Let Them See Cake

Apologies, apologies. I still don’t have my camera cord, so I am on a break from posting new recipes. However, I have some stored pictures that I thought some of you might enjoy. Namely, the above picture of amazing cake. The first weekend in December, I spent in New York City visiting my brother and his girlfriend, Claire. They live on the Lower East Side, amidst a delectable collection of David Chang restaurants. Our first night in the city, we waited until midnight to eat dinner at Momofuku Ssam.  And it was worth it.  Every bite of pork belly in my steamed bun convinced me of that fact.  A short walk down the hall is Momofuku Milk Bar, where I first encountered this counter:

Don’t let the crazy names fool you – compost cookie, cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookie, and corn cookie are some of the best mouthfuls you’ll ever meet.  In addition to cookies, the Milk Bar serves cakes and pies.  “Crack Pie”, in case anyone’s wondering, is made of butter, brown sugar, heavy cream, corn flour, and a hint of nutmeg.  Apt name, I’d say.  I am of course not the first to laud the offerings of the Milk Bar – Adam of Amateur Gourmet named the Banana Cake his 2nd best dish of 2008, and Serious Eats gives you the full run-down of the offerings, but I am here to reinforce the ruling of ‘truly awesome’.

The cake you see above is a chocolate fudge cake with yellow cake icing.  That’s about all I can say, until you taste it.  The ‘cake’ part melds into the ‘icing’ part so it is just one incredible bite of soft, creamy, vanilla-and-chocolate-flavored scrumptiousness.  Like I said, you have to taste it.  If I haven’t convinced you to go, read Frank Bruni’s article.  He really knows what he’s talking about.  I just pretend to.