A visit to The Magnolia Bakery was one of many things I wanted to do while in New York City. As an avid baker, I saw this particular excursion as a sort of research venture. We spent our Saturday afternoon in NYC browsing intriguing boutiques in Greenwhich Village, while making our way towards 401 Bleeker Street, and Magnolia Bakery.
The place is pretty busy on a Saturday afternoon, with the queue at times stretching around the corner of the bakery. As if to further enhance the evident popularity of the place, the entrance to Magnolia was occupied by a young woman regulating the flow of people.
We were pretty lucky and only had to stand outside for about ten minutes before we were welcomed inside and instantly enveloped by the sweet aroma of cupcakes that awaited past the threshold.
The shop window makes sure to tease passers by and the queuing sweet toothed crowd with generously frosted cupcakes.
I got giddy with excitement the second we stepped inside and I saw the signature frosted cupcakes lined up in the glass displays. Cupcakes, cakes, and pies decorated to tickle my creativity. I wanted to sneak behind the counter, tie an apron around my waist, and grab the icing knife.
The shop itself is no bigger than a corner deli, with a single table for lingering guests. Had my mind not been dead set on trying the cupcakes, I would have easily been convinced to get one of the mini cheesecakes, pies, or tiered cakes with wavy icing in pastel colours.
I made sure to carefully study the particular swirl of the frosting on the cupcakes, as groundwork for my future Magnolia-style baking projects.
And as if directly catering to my interests, I got a first hand inspection of the frosting technique as two girls stood behind the glass counter busying themselves with carefully frosting freshly baked red velvet cupcakes.
We left the bakery with our own signature box of goodies, ready to be devoured.
We got a vanilla cupcake with pastel green vanilla buttercream frosting (Tom’s choice), the seasonal Fall chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting (my choice), and I couldn’t resist asking for a mini red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting too, cream cheese frosting being both my and Tom’s favourite.
The Fall cupcake had a moist and airy chocolate base and was topped with a sumptuous amount of vanilla buttercream frosting. I like that they’re so generous with the frosting, they’ve got the cake to frosting ratio just right. My only complaint would be that the frosting was almost too sweet. The red velvet mini cupcake was a bit dry, and I dare say that I make better cream cheese frosting myself. I didn’t taste Tom’s vanilla cupcake, but he said the stuff I bake is better (no telling if he was just trying to flatter me).
