I Blog What I Bake

Limelight. Once a dark gritty headonistic nightlife mecca , has reivented itself as Limelight Marketplace. The former, church- turned- nightclub, is now a bright, glittery luxury marketplace relpete with specality soap shops, botique lingere stands, clothing alcoves and, of course, lots of cute little dessert stations. My how times have changed.  Once upon a time, I recall stumbling out the door of Limelight after a very long night of…fun. Today I stumbled out the door practically vibrating from the sugar  extravaganza I just indulged in.

I’d heard about all of the dessert stands that had opened up in their “Sweet Room”, paticularly the Cupcake Stop, and figured reviewing them for the blog would be a brilliant excuse to go on a sugar binge. So, with Matt (I Blog What I Eat) as my accomplice, I attacked the “Sweet Room”.  Below, I have listed my conquests in the order assault.

Disclaimer: All but two pictures were taken with my iPhone. I had my camera, alas cameras are of no use without a battery.

THE CUPCAKE STOP

The Cupcake Stop, which usually is just a truck that drives around Manhattan and parks in different locations everyday, has secured a stationary spot in Limelight. And I am sooo glad they did.  I have had cupcakes from dozens of NYC bakeries, they are trendy little confections after all, and I must say these are among the best.  I ordered a Mexican Chocolate cupake and a  Nutella Crunch.  They both had great consistency and smooth frosting. The Mexican Chocolate was the winner of the two. The Nutella Crunch was good, but didn’t have as much flavor. Honestly, if you try these you will never eat a Magnolia Bakery cupake again. Okay, onto the next…

BUTTERFLY BAKESHOP

Isn’t that a pretty little Red Velvet Cake? I thought so too. That’s why I bought it.  It had really nice flavor and a good cream cheese frosting (maybe a bit too sweet), but the consistency was…well…odd. It was like the cake had been soaked in a simple syrup mixture. Yes, the cake was wet.  I’m not sure what the reasoning was here. Maybe to keep it moist past it’s prime? I was a little suspect. I wouldn’t advise to steer clear of the place, maybe just try a alternate selection. It was pretty. I ate the butterfly.

MARIEBELLE CHOCOLATES

Please forgive my wacky formatting with the images. It’s late and I have had some wine.

Anyway, Mariebelle’s Chocolates. This shop was a little challenging to find, even though you can see it as soon as you walk into the Marketplace (they also have a cart on the first floor). It’s in a space that is sort of between floors. I should add that Limelight Markeplace is a bit of maze and you feel like Alice in Wonderland trying to navigate the place. There are little half staircases that lead to dead ends and various nooks and cranies that can have you very turned around. What made the nightclub version so interesting , can make a shopping trip feel like falling down a rabbit hole. After we found Mariebelle’s, I was excited to try their off-beat artisan chocolates. Of all all the flavors, I selected Saffron and Whiskey. At first I wasn’t so sure about the Saffron chocolate, but it grew on me and I am now determined to use Saffron in one of my recipes. The Whiskey flavor did not dissapoint. It was like taking a chocolate shot of Jack Daniels. I will certainly make a return trip to try flavors like Cardamon, Earl Grey and Passion Fruit. Oh, and a quick note, they serve real food. You can sit down at one of the little tables and order lunch. Cute.

WANNAHAVACOOKIE

Wannahavacookie? More like Wannahavadevildog.  I wouldn’t really classify this as a cookie. Round does not a cookie make.  This is a round Devil Dog. They call it a Whoopie Pie and offer different flavor variations. I choose the Chocolate Mint variety. It’s light, fluffy and had a good mint flavor but it’s just not a cookie. Their website www.wannahavacookie.com does have actual cookies, but Whoopie Pies are their main business.  If you are a fan of Devil Dogs, this is your product.

