New York - Sweet Revenge

I got home from a short but sweet trip to New York yesterday. I dashed around the city like a crazy person with four of my closest friends, making them all take part in my mini cupcake pilgrimage!

I didn't get to as many bakeries as I had planned or would have liked to but I did come across some great concepts. So Instead of talking about how mediocre Crumbs was or declaring my love for Magnolia bakery's Peanut Butter Pie I am going to talk about Sweet Revenge.

Sweet Revenge is a blink and you miss it bar on Carmine Street in the West Village, possibly my favourite area of the city, just off Bleeker Street. The bar itself is nice enough; small but with large windows opened onto the street, gorgeous artwork on the ceiling but the best thing about this bar was the cabinet filled with different cupcakes that can be paired with their perfect beer or wine partner!

I'm sure I'm not alone in associating cupcake bakeries with boutique coffee shops or tea rooms, so being able to have a beer with my cake after a long day of shopping was a nice change of pace!

I managed to convince all my friends, without much difficulty, to come with me and the five of us piled up our shopping bags and took up the seats at the bar for cake and alcohol, just what we needed.

Between us we tried three of the flavours:

Sweet Revenge – Peanut Butter Cake, Ganache Center, Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting

Pure – Mexican Vanilla Cake and Mexican Vanilla Buttercream

Dirty – Valrhona Cake with Dark Chocolate Truffle

I personally had the Pure with a glass of Frulli (strawberry beer), and although the cake was slightly dense and the vanilla flavouring a little overpowering it went down smoothly with my beer!

I think more than anything I loved the concept and atmosphere of the place, with really friendly informative staff, and if there was somewhere similar in London I could find myself spending many lazy Sunday afternoons drinking and trying different cake combinations. 

Lots of inspiration to be found.