Posts Tagged ‘Magnolia Bakery’

Break out Your Easter Bonnets for a Festive Easter Celebration in New York City

We might be together as a family this year, but maybe not. Still, there’s every reason to celebrate Easter and the arrival of spring. Here are some ways to make sure you have a sweet holiday with zoom classes, Easter brunches and sweets for every taste.

Enjoy an Easter Brunch with Your Family

NYC restaurants are back in business and are celebrating this year with wonderful Easter brunches. The range of international dining options and the choice to dine indoors or outdoors add a new dimension to this holiday tradition.

Bar Room at the Beekman Courtesy Crafted Hospitality

The Bar Room at the Beekman

From the team behind Tom Colicchio’s Temple Court comes a classically influenced multi-course Easter brunch that’s purely American.  The Bar Room at the Beekman’s first brunch since the return of indoor dining highlights a spring menu from Matthew Dahlkemper and Abby Swain with savory cheddar biscuits, caviar deviled eggs, braised Colorado lamb shank, smoked salmon benedicts & more.

Courtesy The Osprey

The Osprey

At the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, in an airy garden setting, The Osprey has cooked up farm-to-table Easter specials with choices reflecting the global nature of New York City. It’s a tour around the world with the likes of the Osprey’s Nest (poached pasture -raised egg, kadaifi, smoked sablefish, lemon crème fraiche and caviar), chitarra carbonara or rhubarb Pavlova with mascarpone sabayon. The menu comes with a bonus — you can walk over the Brooklyn Bridge when you’re done, so the calories come free of charge.

Courtesy Amali

Amali

Your celebration at Amali is a double Easter fête as it includes a treat for Greek Easter as well.  The Mediterranean-inspired Upper East Sider is all about spring with specials like asparagus salad with a soft boiled red egg, leg of lamb, and ricotta pie with candied lemon and lavender. The bonus is koulourakia, a traditional Greek Easter cookie.

Courtesy La Goulue

La Goulue

A few blocks away, La Goulue adds a French flourish to brunch, as conceived by award-winning Executive Chef Antoine Camin. The special prix fixe menu begins with a patisserie selection of croissants, chocolatines, lemon cake and raisin Danish. The menu itself is a mélange of French and traditional with Easter specials including smoked salmon “Maison,” French toast on brioche, and Croque Monsieur.

Courtesy Via Vai

Via Vai

Astoria’s Via Vai invites you to enjoy an Italian Easter with a four-course prix fixe menu by chef-owner Antonio Morichini. Start with baked eggs with porcini mushroom and fontina cheese, for example, followed by a traditional secondo of pasta. Since lamb is traditional for Easter, order the pappardelle with lamb ragù and, for your main, the scottaditto alla Romana. For dessert, Morichini’s bombolone — sweet Italian donuts filled with vanilla pastry cream — will have you saying grazie mille.

Courtesy Ocean Prime

Ocean Prime

Ocean Prime has an at-home kit should you choose to stay home, but the special Easter brunch at the midtown location might be more of a temptation. Putting a spin on classic American brunch favorites, the in-restaurant menu includes lobster toast, blackened salmon salad, crab and eggs hollandaise, or French toast for something sweet. Known for its innovative cocktails, Ocean Prime serves an Easter-perfect blood orange mimosa to accompany your meal.

Stay Home with the Family

Courtesy Zoom & Bloom

Zoom & Bloom

There may not be an extravagant Easter bonnet parade to watch but Zoom & Bloom has a different idea for a hands-on family activity. You’ll receive a beautiful box of assorted flowers in preparation for a zoom workshop led by NYC floral designer Rebecca Merritt. Everyone can arrange a bloom to make a gorgeous Easter centerpiece.

Courtesy Institute of Culinary Education

ICE

The Institute of Culinary Education will help you ramp up your cooking skills with a Spring Easter Dinner virtual cooking class. Family members, whether in the same room or not, can all participate as Chef Sue Gonsalves demonstrates how to make roast rack of lamb, potato gratin and asparagus with lemon vinaigrette. Attendees will receive recipes and ingredient and equipment lists in advance.

Courtesy Bubby’s

Bubby’s

You could go to Bubby’s in Tribeca to enjoy Chef Ron Silver’s homestyle brunch with sourdough pancakes, Easter ham and his famous pies, but why not turn the pie experience into an at-home activity for all? Bubby’s DIY pie kits come with frozen pie dough, apple or sour cherry filling, a disposable pie tin and a fluted pastry wheel, everything you need to make your own Easter sweet.

