Empire Cake, NYC

It seems that every time I visit the New York office, I encounter Empire Cake.  Probably because it is located close by my office, and they make custom items.  Admins love it for easily getting special goodies for the team.  And because it is good.  Really good.

"Empire Cake brings you the best in American baking with a gourmet twist. We feature fresh-baked cakes, cupcakes, cookies, breakfast pastries, brownies and bars, and sophisticated versions of classic snack treats, including our own “twinkies,” “snowballs” and Swiss rolls."

Every single cake or cupcake I have had from Empire has been good.  Moist, sweet, flavorful cakes, and that buttercream!  Swoon, the buttercream.  I just can't get over it.  

Setting

The bakery is, literally, across the street from my office.  It was easy for me to go check out in person.

Store Front.

The front of the store is quite inviting, with huge cakes in the window, although, alas, those are not real.

Cupcakes.

However, there are plenty of real ones once you step inside!  Cases and cases of goodies.  The cupcakes are what seem to show up constantly in my office.

Other Goodies.

They also make standard cakes, assorted bars, and some fun novelty items, like snowballs and swiss rolls!

Cupcakes at the Office.

It still shocks me that, literally, something like 80% of the time I visit the NYC office I find cake or cupcakes from Empire Cake in a microkitchen.  I know the boxes now well.  This is a very normal sighting - extra cupcakes, free for the taking!

Cakes & Cupcakes

Given the name, Empire Cake, it should come as no surprise that cakes are their speciality.  Available in many sizes, many tiers, many flavors, all sorts of customizations, buttercream or fondant decorated, etc.  I'd love to see their wedding cakes sometime!

The cakes all feature one signature thing: buttercream.

"Buttercream is what you’ll commonly see on many traditional cakes.  It is made primarily of butter, egg whites and sugar.  At Empire Cake we make a Swiss Meringue Buttercream which has a silky, delicious taste and will allow for a nice, smooth finish on your cake."

Yes, most cakes have buttercream frosting, but ... the buttercream at Empire Cake, uh, takes the cake for being the best I've ever had.  The quality of their sourcing, local butter and cream, is apparent, as is the commit to quality throughout, like using fresh seasonal produce from the Union Square Greenmarket. 

July 2018

My first encounter was in July 2018 when I walked through a microkitchen and found a bunch of cupcakes, many only halves or quarters remaining.  I remember trying a few kinds, including a shockingly good gluten-free one.  I liked them enough that I paid attention to the brand, so I was rather thrilled a few days later when the event I was attending had cake ... from Empire Cake!

All The Cakes: Vanilla, Carrot, Red Velvet, Chocolate, and Raspberry Lemon.

The event was large, and our hosts went all out, ordering 5 massive, supersized, cakes.

These cakes had a huge diameter, and were 3 very thick layers tall.  Slicing off "just a small piece" of any of them was impossible, comical even.

We ... didn't come remotely close to finishing them.  I took some extra back to hotel and had it as midnight snacks most nights.

Very Vanilla:
"Our moist vanilla crème fraîche cake filled and frosted with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream."

Carrot:
"Spiced organic carrot cake with pecans, layered and covered with cream cheese frosting."

Red Velvet:
"Our moist red velvet cake filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting."

Raspberry Lemon:
"Vanilla crème fraîche cake layered with raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream and lemon curd filling, covered with raspberry buttercream."

Seriously so much cake!

I had them all, and didn't take notes at the time, but my favorite was the carrot, loaded up with goodies/nuts/raisins/pineapple/etc.  But I remember liking them all, and again, zomg, that buttercream.

October 2018

The next time I was visiting the office, my very first day, basically the same experience as in July.  Walking through a microkitchen and ...

Box for Cupcakes.

Yup, boxes of cupcakes!

And these ones *weren't* all cut up.  They did have only simple vanilla and chocolate left, but I was still pleased to find them.

Two days later?  Same thing.  Ones does not need to look hard for Empire Cake in this office.

Very Vanilla.

"Our moist vanilla crème fraîche cake frosted with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream."

I started with a simple, classic "Very Vanilla".  It was a good cupcake.  Seriously, for a cupcake, this was great.  Sweet dense moist well made cake.  As good as a vanilla cake is going to be.  The creme fraiche clearly helps make it good.

On top?  Perfectly sweet fluffy buttercream.  And plenty of it.  That buttercream is really shockingly good.  But yes, sweet sweet sweet.

I really enjoyed this, enough so that I took a second cupcake (a different kind!), and I had literally just had other dessert before it ... thank you, random team, for having extra cupcakes!

Very Vanilla.

Two days later ... more cupcakes.  Another event.  More extra cupcakes.

I gladly snagged a vanilla, this time with blue icing and a different fondant topper, but still, the same cupcake essentially.

I again adored the frosting, and I think the blue color made me enjoy it even more.  I know that sound silly but ... I loved it!

Vanilla on Chocolate.

"Chocolate cake with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream."

Next I had the chocolate cake version, same incredible buttercream.

The chocolate cake was also good, it had an interesting flavor to it, a bit of a tang almost?  I think I preferred the vanilla though.

Vanilla on Chocolate.

Two days later, yup, more of the cupcakes.

This time, I preferred the chocolate to the vanilla.  But my preference is slight, as both versions are truly wonderful.

The blue buttercream was again just slightly more fun.

GF Vanilla on Chocolate.

"Our moist gluten-free chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting."

And finally, since there were plenty of these still left at the end of the day, I opted for the gluten-free one, remembering that the gluten-free cupcakes I tried before were actually quite good.

It too had the same great frosting, and looked almost like the regular chocolate, but was a darker brown.

It too was good, and honestly, I would have never guessed it was gluten-free.  Such good cupcakes.

