NYC: Bakery Review - Two Little Red Hens

Two Little Red Hens Bakery - visited November 19, 2016

After my sojourn to Laduree on Madison Ave, I still had time before I went to meet Shawn for brunch to check out another bakery. I mapped myself over to Two Little Red Hens which was only a mile or so away from Laduree and (sort of) on the way to Tavern on the Green which is where we'd decided to have brunch. Have shoes, legs and feet, will walk miles for baked goods.

I can't remember what made me choose Two Little Red Hens as opposed to the other bakeries in Manhattan. It was probably location since I was already going to be headed to that part of Manhattan. Or it could've been a random yelp review. Or someone mentioning their cupcakes were good. It didn't matter because as soon as I stepped in, I was glad I came.

This is exactly the kind of bakery I like to try out. Lots of beautiful desserts in the display cases, small-ish space, kitchen on premise, friendly counter staff. I think I'd come with the intent of trying out a cupcake but they said they didn't make their cupcakes until the afternoon. I was there in the morning before 10 am. Bummer.

Undeterred and still having red velvet on the brain, I opted to get the 5" cute little red velvet cake instead. I did blink a little at the $15 price tag for such a small cake but when in New York.... Yes, it went into a bakery box and bag and I carted it several more miles to Central Park. I wandered around killing time before I met Shawn, GPS'd my way to what Google maps claimed was Tavern on the Green only to discover it erroneously led me to a museum 1.5 miles away. Ugh.

I redirected the GPS to tell me where I was really supposed to go - no, really, somewhere in Central Park, not the outskirts, and hustled my way to arrive 20 minutes late. More on that in the Tavern on the Green post coming up.

But in happier news, later that day, I cut into the little cake and let me tell you, it was worth every step of the 13-ish miles I had walked that day.

It wasn't just the flavor of the red velvet cake which in itself was pretty good, not quite chocolate but not just a red-colored cake either. But the cake texture was everything. Fluffy but not light-cakey. Not pound-cake-texture heavy either. But, like the Crumbs dulce de leche cupcake, it was just right.

I wish I could make cakes like this, I really do. I make decent cakes but so far I haven't cracked the code on making cakes with this kind of texture. It wasn't too soft, it wasn't too dense and it wasn't too airy but just right. Fluffy is the only way I can think to describe it although not as fluffy as my beloved banana cake from Icing on the Cake. But still a good fluffy.

That $15 for a little cake? Worth every penny. I want to learn how to make cakes with this kind of texture. I suspect cake flour for some of the flour, hence the softness of the crumb. But not all cake flour or else the texture would be too soft. I need to experiment.