Chocolate Eggs, Sprinkles and Sweets

Courtesy Venchi

Venchi

International chocolate sensation Venchi Fine Italian Chocolates has a gift for you for Easter: if you stop by their boutique in Union Square or Columbus Circle, you’ll get a tasting of three of their mini Easter eggs on Easter weekend. True chocoholics will love this place and you’d be remiss if you didn’t take some of their gorgeous (and huge) chocolate eggs home with you. Did I mention that there’s a chocolate waterfall in the downtown shop?

Courtesy Magnolia Bakery

Magnolia Bakery

Everyone goes crazy for Magnolia Bakery‘s cupcakes, but their Easter ones might just be the cutest you’ve ever seen. The special holiday “cupcake dozen” are classic vanilla and chocolate cupcakes done up with pastel buttercream frosting with festive Easter decorations.

Courtesy DO Cookie Dough

DO Cookie Dough

Another contender for most creative Easter sweet treat, DO Cookie Dough’s “Easter taster” is a beautifully packaged two- pack of their classic, safe-to-eat flavors. Divide the packs and share all the great flavors — each one comes with three jars of edible cookie dough with irresistible recipes like cake batter, sugar cookie and gimme s’more.

Courtesy Chip City

Chip City

Gourmet cookie company, Chip City is offering a colorful Easter special that’s sure to sell out early. All ages will love the “Bunny Funfetti,” vanilla sugar cookies mixed with rainbow sprinkles and topped with bunny sprinkles – they’re an Instagram natural.

Courtesy Citarella

Citarella

If all the chocolate, cookie and pie conversation has made you yearn for something that’s not overly sweet, food market Citarella has an option for you too. Their Easter-style buttery Challah bread has just a hint of sugar – it’s decorated with dyed eggs and topped with colorful sprinkles.

For Something Completely Different

Courtesy of The Standard, High Line

The Standard

Play bingo for at The Standard in the Meatpacking District. At 8pm on Easter Sunday, The Standard Biergarten will host a special “Naughty Bunny Bingo” at Not Your Standard Bingo, with games, bunny-themed costumes and an array of colorful shots for guests to win with their bingo successes. The menu is equally fun with a variety of specialty cocktails, punch bowls and “bingo bites” like Korean fried chicken, shrimp spring rolls and fish tacos. Reserve in advance so you won’t be disappointed.

Plan an Anytime Romantic Celebration at Home with These Great Choices

This year is an especially good time to keep the Valentine’s Day momentum going with romance and love.

Have Brunch in Your Pajamas

Marky’s Caviar - Courtesy Marky’s

Chef Budda Lo presents HUSO’s Champagne Brunch, from the speakeasy hidden behind third-generation caviar purveyor Marky’s Caviar. With a breakfast spread of private stock caviar from the group’s own domestic aqua farm, poached eggs, croissants, elderflower Bellini’s and Valrhona chocolate-covered strawberries, you’ll be motivated to stay in PJ’s the entire day.

Bring on the Aphrodisiacs

Courtesy Grand Army

Your at-home Champagne indulgence doesn’t end there. After a post-brunch interlude and perhaps a nap on the sofa, Grand Army brings on more bubbly and presents the consummate aphrodisiac, oysters. Part of a seafood indulgence, Blue Point oysters come with mignonette sauce, littleneck clams, shrimp cocktail and a pair of lobster rolls. Add a finishing chocolate note with creamy chocolate cremeux for dessert with strawberries. Book in advance but pick up your shellfish during the day so the oysters can be freshly shucked.

Courtesy Red Hook Lobster Pound Facebook

There are no oysters in Red Hook Lobster Pound’s seafood soiree but you’ll get plenty of shellfish love with the Brooklyn seafood shack’s Lovester feast. Expect the full New England treatment with this extravaganza — two cooked lobsters (crackers included), mussels, clams, Dungeness crab, shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes. Add a choice of a crab or shrimp cocktail, a bottle of William Hill Chardonnay and two mini chocolate mousse cakes and you have an instant trip to Maine.

Courtesy Fornino

A “Pizza Love Fest” might be more to your liking, and Fornino in Greenpoint has it ready for your home enjoyment. Pretty and classically Italian, the feast includes a cheese and fruit plate, salad, two mini pizzas, tiramisu, strawberries and a bottle of wine. Brooklyn knows pizza, and Fornino does it right.