Hazelnut Cake. (Oct 2018).

"Vanilla crème fraîche cake filled and frosted with hazelnut Swiss meringue buttercream and hazelnut praline, topped with a bittersweet chocolate glaze."

And then ... yes, that same visit, just a few days later ... a cake!  This was also very good.

Same moist tangy creme fraiche based cake, this time with the same style of incredible fluffy sweet buttercream, just, nutty hazelnut flavored.  Loved it.  The chocolate glaze complimented it well.

I first thought this was peanut butter and chocolate, but once I learned it was hazelnut it made more sense.

Very tasty cake, would gladly eat again.

July 2019

I can't make this up.  Seriously, every visit to the office, cupcakes.

Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes.

These all had orange colored buttercream, but it was just plain vanilla, not flavored in any way.

I adored the buttercream as always, soooo generously applied, and sweet and buttery and tasty.

The vanilla cake was good, very sweet, moist enough, but not quite as magical as I had remembered.

The chocolate however?  OMG.  So very good.  Rich, dense, chocolately, and balanced nicely by the super sweet buttercream.  This place makes me like cupcakes!

Uh, congrats "Vector" team?  And thank you.

Classic Treats

"We are well known for our homemade, gourmet versions of classic American treats, which have been featured in such publications as The New York Times, New York Daily News, and Martha Stewart Weddings, and even presented by Whoopi Goldberg to Jimmy Fallon on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon!"

It was hard to stray from the cupcakes and cakes, but when I actually visited the bakery myself, in person, to purchase some goodies, I decided to expand my horizons and try some "classic treats". These treats range from homemade Twinkies, to Swiss Rolls, to Snowballs. or, you know, their take on them. 

My Goodies.

Since I didn't plan to eat them right away, I wanted something that would hold up ok a few days, although, I knew from plenty of experience, that the cupcakes do hold up absolutely fine for a couple days in the fridge.

Still, I wanted to branch out.

I went for a couple items, really just impulse shopping at this point.

Snack Cakes (Homemade "Twinkies")

The item I've been eyeing on Instagram is the snack cakes, basically, their version of Twinkies: cakes filled with a cream filling and covered in a white or milk chocolate coating.  I was told these would hold up even better than cupcakes.

The snack cakes were available in a few flavors, including Brooklyn Blackout, Red Velvet, and a Pride special Funfetti version.

Red Velvet.

"Red velvet cake with cream cheese filling, dipped in Belgian white chocolate."

I couldn't remember if I liked the red velvet before, but I knew I really liked the carrot cake, and that had cream cheese frosting, so, I mostly selected the red velvet to try the cream cheese frosting again.  Also, I wanted a white chocolate shell rather than milk.

The white chocolate shell was fine, pretty standard white chocolate, thicker than I expected, sweet.

Red Velvet: Inside.

Inside, the cream stuffed cake.

I was hoping for more cream cheese filling inside.  I realize now this is still a totally reasonable filling amount, but, I adore the frosting from Empire Cake so much, and I appreciate their usual ratio of very generous frosting, so, this was far less filling compared to the usual frosting, which left me wishing I had a cupcake.

The cake seemed more dense as well, and I wasn't really into the red velvet flavor.

I ... wished I had gotten a cupcake.  The snack cake didn't seem to be the thing for me.

Funfetti.

"Confetti cake filled with cake batter frosting, dipped in white chocolate & drizzled with rainbow colors."

But I also opted for the fun Pride themed snack cake, Funfetti!  Of course, I got this before I tried any snack cake, and didn't realize I wasn't a fan of the form factor.

I wasn't drawn in by the rainbow colors exactly, but I do generally like a good funfetti cake, and also, I really wanted to try the cake batter frosting.

The shell on this was the same thick white chocolate, this time drizzled with rainbow colors.

Funfetti: Inside.

The filling amount was pretty much the same as the red velvet too - the amount appropriate for a Twinkie, but, not nearly as much as I wanted.  The blue color was fun, and I liked the colors in the funfetti cake.  Clearly, this was a fun item.

But ... it was much like the other snack cake.  The cake was fine, dense, fairly standard cake.  The frosting amount was too minimal to really taste.  I can't say I tasted birthday cake. 

The snack cakes are cute, but ... I'm a frosting girl, so these aren't what I'd go for again.

Cookies

"Our cookie selection changes daily, but some of our most popular are classic chocolate chip cookies with Callebaut chocolate, walnut thumbprints with apricot or raspberry jam, Russian tea cakes, oatmeal raisin cookies, molasses ginger snaps, rainbow sprinkle sugar cookies, cinnamon sugar snickerdoodles, and the “8th Avenue”—our almond-flour cookies with dried fruit and nuts."

I'm not a cookie person.  You know this.  I know this.

Cookies Galore.

It wasn't until I visited the shop that I learned that, along with cupcakes and cakes obviously, cookies are a big focus of Empire Cake's offerings.

I wasn't drawn in by most of them, but on the bottom shelf were cookie sandwiches, filled with buttercream.  Swoon, that buttercream.  I almost went for one of those, but the cookies themselves really didn't look special.

Plus, I had read many reviews of the black and white cookies.  People love them.  Available in several sizes, including mini.  How could I not at least try a mini?

Mini Black & White Cookie.

"Our Pride inspired white chocolate covered "Black and White" rainbow cookies are available all month!! Come taste the rainbow!!"

The black and white cookies are normally, well, black and white, but for Pride, in addition to the classic black and whites, they had several different rainbow color choices.  I went for purple, just because.

This is the mini size, a regular size, and larger size, are also available.

It was ... boring.  It was much like the snack cake, but, without frosting at all.  Just plain cake, and white chocolate coating.  Very uninteresting, even though the white chocolate was good quality.