cake

The best wine clubs in the U.S. include several award-winning wineries that produce some of the best wine this country has to offer. Luxist examined the benefits of some of the best, most popular ones, including those from Domaine Carneros, St. Francis Winery & Vineyards, Duckhorn Vineyards, Far Niente and Cakebread Cellars. There are certain advantages to be had when subscribing to a wine club offered directly from a winery. Here is what we learned:

St. Francis Winery & Vineyards
Located just outside the historic town of Kenwood, St. Francis Winery & Vineyards, is known for its intensely flavored and complex award-winning wines. St. Francis grows 100% of its grapes in Sonoma County and was among the first to plant Merlot in the Sonoma Valley, enduring many a raised eyebrow for daring to plant a blending grape on prime soil. In June, the winery was a Luxist Awards' Readers' Choice Nominee for Best Domestic Red Wine.

Wine Club:
St. Francis offers three different wine clubs. Called "The Patrons Society", the difference between the three options are selections and shipping schedules. Its "red wine club" ships four, six or eight times per year. The "white wine club" includes six-bottle shipments four times a year (February, May, September and November). The Zinfandel Wine Club ships three bottles per shipment over a six month schedule (February, March, May, June, September and November).

Benefits of Membership:
Members are given the ability to sample small production wines before they are released to the public. Often, the wines are so exclusive, that only wine club members have the opportunity to purchase them, as most never hit store shelves.

Discounts:
Members receive a 20% discount on all Artisan wines and a 25% discount on all Sonoma County tier wines. They also receive a 20% discount on all retail merchandise and on reserve wine & food pairings for two (reservations required).

Freebies:
Complimentary wine tastings at St. Francis' Visitors Center and opportunities for "members only" activities at the winery. Members also receive recipes from the winery's Executive Chef, David Bush, for foods that pair well with the wines. Invitations are extended to members for St. Francis regional events around the country.

Cost:
Price varies, depending on size of shipment and does not include tax and shipping (which costs $14 to $21 for a three bottle shipment by UPS Ground). The white wine club ranges from $80 (for a four bottle shipment) to $91 (for a six bottle shipment). The zinfandel wine club ranges from $96 to $108 (for three bottle shipments). Click here to sign up for the wine club. For more information, call (800) 650-5437.

Bouchon Bakery makes delectable macarons that can be sent anywhere in the world. These cookies are the quintessential French melt-in-your mouth classics. They come in chocolate, vanilla, caramel, and pistachio as well as special holiday fillings of peppermint buttercream, rum and eggnog buttercream, and gingerbread. Large macarons are $3 each while a package of six mini are $12. To make a big hit, order at least 25. They can then be piled up in a tower in different colors and flavors to make a great holiday centerpiece; www.bouchonbakery.com; 212-823-9357.

Luxist Readers cast their votes for the best chocolates, truffles, cakes, cookies and cupcakes. The winners for each of these categories are:

Best Cake
Crumbs Bake Shop is the winner of the Luxist Awards' Readers' Choice Award for Best Cake. The bakery is also famous for its cupcakes (it was nominated for a Readers' Choice Award in the cupcake category, accordingly).

Crumbs offers an irresistible blend of comfort-oriented classics and elegant baked goods. Crumbs homemade cakes come in a variety of delicious flavors, from Red Velvet to Vanilla Cake and Chocolate. Crumbs cupcakes come in three different sizes. At each of its bake shops, it offers more than 50 varieties baked fresh daily and a new cupcake of the week every Monday. Crumbs also offers a variety of delicious cakes, from Red Velvet to Vanilla Cake and Chocolate. Accordingly, Crumbs Bake Shop is also a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cake.

Currently, Crumbs has locations in California, Connecticut and New Jersey. Its baked goods can also available by placing an order online.

Crumbs Bake Shop is the winner of the Luxist Awards' Readers' Choice Award for Best Cake.

Its founders, Mia and Jason Bauer, opened their first Crumbs bakery in March of 2003 on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Mia had been an avid baker since first discovering her fierce sweet tooth as a child while helping her mother bake when living on a farm in Israel. An attorney by training, owning a bakery is the culmination of a life-long quest to combine her passion for baking with building a successful business that is both a neighborhood meeting place and a destination for all New Yorkers. Mia's husband, Jason, is a true entrepreneur who has spent his career building businesses in various fields. Prior to opening Crumbs, Jason started Famous Fixins, a manufacturer of celebrity licensed products.


Crumbs offers an irresistible blend of comfort-oriented classics and elegant baked goods. Crumbs homemade cakes come in a variety of delicious flavors, from Red Velvet to Vanilla Cake and Chocolate. The bakery is also famous for its cupcakes (it was nominated for a Readers' Choice Award in the cupcake category, accordingly).

Currently, Crumbs has locations in California, Connecticut and New Jersey. Its baked goods can also available by placing an order online.

SusieCakes is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cupcake.

The Los Angeles, Ca.-based company was launched in 2006 by Susan Sarich. The inspiration behind the company's founding was Sarich's childhood in Chicago. Each day, she used to arrive home from school to a warm kitchen filled with the smell of baking and treats fresh from the oven. Her two grandmothers, who were also neighbors, loved to bake, from frosted sugar cookies to Whoopie pies and chocolate layer cakes.

To this day, Sarich is captivated by what those desserts symbolized. "Baked goods are hallmarks of happiness," says Sarich. "Whether we're celebrating a holiday or a specific event, we want them to be as unique as the day." It was a combination of Sarich's sweet tooth and nostalgia for the homemade desserts of her childhood that led her to open SusieCakes.