By this point a was on sugar overload and had to call it a day. There is a Gelato stand I will have to go back and visit and some other food stops, like the cheese shop and bread baker that are a must try. In the next few months the restaurants and wine bars will also be open and that will certainly warrant a return trip. Overall, it was a great trip and I really enjoyed trying all the different offerings. I am still skeptical about the non-food based shops and I am curious to see the sustainability of the marketplace as whole. If you are in the neighborhood (6th Ave & 20th in NYC), I would highly recommend stopping by.  That’s it for now, below are a few pictures I took of the interior.

Thanks for stopping by!!

A few weeks ago I go it in my head to make Key Lime Pie. A friend of mine was searching Manhattan for the pie, so I decided to just go ahead and make one. Simple, right? Um, no. Little did I know that Key Limes are not so easy to come by in Northern New Jersey. But, after a prolonged search and some mild cursing I finally found Mexican Key Limes at Corrado’s Market in Clifton. Thank you Corrado’s for carrying ingredients no one else has. I got really irrationally excited when I found them and bought 3 bags. That’s a lot of limes. SO… I decided to make 3 pies using three different recipes. I’m beginning to think I just like to make things harder on myself than they should be. One is from a native Floridan, one is from Ina Garten (Food Network) and the other is from Epicurious.com. The ingredients are almost exactly the same for each pie, just arranged differently to produce 3 very unique pies. I finally went into pie making mode a couple of weekends ago and here are the results in all their tangy zesty sugary glory.

A lime juicer about to be put through it’s paces. If you don’t own one of these little contraptions, run out and get yourself one. It will save you lots of aggravation. Key Limes are tiny (which I did not know) and I wouldn’t recommend trying to juice these little suckers by hand. The juicer also comes in handy for margaritas. Just sayin’.

Juiced Key Lime graveyard.

These are basically the only ingredients you will ever need to make any Key Lime pie. Sweetened condensed milk, key limes, key lime juice and eggs.

Key Lime zest. The best part.

And now for the 3 recipes….

I used the same graham cracker crust recipe for each pie since they didn’t vary enough to make 3 differnent ones.

Graham Cracker Crust

10 graham crackers

3/4 stick of melted butter

1/4 cup of sugar

In a food processor, process the crackers until the are fine. Add sugar and pulse. Slowly add melted butter. Process until well combined. Press evenly into either glass pie plate or springform pan (see recipes).  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before adding filling.

Mr. K’s Key Lime Pie

1 Graham Cracker Crust in glass or foil pie plate

4 egg yolks

3 oz. fresh squeezed key lime juice

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

3 heaping spoonfuls of Cool Whip

Combine egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk. Mix well using hand held beaters. Slowly add lime juice. Mix well. Add Cool Whip. Mix well. Pour filling into prepared pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow pie to cool on the counter for an additional 20 minutes. Place pie in fridge for 4-8 hours to cool completely. Can be made a day in advance.

Epicurious.com Key Lime Pie (slightly altered from their original recipe)

1 prepared graham cracker crust in pie plate

1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup fresh key lime juice

1 tablespoon fresh key lime zest

Whisk together condensed milk and yolks in a bowl until well combined. Add juice and whisk until well combined (mixture will thicken slightly). Pour filling into crust and bake in oven for 15 minutes. Cool pie on rack (filling will cool as it sets), then chill, covered, for a least 8 hours.

Topping: Beat cold heavy cream with 1 tablespoon of confectioners sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.

Ina Garten Frozen Key Lime Pie

6 extra large egg yolks

1/4 cup of sugar

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed sugar

2 tablespoons fresh grated lime zest

3/4 cup of freshly squeezed key lime juice

For decoration:

1 cup cold heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Beat egg yolks and sugar on high speed with electric mixer for 5 minutes until thick. On medium speek, beat in the condensed milk, lime zest and lime juice. Pour into prepared crust, in a SPRINGFORM pan and freeze for about 8 hours.

For decoration, beat the heavy cream on high speed of electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until firm. Spoon, spread or pipe onto the pie. Garnish with lime wedges.

And there you have it. Three Key Lime Pie recipes for the testing. Slice up and enjoy!

Oh… and this happened on my way to deliver some of these pies. They are now fondly known as the Pies of Mass Destruction.