Lulu's Cake Boutique

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Eating stuff from a "Cake Boutique" makes me feel less fat stuffing my face with cupcakes and upgraded Hostess treats

In college there was a Mexican Bodega in New Brunswick that one of my friends lived near and every time I came to visit, I would usually stop there because they had these knock-off types of Twinkies that were covered in chocolate. Growing up in an anti-Hostess home, these were a guilty pleasure. Now in the “real” world with responsibilities, it is inevitable that you just need to upgrade, Velcro wallet to leather, Natty Ice to Artisan Beer and Hostess cakes to Lulu Cake Boutique. 

Lulu is a bakery that is located just a block away from Chelsea Market can be easily missed in the midst of traffic and cars heading to the tunnel. Stepping into Lulu’s you enter a chic and contrasting white space and makes you think that you mistakenly walked into a cosmetic store and made me do a double take, but the rows of sweets assured me I was right where I wanted to be. 

Lulu offers cakes, cookies, Intelligentsia coffee and of course cupcakes, but they also do an upgrade on nostalgic treats like Twinkies, Yodels and Snowballs. These are not just copies of Hostess treats; they are more like an improved overhaul of these lunchbox treats. They have a couple of Twinkies ranging from the chocolate, red velvet and the one that I picked up, the passion fruit white chocolate, called the passion fruit lulu, which I am assuming is called that due to trademark, but I can safely call it a Twinkie. The snack cake is dense and filled with a luscious tart passion fruit filling and covered in a white chocolate glaze and a sprinkle of coconut. I also tried the chocodiles, which was basically a Yodel or a mini chocolate roll cake. Mini is an understatement, and it is a sizeable confection and it is easily twice the size of a Hostess Yodel and of course tasted twice as good.  Cake Pornage after the Jump!

chocodile- will cure any chocolate craving

Realized after eating it that white on white was a bad idea

Cupcakes is a staple on any bakery menu now, and Lulu’s does a respectable job on the cupcakes. I tried two of their cupcakes, the vanilla cake with crunchy hazelnut buttercream and their “mojito” cupcake that had a vanilla cake base, rum custard filling and a minty buttercream. The vanilla cake was a basic yellow cake that was fine and was not dry. The buttercream is rich and creamy and the praline hazelnut added nice sweet touch and crunch to the cupcake. I also had the basic vanilla cake with a raspberry buttercream which can also be described as a win with real raspberries being used in the buttercream and imparting the natural sweetness and tang of the raspberries. The mojito unfortunately was not really my kind of cake. 

Mojito

Glazey River Cupcake

The separate components were fine, but the combination of it together was did not really work. The Minty green buttercream had an overbearing taste of spearmint which clashed and overpowered the cupcake, it may not have tasted that great, but I would be one of the few times that I had minty fresh breath after eating a cupcake. The ratio of buttercream to cake was in perfect sync and although the Mojito is a “skip it” I would not hesitate to get the cupcakes here again. 

Raspberry Cupcake

One thing that I really like about Lulu is that they offer cake slices which choosing between a cupcake and a slice of cake, I am going for the cake. Layers of cake, buttercream and various fillings you can have a perfect sweet bite every time. The various cakes that they offer rotate, but I was lucky enough to get a slice of their Glazey River Cake, composed of crème fraiche yellow cake, hazelnut buttercream, praline crunch and bittersweet chocolate glaze. The cake was nothing short of a solid piece of cake, even layers of cake and buttercream and the praline crunch offers that exact kick to the cake. This is the type of cake that you wake up in the middle of the night and eat with from the fridge with the door still open, boxers are optional. 

Glazey River Cake- couldn't wait to eat it

 Lulu's Cake Boutique 
112 Eighth Ave.
New York, New York 10011
http://chelsea.everythinglulu.com/page.asp?content_id=23526