Courtesy o.d.o

Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant, o.d.o transports you to Japan with a special, limited-edition Gift Box for two. The creation of talented Chef Hiroko Odo, the box itself is an intricately designed collectible, hand-made from the fibers of mulberry tree bark known for their strength and flexibility. The elaborate kaiseki meal features a selection of A5 Wagyu beef jerky, snow crab, roast beef marinated in sake lees, blowfish and Spanish mackerel in addition to assorted nigiri sushi, futomaki and a sake pastry box. The meal is accompanied by a set of Suntory whiskeys and Murakami × Perrier limited edition bottles. Enhancing the meal’s Japanese sensibility, the box comes with a music playlist curated by Academy Award-winning composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto plus Japanese-designed coasters, incense, incense holder and glass.

Courtesy Sushi Noz

You won’t be lost in translation with Michelin-starred Sushi Noz’s DIY Temaki hand roll kit, even if it doesn’t come with Bill Murray-endorsed Suntory whiskey. Meticulously styled with Japanese attention to detail and precise instructions for preparation, the kit includes seasoned rice and sheets of seaweed served with heart-shaped containers of Japanese uni and house-cured ikura. A long-stemmed rose from a Japanese florist graces the package. To ensure absolute freshness, the kit must be booked in advance on Tock for pick-up in person at the restaurant.

Dessert Any Time

Courtesy Chocolate Fondue Box

One of the prettiest dessert kits offered, Relish Catering’s Chocolate Fondue Box has everything you need for an indulgent and fun fondue experience. You’ll get a fondue pot with long-stemmed strawberries, red-velvet-rose cakes, butterscotch fudge sparkle pops, rice crispy treats, hazelnut-dark chocolate biscotti, candy hearts and other romantic dip-ins.

Courtesy Black Tap Soho

You’ll have a chance to try out your own pastry artistry, too, thanks to Black Tap Soho. In partnership with Magnolia Bakery, the restaurant-soda shop’s Red Velvet Cake Shake Kit includes all the essentials to make two Red Velvet Cake Shakes. The kit includes red velvet cake batter shakes (pre-mixed), cups with vanilla frosting and sprinkles, red and white sprinkles, two slices of red velvet cake, chocolate sauce and cherries. If you’re feeling rather lazy, you can opt for the photo-ready Classic Red Velvet Cake Batter Shake, pre-made with whipped cream, chocolate drizzle and a cherry on top. No preparation required.

Courtesy Senza Gluten Cafe & Bakery

Greenwich Village’s Senza Gluten Cafe & Bakery will deliver a gluten-free and equally sensuous basket with heart-shaped shortbread cookies and red velvet cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache. The basket continues the chocolate theme with bakery favorites dairy-free chocolate crinkle cookies, chocolate walnut mini cubbies and classic chocolate chip cookies.

Courtesy MR All Day

You can pick up Pastry Chef Camari Mick’s takeaway treats at MR All Day, the Musket Room’s pop-up cafe operating out of a vintage 1962 International Harvester van. It’s worth the trip to Nolita just to see this – but go early, rising chef Mick’s treats sell out quickly. For the holiday season, he’s offering bonbons, macarons, love potions, Tahitian vanilla and mocha mousse and more.

Courtesy Mochidoki SoHo

Mochidoki SoHo offers a special holiday collection including pretty-in-pink Black Forest made with cherry chocolate mochi, Chantilly cream, dark chocolate gateau and dried Morello cherries. The Japanese mochi range has been further enhanced with hazelnut Rocher, cinnamon mocha, chocolate strawberry and limited-edition cherry chocolate mochi, a delicate and artistic sweet with black cherry and vanilla ice cream swirled with dark chocolate chips.

Courtesy Angelina Paris NYC

With its very-French flair, recent import Angelina Paris NYC offers pure romance in the form of a pastry “Love Letter.” The elegant red-and-white yogurt mousse pastry is shaped like an envelope and includes a creamy vanilla, blackcurrant berry, raspberry, financier biscuit and crispy white chocolate.

Where to Find the Best Cupcakes in New York City

We love the elegant cupcakes at Crumbs, http://www.crumbs.com/, and the pastel Sex and the City confections at Magnolia Bakery,  http://www.magnoliabakery.com/home.php, and are grateful for their many outlets throughout the city.  But if you’re interested in trying some other NYC faves, this cupcake guide’s for you.  This fall, forego boring apple and pumpkin pies and bring any of these little pieces of heaven to your Thanksgiving fest.  Your family will be sure to show you extra thanks this year!

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