Chelsea Market

If you finish the High Line at Gansevoort Street, it is a quick walk to Chelsea Market at 75 9th Avenue. Here you'll find shops, good eats, and restaurants. If you like food, you'll want to visit!

My main reason for visiting was to visit Fat Witch Bakery. They bake their famous brownies from scratch with no preservatives - and none were listed on the labels. Just eggs, milk, chocolate, sugar, butter, flour, vanilla, and salt in their original brownie.

There are more flavours to choose from - walnut, cappuccino, dried cherries, white chocolate, caramel, oatmeal, and coffee. And they're all neatly packaged with a cute witch label.

It's probably the simplicity of it that makes this bakery so charming! If you want to take their secrets home, they have a cookbook with an easy title to remember, Fat Witch Bakery Cookbook.

Witch brew anyone? We ended up getting the original brownie and the Java Witch. They were part of a complete breakfast the next day. Delicious!

Eleni's is a place that I read about from Kevin and Amanda's, who simply raves about their cupcakes. I think if I haven't heard of Eleni's, I would have still been drawn into their shop.

I mean, how could you not walk in and stare?

Chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles!

Oreo madness!

Crisps!

Pails of candy!

And these. These are adorable gift boxes of decorated cookies. I can't even estimate how much time goes into the details of piping and filling these with icing. They have so many themes, too. Looking through their website, Eleni's is actually famous for their custom cookies - more so than the cupcakes!

Sarabeth's Bakery was another that drew us in. Maybe because it looked warm and cozy. Or maybe it was the large windows showing the kitchen and work space.

This has got to be one of my favourite shots. And guess what? There's a book! Sarabeth’s Bakery: From My Hands to Yours, which means recipes you can try at home! I'm adding this, along with the Fat Witch Bakery Cookbook to my holiday wish list.

Ruthy's Bakery & Cafe intrigued us enough to take a look. We will admit that we hadn't heard of them before, but it appears that they're rugelach are quite popular.

Their cookies and macarons, too.

But these cupcakes were the main draw for the store. Curious as ever, do you think it's frosting, rice krispies, or fondant under the exterior? They are quite big decorations and they look edible (even as a display only), but I sure hope it's not a giant ball of fondant!

That ladybug is just so content with itself! Ridiculously cute.

Of course, there were many places where we didn't get a chance to have a decent visit, Amy's Bread, Jacques Torres Chocolates, and People's Pop to name a few. That means there is good reason to return!

Chocolate Peanut Butter and Banana Bars

Something neat arrived in an intermodal container this week. (Yes, I had to look up "intermodal container" in order to know what to call them. Learned something new!) The container was marked as private with a Max Gross of 32.500 kgs (71.650 lbs). I don't think I can lift that...

It told me to reveal, so I carefully tugged at the Velcro strip and pulled out Reese Minis!

Tumble out little Minis! Warning: these are dangerous to have around because they are miniature versions of the Peanut Butter Cups and are unwrapped. You'll eat four or five and think nothing of it, but soon the whole bag is devoured!

I was sharing the cool packaging on twitter when Sarah from What Smells So Good? tweeted this:

Done! We're making those! (Click on the image above to see the recipe.) When I told Howard what we were making, he said, "what? We have to bake with it?" Yes. It became a challenge to NOT eat them as they are.

See me covering the black bottom here with more banana batter:

Then scoring out 16 bars with Reese Minis in the center:

Hey, what smells so good?

These bars! Only 2 Reese Minis high, hehee!

Before I ate every last crumb, I noticed this one:

Still showing the black bottom and top layer. =)

So readers, if you were given some Reese Minis, what would you make? Enter our Reese Minis Giveaway:

1. Please tell us what you would do with Reese Minis? Do you prefer them as they are? Or do you want to dress up a dessert or baked good? Maybe something savory? Leave your creative responses in the comments below.
   
2. Don't forget to leave me an e-mail address!
   
3. The Reese Minis Giveaway is open on March 5th 2011 until March 10th 2011. So you have plenty of time to enter! Comments submitted after 12 midnight EST on March 10th will not be considered.
4. The giveaway is only open to those with a Canadian mailing address, sorry folks!
   
5. A lucky winner will be randomly drawn.
   
6. The winner will be announced on March 11th on our blog.

Disclaimer: Thank you to Brittany from M Booth & Associates and those at Hershey's Canada for sending us a sample of Reese Minis and for providing the giveaway.

Blackout Spider Cupcakes

I don't like spiders at all! But when I spotted these spider cupcake holders at Crate and Barrel, I couldn't resist getting one. They make spiders look cute instead of creepy, of course, you could make them creepy too. But I'm going to stick with something I can handle without running away in terror:

Blackout Spider Cupcakes
Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
(Makes about 14 regular cupcakes)

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup of brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
2/3 cup of milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and have all ingredients at room temperature. Place your black or dark brown cupcake liners in the tray.
2. Add in the eggs one at a time. Mix well and scrape the bowl as needed.
3. On a slow speed, add in the vanilla, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until combined.
4. Alternate between the flour and milk. Mix until the batter is well combined.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into your cupcake liners.
6. Bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan before taking them out to frost and decorate.
   

