1. Veniero’s Pastry Shop
Veniero’s Pastry Shop in the East Village has been serving Italian-American confections since 1894. Linger at the display cases and choose from the tempting array of pastries, cookies and cakes, such as cannoli (below), diamond baci, millefoglia and whipped New York-style miniature cheesecake in chocolate cups. Then, have a seat in the cafe, under the lovely stained-glass ceiling and enjoy it with a cappuccino or latte.
2. Cupcake Market
It might be easy to find cupcakes in New York City, but it’s not so easy to find them as big and rich as those served at Cupcake Market, with its casual quaint tea parlour setting, and retro American and French tunes lilting in the background. At this East Village cafe and bakery, take a seat in front of the big picture window, tuck into the decadent, thickly frosted cupcakes or the pretzel-chocolate-chip and S’Mores cookies and watch the colourful parade of locals strolling by.
3. Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery
This sweet slip of a bakery and cafe in the West Village is known for creations such as its signature Mah-Ze-Dahr bar, comprising an oat base topped with toasted pecans, chocolate chips and salted caramel. The bakery’s dark chocolate explosion cookie has a soft, dense filling and a delightfully crunchy exterior, combining the textures of both a brownie and a cookie. Plump brioche doughnuts are filled with vanilla pastry cream and topped with sugar mixed with ground Madagascar vanilla beans.
4. One Girl Cookies
Hitting all the hotspots in Brooklyn can be exhausting. Luckily, One Girl Cookies has you covered, with delectably sugary refuelling options. Stop in for One Girl’s Whoopie pie, a round sandwich-style cross between a cake and a cookie with sweet cream cheese filling (also served as a gelato sandwich), or for one of the cupcakes with signature spiky buttercream frosting. One Girl is conveniently located in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill, DUMBO and Industry City/Sunset Park neighbourhoods.
5. Dominique Ansel Bakery
An enticing buttery aroma lures visitors to this SoHo standout, and the queue of customers stretching to the back of the bakery is testament to its popularity, which owes much to its creative, ever-expanding selection of treats. Chef-owner Dominique Ansel’s immensely popular cronut pastry (below) has been described as a croissant-doughnut hybrid. Each cronut is rolled in sugar, filled with cream, topped with glaze, and made fresh daily, with a new flavour every month, such as Valrhona chocolate champagne or pear honey cream cheese. The Tahitian vanilla ice cream at the centre of Ansel’s frozen S’More is coated with chocolate enrobed in an all-honey marshmallow, then torched and speared on a smoked willow branch. The bakery’s blossoming hot chocolate hides a marshmallow flower enveloped within a thin layer of chocolate. When it’s placed into a cup of the hot chocolate, it melts and causes the flower to bloom, revealing a chocolate bonbon surprise inside.
