New Logo!

Pastry Girl Cakes has a new logo! After a few sketches and different ideas here's what we came up with:

Tuesday Top Five - Macarons

Macarons are delicious French almond based cookie sandwiches that have all different kinds of gourmet fillings. They are becoming increasingly popular and are popping up in bakeshops all over the city. Due to the price of their ingredients and the labor it takes to make them, macarons can start at $2 a cookie. Despite the price, I think these pastry shops deserve a visit and that’s why we’re counting down our top 5 favorite macaron cafes.

5. Almondine Bakery – This Brooklyn bakery has a variety of great French desserts, but their pistachio macaron is among my favorite there. Check out the tiny bakery on a quaint little street in DUMBO.

4. Bouchon Bakery – Thomas Keller’s famous bakery offers seasonally flavored macarons and are filled with smooth buttercream. Order a cashew butter and jelly and a few macarons for a perfect meal!

3. J’Chanceux Macaron – I recently had the pleasure of trying their tiny macarons with gelato filling and was delighted and refreshed. The fig macaron was my favorite. Try a scoop of gelato with your order of macarons on your visit.

2. Macaron Café – this café is conveniently located near Penn Station and offers an assortment of macaron flavors. I can’t even recommend a flavor because they’re all excellent!

1. Madeleine Patisserie – I discovered this shop when I was in culinary school and frequently popped in for croissants and macarons. The salted caramel is one of my absolute favorite desserts.

These are bite sized gelato macaron sandwiches from our #3 pick, J’Chanceux Macaron.

PB Yum Birthday Cake

Everybody asks "Who will make your birthday cake?" when you're a pastry chef, and the answer is: you do! Months ago, I read about a cake I will refer to as "PB Yum" on Bakerella's blog and I couldn't wait to try the recipe and decided it would be my birthday cake. I modified the recipe and the result was a chocolate peanut butter utopia that I will think about everyday until I make it again.

These were the only changes I made: I used Pastry Girl Cake's rich chocolate cake recipe (you can use any chocolate cake recipe you like), and I also drizzled some of the peanut butter chocolate ganache on top of the finished cake.

I ate the cake at room temperature and it was delicious. I ate it again for breakfast the next morning after it had been sitting in the fridge and it was phenomenally life changing. PB Yum indeed.

Midnight Cookies & Cream

Traditional Cookies & Cream ice cream is vanilla ice cream with embedded pieces of chocolate cookie. On a recent trip to Haagen Dazs, I discovered what I have been waiting for for years - Cookies & Cream made with chocolate ice cream! There's even an additional fudge swirl. I encourage everyone to try this new and delicious flavor!

Poker Groom's Cake

This weekend, we delivered a poker themed groom's cake to The Glen Island Harbour Club in Westchester. We included a Brazilian flag as a nod to the groom's family and matching poker chips surround the table. Cut outs of the four suits decorate the circumference and the happy couple's names decorate a chip. All of the decorations are made out of sugar. The cake was rich chocolate with nutella buttercream and covered in dark chocolate fondant.

Tuesday Top Five - Restaurant Desserts

Going out to a great restaurant for a delicious meal doesn't always mean having a great dessert too. Sometimes stellar restaurants have sub par desserts meaning that an additional trip to a dessert joint is necessary. That's why tonight we're counting down our top 5 favorite restaurant desserts so your evening out can be complete with one stop!

5. Dos Caminos - This trendy Mexican restaurant features several sweet and spicy dessert options. Our favorite is the churros con chocolate - canela dusted churros, served with mexican hot chocolate and caramel whipped cream.

4. Nobu Next Door - For a yummy Asian inspired dessert try the Bento Box, a decadent chocolate cake served with complementary green tea ice cream.

3. Blue Smoke - This amazing BBQ restaurant has an array of classic comfort desserts. Try the super yummy banana cream pie with a crunchy wafer crust.

2. Chinatown Brasserie - After eating the most unbelievable Chinese food ever, enjoy their coconut crepes served with fresh fruit and refreshing gelato.

1. Lupa - This romantic restaurant doesn't just serve beautiful Tuscan inspired Italian. Their original take on a classic like the tartufo is the perfect end to a perfect meal. Hazelnut gelato and cherry inside a soft chocolate shell surrounded by chocolate syrup and nuts. YUM!

Mother's Day Mets Event

This past weekend, we participated in a fundraising event at Citi Field. Mets broadcasters Keith Hernandez, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling are the founders of Pitch in for a Good Cause, a non profit organization combating hunger and homelessness. This Mother’s Day, proceeds went to the Nourishing Kitchen. We made 16 dozen cupcakes and flavors included vanilla with nutella buttercream, red velvet with cream cheese frosting and chocolate with vanilla buttercream.

