a "me" day

Everyone needs a "me" day, a day when you get to do whatever you want, unencumbered by the usual responsibilities of life.

What would your day look like? Would it be a day spent jumping the waves at the beach? Reading fireside? Hiking in the forest? Relaxing in a spa?

My "me" day was this past Monday, which found me walking the streets of Manhattan on a mini bakery tour. (Mini here means "not full-fledged", as I was limited in both time and, more unfortunately, stomach space.)


First stop: Lulu Cake Boutique— a shop filled with beautifully decorated cakes, precious cookies, tempting cupcakes, and best of all— retro confections, their modern interpretations of the Twinkie, Snowball and Yodel.

The red velvet cupcake was delicious, though slightly dry. 

Cupcakes, if overbaked even two minutes, are unforgiving.

Pink Snowballs and Yodels

Lulus

Passion fruit filling

and, of course, the ubiquitous red velvet

We ate the lulus two days after purchase. The cake was surprisingly still moist, the white chocolate exterior (I know there are many non-fans out there!) was thankfully not too sweet and the passion fruit creme was particularly delicious.

Second stop: Three Tarts Bakery + Boutique

I love their framed blackboard signage.

 Jewels- gelées atop panna cotta

 Mounds of marshmallows

 Orange-infused brownies

 Assorted mini tarts

 Dainty mini parfaits

Everything looked enticing, but I only bought the passion fruit marshmallows and petit fours. Both are absolutely wonderful. 

The marshmallows are powdery, puffy and pillowy — positively perfect! 

The petits fours are miniature cakes, perfectly sweetened, moistened with apricot jam,

 and rich with almond flavor. 

to be continued...