sugar sweet sunshine
as fate would have it, sister and i are both "freelancing" this month (she with mo' better prospects, at the moment!) so we decided to meet for coffee and "a snack" in my 'hood. i was actually full, and she was not. but could i rightly refuse an opportunity to eat out? nope.
off to sugar sweet sunshine we went! i expected the offerings to be virtually the same as magnolia bakery and billy's bakery (both adored by hipsters and celebs alike). but sugar sweet sunshine's offerings seemed more one-dimensional--on this day, there were 8 varieties of cupcakes available, some mini cheesecakes, and a few breakfast treats, and some cakes, and "piggy puddin'." no jars of cookies. i wanted something small, and basically this meant, i was lookin' at cupcakes.
i know, i know, that's hardly suffering. but i don't fiend for cupcakes the way my sister (and seemingly everyone else in this town) does. and i'm picky picky about frosting. if it's too buttery, i'll scrape it off. if it's too whipped cream-y, it'll sit on the edge of my plate.
anyway. everything but the pumpkin cupcakes seemed to be piled high with buttercream frosting, so i was freaking a bit. sister decided on the "sexy red velvet" (what i would have chosen). i went for the "ooey gooey" (i was intrigued by the idea of chocolate almond buttercream frosting. i thought it might be less buttery than plain old buttercream frosting).
the ooey-gooey was de-lish! moist cake, creamy, chocolate-y frosting, but with nary a trace of that butter taste! it was actually much better than the sexy red velvet, which seemed somewhat stale--it wasn't dry or crumbly, it was just solid, and a bit heavy. and the icing was one massive hunk, and sweet as it was, it lacked the depth of flavor and the texture of the chocolate almond buttercream... to be honest, i have yet to find a red velvet cake or cupcake that comes close to the perfect slice i enjoyed at maroon's (that cake, served warm, was moist and spongy, so light that it seemed fizzy, as if it had coca-cola baked right into it. and then there there was the marshmallow-pecan frosting. sigh. i get a little heady at the memory of it...). billy's bakery's red velvet cupcakes were an absolute disappointment. i'm not sure if we got the red velvet cupcakes at sugar sweet sunshine after they'd spent a long weekend in that glass case, or if that's how they are supposed to taste. i guess we'll have to return to be sure.
and yes, i'd happily go back to sugar sweet sunshine. sure, there's a hipster quotient, it is on rivington street after all, but there are no annoying lines a la magnolia. and there's more charm in the decor than billy's (which has a positively stepford precision to its "homey look"). there's the lime and mandarin floral wall-paper (i think my sister or i had a sundress in that pattern back in the day!) and this huge photo of the late jackie kennedy onassis behind the counter. how hilarious is that?
the only real downer was the inconsistent coffee service. both my sister and i ordered skim lattes, and she thought hers tasted more like a cappuccino, while mine tasted like warm milk.
off to sugar sweet sunshine we went! i expected the offerings to be virtually the same as magnolia bakery and billy's bakery (both adored by hipsters and celebs alike). but sugar sweet sunshine's offerings seemed more one-dimensional--on this day, there were 8 varieties of cupcakes available, some mini cheesecakes, and a few breakfast treats, and some cakes, and "piggy puddin'." no jars of cookies. i wanted something small, and basically this meant, i was lookin' at cupcakes.
i know, i know, that's hardly suffering. but i don't fiend for cupcakes the way my sister (and seemingly everyone else in this town) does. and i'm picky picky about frosting. if it's too buttery, i'll scrape it off. if it's too whipped cream-y, it'll sit on the edge of my plate.
anyway. everything but the pumpkin cupcakes seemed to be piled high with buttercream frosting, so i was freaking a bit. sister decided on the "sexy red velvet" (what i would have chosen). i went for the "ooey gooey" (i was intrigued by the idea of chocolate almond buttercream frosting. i thought it might be less buttery than plain old buttercream frosting).
the ooey-gooey was de-lish! moist cake, creamy, chocolate-y frosting, but with nary a trace of that butter taste! it was actually much better than the sexy red velvet, which seemed somewhat stale--it wasn't dry or crumbly, it was just solid, and a bit heavy. and the icing was one massive hunk, and sweet as it was, it lacked the depth of flavor and the texture of the chocolate almond buttercream... to be honest, i have yet to find a red velvet cake or cupcake that comes close to the perfect slice i enjoyed at maroon's (that cake, served warm, was moist and spongy, so light that it seemed fizzy, as if it had coca-cola baked right into it. and then there there was the marshmallow-pecan frosting. sigh. i get a little heady at the memory of it...). billy's bakery's red velvet cupcakes were an absolute disappointment. i'm not sure if we got the red velvet cupcakes at sugar sweet sunshine after they'd spent a long weekend in that glass case, or if that's how they are supposed to taste. i guess we'll have to return to be sure.
and yes, i'd happily go back to sugar sweet sunshine. sure, there's a hipster quotient, it is on rivington street after all, but there are no annoying lines a la magnolia. and there's more charm in the decor than billy's (which has a positively stepford precision to its "homey look"). there's the lime and mandarin floral wall-paper (i think my sister or i had a sundress in that pattern back in the day!) and this huge photo of the late jackie kennedy onassis behind the counter. how hilarious is that?
the only real downer was the inconsistent coffee service. both my sister and i ordered skim lattes, and she thought hers tasted more like a cappuccino, while mine tasted like warm milk.
posted by lahat at 8:59 PM
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