So I woke up early Sunday, got all ready and packed and took my luggage with me to my final stop. Levain Bakery in the Upper West Side. I was staying in Queens, which was pretty close to the airport, so the bakery would be going into the city in the opposite direction.
Levain Bakery - Upper West Side
167 West 74th St
New York, NY, 10023
(212) 874-6080
http://www.levainbakery.com/
Price: $
The commute actually wasn't so bad. Plus I got to meet up with a friend of mine one more time before I left. I got to the bakery and realized it was tiny. I guess living in Dallas makes me think of a bakery like a cafe where you can sit and chill and stuff. This place was smallll. It had a few stools inside but for the most part I saw people sitting on the steps and curbs outside.
We got lucky when we arrived because the rush of people had dispersed. So we actually got to sit inside! The place smelled amazing and it made me drool just seeing their baked goods on display.
My friend had never been there. She got a Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie (semi sweet chocolate chips and chunks of walnuts) $4~ (and a cup of milk!)
I was getting a bunch of stuff to take back to Dallas with me.
Plus I got the Oatmeal Raisin Scone $3~ to eat there.
I also got one of each cookie:
Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie (semi sweet chocolate chips and chunks of walnuts) $4~
Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie (dark chocolate cocoa and semi sweet chips) $4~ Super chocolatey. Sooo rich and decadent. I ate 1/5th of it on the plane and it was plenty! Can you imagine eating a whole cookie in one sitting? Heaven! And then sugar coma! haha
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies $4~ Amazing! So much pb chips throughout.
Like I said, each cookie is like 6 oz. and massive!! But all of them had the perfect crisp exterior and soft centers. I'd really like to know how they achieve that. And the cookies last for quite a while. Even days after, I'd warm up a piece in the microwave and it would taste like it just came freshly out of the oven. Loves it! I've decided that these are the BEST cookies I've ever had in my life. No joke!! And totally worth every penny.
Cinnamon Brioche $3.50~ The brioche was soft and delicious. I wished they put more cinnamon spread inside tho. The ratio of cinnamon to bread was a little bit lacking.
Blueberry Muffin (with fresh blueberries) $3~ This was chock full of plump blueberries. Yummmmmmm!
I'm so glad my friend INSISTED for me to go to Levain Bakery. It was definitely worth waking up early and commuting across town for!! haha. But I'm also glad that it's not anywhere close to me on a daily basis because I'd just be like 400 lbs! XP
Great way to end my awesome trip to NYC. The best weather I've every experienced there, all the awesome people I got to hang out with, plus all the fantastic food!!!
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
The Cakepad
This is a 2 layer red velvet cake with cream cheese filling and frosting. The red is so rich and vibrant! It's really pretty to look at especially with the contrasting whiteness of the frosting. The cake flavor is your typical red velvet cake but the frosting was very cream cheesy. Now, I actually liked that it wasn't too sweet and the cream cheese flavor sort of brought a savory element into it all. Some people did not like that though. I guess because it's not really your typical cream cheese frosting. The cake was good... fluffy...I felt it could be a little more moist. I'm super picky about cake moistness though. Everyone else enjoyed it.
OMG! This looked sooo good. But I was a little torn on this. I LOVEEEEED the ganache and mousse topping. I can eat buckets of the mousse! The only thing was the cake was too flaky and didn't hold up to the mousse and ganache. It was difficult to cut through the cake without it falling apart. I think maybe if the ganache layer was slightly thinner or maybe put a layer of the mousse in the middle as well would help gel it together more. However, the flavor of the entire cake was fantastic. Super chocolatey, but it wasn't super sweet. If you love chocolate this is definitely for you!
This was the one I was really eager to try...except the coconut. I absolutely cannot stand eating coconut flakes...it's all because of the texture. I can't stand it at all. :( I mean I love coconut milk in curry and desserts and stuff...just not the flakes. But despite that, I really wanted to try the green tea. He told me that the green tea powder he uses is high quality, straight from Japan. It's a little stronger so you can actually taste the green tea flavor in the cake. So I tried it first with the coconut flakes. I can't do it...just can't... ended up scraping most of the flakes off the frosting. But without it, I really liked it. You can definitely taste the green tea, but it wasn't so strong that it becomes bitter. The green tea frosting was my favorite part. I wish there was a little bit thicker layer of frosting in the middle though, cuz it's sooo yummy! A lot of my other friends that tried it really liked it. Most of them like coconut so they enjoyed the cake as a whole.
This one isn't available for purchase just yet. I normally don't like carrot cakes because I really dislike carrots. I know, I know...you can't really taste them, but it's more of a memory it brings back more than anything. But I've been trying to be more open minded and I can actually tolerate carrots in certain things now...sort of...haha. To my surprise, I really enjoyed the cake! There's just the right amount of walnuts inside the cake and pecans outside the cake for texture. The cake is light and fluffy and the cream cheese is the same as the red velvet. Not slapped on too thick and not too sweet. I would definitely eat this again.
This one is also not available for purchase yet. This was surprisingly my favorite out of the bunch (since I'm such a chocoholic). :P The cake was SUPER moist, I think partially because of the custard, which was creamy and smooth. You can see the slices of fresh bananas in the cake but it was a nice surprise when I got a bite of cake/custard with actual pineapple chunks in it. YUM! The bits of pineapple added texture to the soft cake and custard. I still didn't like the toasted coconut on top, but I was able to scrape it off. The flavors were light and bright and all complimented each other very well. You get a hint of banana and bits of pineapple in every bite. What a great combination! :)
Each donut is $4.25 and you have to add $1 if you get the meat ones. Pretty damn pricey.... 
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