While watching the Travel Channel recently, there was a feature on some of the country's best desserts. Located in Reading Terminal market on 12th and Arch streets in Philly, this historic specialty Amish farmer's market since 1893 features some of Philly's most unique and mouth-watering merchants, ranging from Amish sweet shops to chocolatiers to Philly cheesesteaks. On this particular episode of the Travel Channel dessert show, I watched as the Flying Monkey Patisserie baked the most interesting cake I've ever seen.
Called a Pumpple Cake, I watched as an apple pie was baked inside a vanilla cake. Covered in a layer of buttercream, the cake was then placed on top of a SECOND cake - a pumpkin pie baked inside a chocolate cake. The double-decker was then covered with a layer of buttercream, speckled with colorful spirnkle bits and pieces, and then ready to be sliced. Not being a fan of pumpkin or apple pie, and discovering a single slice of the cake was estimated to be 1,800 calories, I wasn't going to try the cake, but I needed to see it up close.
When we located Flying Monkey at the far end of Reading Terminal Market, there was a long line of people waiting to try the snacks. Upon closer look, we saw that not just the Pumpple Cake looked amazing, but everything that was baked by scratch on the premises looked better than the next. There were brownies with neverending chocolate chips, whoopie pies, cupcakes, smore bars...you name it, they had it. The more unique desserts were the Arnold Palmer cake - a lemon and sweet tea vodka bundt cake with lemon/sweet tea vodka glaze, and the Elvis cake - a banana chocolate chip cake layered with peanut butter buttercream, adorned with mini chocolate chips. There were also dozens of cupcakes, ranging from your traditional vanilla and chocolates, to the more interesting red velvet and spumoni. There were also cake truffles (similar to what Momofoku now sells pre-packaged out of their midtown location) in chocolate covered dark chocolate cake and chocolate covered strawberry at only $1 a piece.
Since the Cjaps were determined to fit on the return bus back to NYC, we opted to try the brownie and the S'mores. The brownie (priced at $3 a slice) was extremely fudgy, and filled with chocolate chips so that each bite was more chocolatey than the next. The double chocolate brownie was made with two varieties of cocoa and dark chocolate, and each bite had enough sugar to ensure I was never going to sleep that night. I placed this high in my brownie rankings. Caryn liked it, but said it still didn't compare to Baked or Astor Bake Shop. There were other brownies that looked like they would have been amazing as well; Cheesecake brownies with a cheesecake swirl throughout, white chocolate blondies, and Junk in the Trunk brownies - brownies with pretzels, white and dark chocolate, and oreos.
The Smores bar was good, but nothing in comparison to the brownie. It was a homemade marshmallow, half covered in dark chocolate with a splash or Oreos on the side. It was good for a lighter, less guiltful treat, but if you're going to Flying Monkey, I would stick with their cakes, brownies, cupcakes or whoopie pies.
Flying Monkey's website (
http://www.flyingmonkeyphilly.com) has an online shop available to ship cookies and brownies only, however the site was down for now, so for the non-Philly chocolate fans, you're going to have to take the Bolt Bus for now. But believe me, it's worth the trip!
Flying Monkey Patisserie
Reading Terminal Market
12th & Arch Streets
215-928-0340
Open Mon-Sat, 8-6; Sundays 9-5
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