August 2009 Archives

Read the full article from The Lunchbox Bunch.

There was a tasty little item in today's Tasting Table NYC Newsletter:

Who said it's impossible to make a healthy doughnut that tastes as good as the real (fried) thing? We did--and were then proven wrong.

BabyCakes NYC founder Erin McKenna, who's already demonstrated that dairy- and gluten-free sweets can indeed be delicious, has created a non-fried vegan doughnut that rivals its fattier counterparts.

While crafting recipes for her new cookbook, McKenna challenged herself to master a gluten-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened doughnut that has the same cakey consistency we love.

Using texture as her guide, she created a base recipe that can be adapted to all manner of flavors. She was so pleased with the results that she's permanently adding a rotating array of doughnuts ($3 to $3.50) to the bakery's menu, including maple-glazed, raspberry-glazed, powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar and lemon-coconut, as well as a chocolate-dipped variety that is so dead-on in its sinfully rich texture that BabyCakes's daily stock often disappears before noon.

BabyCakes NYC, 248 Broome St. (between Orchard and Ludlow sts.); 212-677-5047 or babycakesnyc.com. Photograph by Hamish Robertson.

Happy Birthday to our dear beloved oven! He turns 4 years old today which means our anniversary is very near. Be on the lookout for our next dance video in honor of our anniversary--along with a special promotion in honor of it all early September!

The plumbing is done and she's starting to get framed out! And it looks like a bus totally stops in front of the store so LA people get to know your public transit system! I'll post more pics of the progress as they roll in. Oh, LA. I cannot wait for you. I can wear a bikini all day there and no one will care, right? Rad.

Click here for the full article from Celiac Chicks.

Longtime customers Shaudi and Danny get engaged with a red velvet cupcake from the bakery. Look at her face!!!! I'm hoping she was just stoked to see the cupcake but I have a suspicion that she was a little distracted by the ring! Congratulations you two!!!!

Ugh. I was up all night with thoughts of doughnuts: powdered sugar, glazed, maple bars, jelly-filled. I think I haven't been this excited since I mastered my frosting recipe! So I raced to work today to do a little tinkering on the recipe and the results today are even better!

So anyway. People. You have made it very clear that you want the doughnuts every day. I am so with you and it brings me teary joy to declare today the day that doughnuts will officially on the menu for good. Let's Party.

In April, Veg News asked me what my dream menu item would be. I said, "The perfect vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened, no-fry doughnut." After that, it really started to bug me that I hadn't been able to master that yet.

Today, my dear friends, is a big day at the bakery. I finally made the doughnuts of my dreams and they are reeeeeeeeaaaaally good. I cannot believe it! Whoooooooooooooooooooooo! YES! We are LOSING IT here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn it feels good to be a baker.

Ryan McGinley is after my heart. This is a clipping from NY Mag's weekly article, The New York Diet starring Ryan himself:

Saturday, August 1
I woke up at 9 a.m. and had a bowl of Kashi 7 Whole Grain Flakes with Almond Dream Almond Milk and a cup of "Get Charged" Herbal Tea for Energy by Republic of Tea.

I went and did yoga at Yoga High in the Lower East Side on Clinton Street and took a car service to my lab at Pochron Studios in Red Hook to look at photographs from the summer's Cave Journey with my printer Donnie.

At 4 p.m. I had lunch in Red Hook at this place called Hope & Anchor. It's really hard to find good food in Red Hook, so whenever I go out to my lab I always get food from there.

I had a Caesar salad, fish tacos with chipotle mayo, and plantain chips, and I shared the fish tacos with a dog named Goose, a pig named Emmit, and a cat named Noodles. They all live in the lab. The AC was broken at the lab and it was like a sauna in there, so I had a six-pack of Coronas with two limes. I shared it with Donnie and Julie Pochron and everyone who was working there, since we were baking [from the heat].

For dinner, at 8 p.m. I had cupcakes from Babycakes at Michael Stipe's new apartment. It was a pre-housewarming, pre-curtains-on-the-windows party; he hadn't been in town for three months. We drank coconut water and vodka. Michael's friends' kids were there, so I was playing with all the little kids and this little girl's mom came up and we started talking and it was Jane Pratt, and that was really cool. I fanned out so hard. Growing up, I was really into Sassy and the boy's version, Dirt. It was exciting to meet her. She definitely changed the face of magazines forever.

That was sort of dinner-ish. Then I went to an empty-loft party around the corner from my apartment on Eldridge and Canal. They were playing disco, and it was jam-packed, with everyone sweating and dancing. I went up to the roof to cool off, and it was full of people partying. I hung out and got home and realized I had silver roofing tar all over my ass and I was really bummed out about that.

Really late-night, around 3 a.m., I ordered Lil' Frankies and just ate it in bed. I had the Lil' Frankies Salad, which is arugula, roasted beets, tomatoes, green beans, new potatoes, broccoli, red onions, zucchini, and fresh fennel. Then I ordered ravioli with spinach and ricotta, and the Nutella Focaccino with strawberries; it's a dessert they have. Read the rest here.

Now...I know we talked about old favorites that you'd like to see in an imaginary book and I thank everyone for the inspirational ideas (some we actually already make but they haven't made it on the official menu yet!). The thing about it is, that I'd also like to ask you hypothetically again for some requests. What if I were to hypothetically write a "how-to" book about opening a small business. Any burning questions you'd like answered? Advice you'd like to hear? Hairstyles advise that will land you the job?

Again, I'm just asking.

Well, hello everyone! I know it's sort of shocking to hear from me because I've fallen off the blog wagon lately but I am seriously back! I've got a lot to share, but I'll break it up into daily posts so I don't blog you down with too much information.

Ok! So, if I was speaking hypothetically about working on a new cookbook that would recreate old, classic desserts and I asked you what you would hypothetically wish would be in that hypothetical book, what would you say? Is there any cake, cookie, pie, teacake, brownie, mish or mash that you've been dying to experience?

Just askin...

Erin McKenna, the brains and beauty behind BabyCakes NYC, plans a bi-coastal takeover for the books.

Read the whole article on VegNews.com.