. Better yet? Everything tasted as advertised!!  It actually TASTED like a s’mores instead of just sugary glop. I immediately called my sister while she was at work to yell at her for giving me such bad advice.

In summation: if you’re in the Financial District or Tribeca and are looking for a sweet snack - stop on into Tribeca Treats and get yourself something…no matter what your sister may tell you.

Carrot Cake of the Gods

This carrot cake recipe is a little different because the cream cheese frosting doesn’t have butter and the cake contains a can of 8oz of crushed pineapple and dried cranberries. My husband LOVES this…

CAKE BATTER
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 ts of baking powder
1 ½ ts of baking soda
2 ts of ground cinnamon (preferably Vietnamese since its more fragrant)
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 ½ cups veggie oil
2 cups peeled and finely grated carrots (about 4 large)
8oz of crushed pineapple (with juice in can)
1/2 cup of coarsely chopped pecans
½ cup of dried cranberries

Preheat Oven to 325:
- Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in bowl
- Whisk the eggs in large missing bowl and whisk in sugar until light – about a minute. Whisk in oil in slow stream
- Stir in carrots, pineapple, and pecans. Fold in dry ingredients.
- Scrape batter into 2 pans with parchment paper lining the bottom (about 2 inch deep and 9 inches round)
- Back 45 mins until golden and inserted toothpick emerges clean
- Cool cake in pans for 15 mins. And invert onto racks

Icing/Glaze
Ok – I made this up because all the other ones were way too sugary and I wanted to take the butter out of it so I didn’t feel bad eating it.

12 oz of cream cheese
1 cup of Fage (Greek yogurt) or 1 cup of sour cream
1 tbs of vanilla extract
1 tbs of ginger juice (or 1 tbs of ginger powder)_
2 cups of confectioners sugar
1 cup of pecans

Mix all ingredients together except pecans in a mixer with a paddle until its slightly firm. Put in frig for about 20 minutes. Then assemble cake, put thin layer of glaze in the middle of the cake and frost it with the rest. Top with pecans and put whole cake in frig for a hour