Here’s a shot of the cupcakes before they went out:

And here’s a sign that was posted outside one of the suites:

Tuesday Top Five - Brunch Spots in NYC

Everyone knows that breakfast should include foods like fruit, oatmeal and fiber laden cereal. Some people have doughnuts and muffins for breakfast, but even those people know that's wrong and they should be having yogurt. Brunch is really the only acceptable meal where dessert is not only permitted, it is welcome. That's why we're counting down our Top 5 favorite brunch spots!

5. Le Pain Quotidien - This organic bakery has many wholesome options, but I recommend the Belgian sugar waffle for a sweet breakfast treat.

4. Friend of a Farmer - The assorted muffins and banana bread are just some of the pastries I've enjoyed at this sit down brunch hangout that also has a great bakery.

3. Pastis - I love everything about this romantic restaurant, but the brioche french toast is my favorite. Thick, fluffy and super filling!

2. Clinton St Baking Co. - There isn't a lot of seating at this popular brunch spot, but the wait is always worth it! Try the blueberry pancakes and homemade biscuits!

1. Sarabeth - This upscale brunch eatery has the most delicious homemade jams, lemon-ricotta pancakes and pumpkin waffles. You can't go wrong with anything you order, but I insist you sample their Four Flowers Juice ("a special blend of orange, pineapple, banana, and pomegranate.")

Pastry Walking Tour

When I was in culinary school, one of my amazing chef instructors took my class on a pastry walking tour to explore some of the wonderful desserts that NYC has to offer. Yesterday, I took my mom and aunt for a pastry walking tour for Mother's Day for the third year in a row. Living in NYC means that every year the tours can be something new and different since we're always discovering a new shop or chef! Here's a look at some of the things we ate:

We stopped by Alison Nelson's Chocolate Bar and sampled a PBJ chocolate (peanut butter and jelly encased in a chocolate shell) as well as a small gianduja (chocolate and hazelnut) and orange chocolate.

Next stop was Il Cantuccio (91 Christopher Street) where we had a Pancioc - a sweet roll studded with chocolate chips. This place is definitely worth a visit to Greenwich Village! Super delicious rolls and basins filled to the brim with assorted homemade biscotti.




I also took them to Doughnut Plant because they had never been. Everyone I know must go to Doughnut Plant. We got a Valrhona chocolate, a blackout and a square jelly.

This is a goody bag I made for my mom and aunt that included a Diet Coke, gum, train tickets and a Starbucks gift card so we would be set for the walk!

Bar Mitzvah Tennis Cake

This weekend, we delivered this tennis cake to Spin NYC for a Bar Mitzvah. We made two overlapping tennis racquets for twin boys with a towel draped over them. We also made 60 tennis ball cupcakes and two tennis ball figures to match the graphic on the boys' invitation. The cake flavors were red velvet with cream cheese frosting and chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.

The parents of the Bar Mitzvah boys had this to say about their cake:

Wow it was simply wonderful, delicious and the perfect cake for this special moment in our lives.

Thank you so much for the great work. The Red Velvet and cream cheese was especially delicious. We received so many compliments. We will be thrilled to give you a stellar recommendation anytime.

Tuesday Top 5 - Tools Every Baker Should Have

Ideally, every avid baker would have a kitchen stocked with all the best ingredients and the finest tools OXO can make. Since space and money often prevent the home baker from acquiring all the baking wares your heart desires, you have to be selective about what you really need. That's why this week we're counting down our Top 5 essential baking tools.


5. Measuring cups - dry measure cups are important for measuring ingredients like flour and sugar. Don't measure your dry ingredients in a liquid cup! And don't try to do it by eye either!

4. Bowl scraper - to ensure that you get all the batter out of your bowl for that extra cookie or cupcake, use a bowl scraper to get everything out. Rubber spatulas work too, but a plastic bowl scraper is sturdier and covers more surface area.

3. Silpat - silpats are rubber mats that you put on cookie sheets so that the cookies come off the trays easily. Your cookies will never stick to the tray again! Best of all, they're cleaned really easily.


2. Digital scale - accuracy and precision is paramount when you're baking. Unlike when you're cooking, bakers need to stick to the recipe and make sure the proper amounts are measured.

1. KitchenAid mixer - cookies, pie dough, cake batter. The KitchenAid is a jack of all trades and makes baking so much easier. You can even match your mixer to your kitchen decor since KitchenAids come in a variety of awesome colors!

Glamour magazine

One of our readers informed me that our Anemone Cake appeared on Glamour magazine's wedding blog Save the Date. Here's the link to check out the post.

We love Glamour magazine and are excited to have a new wedding resource!