All the best things are named Lulu

We have Lululemon, which is of course the best running & yoga clothes ever.
We have my brother's nickname for me, which is Lu, and I'm of course awesome.
Now we have Lulu's, an awesome bakery in Chelsea that made the cut for this week's blog post.

Lulu's takes classic desserts like twinkies and snowballs and adds their own twist.
You can find 3 different kinds of twinkies - blackout twinkies - chocolate cake covered in chocolate and filled with chocolate pudding. Lemon twinkies - lemon snack cakes filled with lemon curd dipped with white chocolate. And Red Velvet lulu's - filled with cream cheese frosting and dipped in white chocolate.

The snowballs were filled with coconut custard, and looked liked larger, fresher versions of the ever-famous Hostess snacks. They have them in pink and white, which I am pretty sure taste the same but just use different colored marshmallows.There are a ton of cupcakes - dulce leche (which of course I'm partial to since that's what I lived on in Argentina!), pistachio rose, chocolate hazelnut, black sesame and strawberry.  There are of course also traditional flavors, vanilla and chocolate and red velvet.  They all looked pretty good, but the purpose of today's visit was to try something new. There's also about 8 million cakes - birthday cake!

cheesecake! devils food cake! carrot cake!  I developed diabetes reading the menu.  Disclaimer* my birthday is September 8th, and there is a cake called Cookie Monster (chocolate devil's food cake, organic vanilla buttercream, chocolate-covered homemade "oreos") which I wouldn't be disappointed if someone got for me.

My main complaint was I think their prices are out of control. $3 for one twinkie? Can't you buy an entire box for $2.50 at Pathmark?  Have I been away so long that bakery prices have doubled?  An 8" cake costs $45 which also seems a little insane. But, for a one-time treat, it might be okay.

I tried the blackout twinkie. It might have been a little bit too much chocolate, which is something you rarely hear me say. But the chocolate cake with the chocolate pudding filling with the chocolate - a little bit overwhelming.  I had to take bites of it over the course of two hours (thank you guest blogger of the week Michelle for holding my twinkie and letting me take bites every half an hour!)  Thank you other guest blogger Steph for telling me about this wonderful place!

Lulu Cake Boutique is located at 112 Eighth Ave (between 15th & 16th st). There's also a location in Scarsdale, but since New Yorker don't leave the city, I won't bother posting that location :)

V is for Vegan, that's good enough to eat

Now that our blog has reached 100 hits (thanks everyone for reading!), we have decided to incorporate new places (hopefully before other people get to them), and some of our old favorites into the mix so we can share the chocolatey knowledge.  On the way to explore the new Trader Joe's last night (which, by the way - is amazing! Never going to Union Square again!), I decided to walk down 9th Avenue and pop in to an old favorite, known for their flavored marshmallows.  On the way down, I passed Cocoa V, a vegan (and kosher) bakery, dessert and wine bar opened by Pamela  Blackwell of Blossom fame (at least famous among the vegan audience).  The 'chocolate boutique' is relatively new, having just opened in November 2009.  Pam's mission was to educate chocolate lovers about animal cruelty, and show them that dessert can taste just as good, even without using animal parts. Who would ever guess!

Now, as I mentioned, all of the desserts are vegan.  The chocolate is made with organic cocoa, cocoa butter, soy lecithin and sugar or agave syrup.   They use cocoa beans from Dominican Republic, then process them in Switzerland, and are then shipped over to the states where all products are made right in their kitchen down in Chelsea.  This of course makes them more appealing, because we only like things that aren't from America :)

Needless to say, I didn't make it to my marshmallow place (which WILL be featured at a later time and date, promise.)  I went in to the bakery section and found it hard to choose between the chocolate covered edamame, the dark chocolate bark, and the assortment of baked goods.  Of course, I opted for the brownie, because I'm always on the hunt for THE best brownie.  We've found our best cookie already, the Cjaps agree is Levain.  To date, our favorite brownie is the recently reviewed Astor Bakery brownie. 

Now whether you're an animal lover or have moose heads hanging on your wall, you'll agree on one thing - you can't tell the difference when you eat the brownie.  It's about the size of your palm, and half is covered in powder - we can only guess that's for decoration, as it didn't alter the taste in any way.  The brownie was fudgy, but not overly sweet since it was made with agave instead of sugar.  There were chocolate chips spread throughout, although it wouldn't have disappointed me if there were just a few more.  The Cjaps and guest chocolatier of the day Matilda all agreed that it wasn't their favorite, but it was pretty good.  The more bites we took, the better it got.  It wasn't overwhelming, and the 3 girls were easily able to share it.  And since it's vegan, we can justify by saying it's good for the animals. We saved a cow. And maybe a chicken. At least the egg.  I would definitely come back to Cocoa V for their wine/dessert pairings.  What's better than alcohol and chocolate!  The only down side is it's a little bit expensive - the brownie was only $3, but the chocolates are around $7-$10 for the bark.  But, this is NY, so that isn't too shocking considering it's vegan and contains all natural ingredients.

Cocoa V is located at 174 9th Avenue near W 21st Street.
www.cocoav.com