Chocolate Ganache Buttercream
(Makes enough to frost the 12 regular cupcakes)

1 stick of unsalted butter
2 1/2 cup of icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of chocolate ganache

1. Using your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until combined.
2. Add in the vanilla and mix until smooth.
3. Slowly pour in the chocolate ganache and mix until it is well combined, fluffy, and smooth.

Chocolate Crumbs
(Makes enough to cover the 12 regular cupcakes)

2 extra chocolate cupcakes

1. Peel the cupcake liner off your extra baked cupcakes.
2. Using a food processor, break apart the 2 cupcakes and process into crumbs.

Are you ready to assemble your blackout spider cupcake? I do realize that if you don't have the spider legs, it'll be blackout eyes cupcakes. =)

However, you can always use black liquorice candy to be legs.

After you pipe on the chocolate ganache buttercream, use a spatula to create a dome with the frosting. Spread the frosting right to the edge and make sure that the top is higher. I used Reese's Pieces for the eyes, but you can easily substitute that with Smarties or M&M's. Add the eyes before you dip the cupcake in cake crumbs.

Firmly hold the cupcake and lower it into the bowl.

Keep diving in...

Evenly coat the frosting with cake crumbs to create the blackout or furry spider look. If you need to, use a spoon to help you cover spots you missed.

Place your cupcake on the spider legs!

Have a happy Halloween this year! If you also bought the spider cupcake holder, please share your photos with me!

Deep-Fried Butter and Mars Bar

Are you shuddering from the post title? I know that I would be.

This long weekend, Howard and I went to the Canadian National Exhibition with our friends. We had all heard about the deep-fried butter treat from various outlets (Click here, here, and here for more back story). Yet, I didn't think we would have tried it.

After looking at the concession stand dubiously and seeing the long line-up. We were intrigued enough to join the line at Sweet Treats. There in line, we discussed and guessed how the deep-fried butter would taste. We also decided that we would try the deep-fried Mars bars.

As you can see from their sign, Sweet Treats also sells bacon covered in chocolate and Twinkie logs. We weren't too intrigued by those, since we had already heard of bacon cupcakes. The Twinkies also didn't look that crazy.

But, we don't deep-fry things at home (thank goodness), but we were gamed to try.

Well, here they are! Deep-fried butter balls. Thank you Diana for being our hand model (an excellent tilt for my camera to get as much lighting as possible).

I tried the one with chocolate sauce. I first took a bite of the batter - not bad. Then I popped the whole thing in my mouth and bit down. Ugh! The butter just popped in my mouth and oozed around. Not my favourite experience there. Diana and I didn't like it that much. Howard and Kurt found it tolerable and said it wasn't bad. Wasn't bad!

You would think I would hold off eating the deep-fried Mars bar then. Nope. We split it into quarters and each had our bite. This was much better! The fried batter with chocolate and caramel went really well together. There was the "crunch" and the warm gooey bar. We all agreed that this would be a treat we would have again.

Dylan's Candy Bar

Dylan's Candy Bar
1011 Third Ave
New York, NY 10021
(646) 735-0078

Yup, facebook and twitter too!

This wasn't planned! I mean, we were already stopping at every bakery we found, but a giant candy store? Three floors of sweets? Come on!

Dylan's Candy Bar is just full of... well, candy! There is candy everywhere! There are lots of novelty items, apparels, cosmetics, and sweet related merchandises of course. I managed to find a little section that had lots of cupcake things - earrings, candles, books, bags, and boxes.

The very neat thing about Dylan's is that everyone can leave with their favourite candy or make their own mixed selection. They have cute little pails, tins, boxes - basically anything that can be used to carry things. As for another neat feature, they have a display case showing celebrity picks! Here, we have the lovely Nigella Lawson. She seems to prefer black and white M&Ms. I love how each candy box is signed too!!

Hey! It's Buddy from Cakeboss! His favourite candies seem to be various sorts of gummies.

Now, if you continue to the top floor, Dylan's has a cafe and private party rooms (really, a fantastic place to hold a kid's birthday part).

I went up there because there was a sign saying "Cupcakes." They do sell cupcakes at the cafe! I checked the cupcake wrappers and it looks like Crumbs supplies them here. Mmmm, they have cold treats here too!

This was a nice quiet spot to relax. The rush on the main and bottom floors is overwhelming. There are lots of children filling their buckets with candy. Parents in awe of the amount of candy and in turn, chasing after their children. To add to the excitement, there was a giant chocolate fountain on the main floor too. For a price, you can pick an item and dip it in the fountain!

PS: I just found out that Dylan Lauren (the daughter of Ralph Lauren) also has a book coming out this year. Now, wouldn't her Candy Bar be the best place for a book launch? And from the looks of it, her father favours twizzlers!