SusieCakes' cupcakes are known for their "frosting filling". Flavors include chocolate chocolate, luscious lemon, strawberry, peanut butter, fluffy coconut, and vanilla with pastel-blue vanilla frosting. The most popular cupcake is SusieCake's Southern Red Velvet, an award-winning dessert, including the "Best Traditional" category of the 2009 Nesquick Cupcake Challenge in Los Angeles. Cupcakes cost $3 each.

Other speciality items include the Whoopie Pie, seasonal fruit pies, classic chocolate brownies, lemon bars, sour cream cheesecake, and homemade pudding. SusieCakes also makes custom layer, stacked and sheet cakes, as well as its signature six-layer "Cupcake" cake. Custom orders are also accepted with advance notice.

Magnolia Bakery, located in the West Village of Manhattan, is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cake.

Open since 1996, the family-owned bakery is a throw-back to another era. It is famous for its old-fashion desserts, especially its cupcakes and home-style multi-layered cakes. There's a reason why has had staying power. Its baked goods are made fresh from scratch on premises, all day, every day, using the finest ingredients. Magnolia Bakery is also a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cupcake.

Magnolia Bakery specializes in such classic cakes as red velvet, ice box, German chocolate, devil's food, coconut and banana pudding. In addition to cakes and cupcakes, other dessert specialties include brownies, magic cookies, peanut butter toffee bar, lemon squares, pies and cheesecakes. Magnolia prides itself on tradition and quality and strives to satisfy loyal patrons while maintaining the integrity of the brand. All Magnolia Bakery locations are certified as Kosher by the United Kosher Supervision.

Its original store is located at 401 Bleecker Street on the corner of West 11th Street. Additional locations in Manhattan can be found at 200 Columbus Avenue, on the corner of West 69th St. and at 1240 Avenue of the Americas. A store in Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal is expected to open later on this month and in Los Angeles in April. Magnolia Bakery's first overseas location will open in Dubai. For more information and location hours, please visit Magnolia's website.

The bakery's founders, Allysa Torey and Jennifer Appel, are the authors of a cookbook entitled "The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook: Old-Fashioned Recipes from New York's Sweetest Bakery."

Vote for the company you believe makes the best cakes. Readers' Choice Winners will be announced on March 1st.

This would be an especially fun Valentine's Day gift for the fashionista who has everything: a very pretty and stylish edible handbag! This Quilted Chocolate Handbag Cake from Horchow is white chocolate butter cake (mmmm!) filled with chocolate ganache and white chocolate buttercream. No worries of it going out of style, just maybe about how to slice it (I want the piece with the big red rose on it).

Be sure to check out Horchow's two other handbag cake offerings, the Sassy Satchel cake and the Zebra-Striped Handbag cake. $225-$280 each.

Coming soon to Harrods' already divine line-up of fine dining delicacies will be the Whoopie Pie. Whoopies are little cake-like cookie sandwiches filled with buttercream that started in New England and have now spread to the famous European food hall. Their skilled pastry chefs have crafted four flavors of Whoopie, all featuring fluffy cake "pillows" filled with delectable vanilla buttercream and topped with darling (and beautiful) edible designs.

There's Gingerbread (spices, vanilla, and chocolate w/polka dots), Pistachio (pistachio, green fondant icing, and edible glitter), the Classic (chocolate, vanilla, and sparkles), and Red Velvet (chocolate, peanut butter cream, and little candy hearts).

Nearly too cute to eat, this Spring Bonnet Cake is a Mother's Day offering being sold at Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery in New York City. The bonnet cake comes in two flavors lemon cake with fresh blueberry compote and almond Streusel and a vanilla angel cake with fruits of the forest and almond Streusel. Individual cakes are $9 each.

From what I know of the nouveau-skinny fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, he doesn't eat a lot. Sure he used to in indulge back in his zafitg fan-flapping days but that was before he fell in love with Hedi Slimane's clothes and dieted himself down to fit them. So you can understand my surprise at the news that Lagerfeld had designed a cake. But lo and behold, he has collaborated with Parisian baker Lenôtre to create a unique Buche de Noel. The holiday log is made of gingerbread with almonds and hazelnuts filled with a compote of sweet orange and apricot and a chocolate coulis. It comes in a mirrored box with a tiny ax made of hard sugar.

[via Sybarites]

Earlier this month I thought the Apple Crate Cake was pricey at $185, but that suddenly seems like chump change when compared to this Platinum Cake designed by a Japanese pastry chef worth $130,000. It's a white cake draped in platinum necklaces, pins, pendants, and even edible platinum foils. The creator's name is Nobue Ikara, and the cake has been dedicated to several famous Japanese women (including actress Rinko Kikuchi) in an effort to encourage more women to wear platinum jewelry.

So is it doin' it for ya? Have a hankering for a platinum necklace?

Nothing says fall like warm cake and a crate full of apples, and this is both treats wrapped into one. This Apple Crate Cake, created especially for Dean & Deluca, features carefully crafted marzipan apples nestled into a bed of white chocolate "straw," all sitting in a "crate" of chocolate cake. And it's not only decorate but every bit is edible, although it must be hard to take the first slice and ruin the illusion! Perfect for fall entertaining, the cake measures 6"x5.5" and usually ships within 48 hours, $185.

Sometimes you've got to wonder at what point a kiddie party becomes more about the parents than it does about the kids. I'm sure they all love their children dearly and have the best of intentions, but kids can only appreciate so much when it comes to extravagance and money spent. Birthday parties have become the new way for parents to both shower their children with love and impress the competition,*ahem*, neighbors, at the same time. Gone are the days of balloons and cake in the backyard, replaced instead with renting entire clubs and candy stores while serving dinner on fine china. These days some people are spending upwards of $30000, $40000, and even $50,000+ on their children's birthday parties.

Ridiculous, or simple displays of affection from those who can afford it? You decide, I'm too jealous.

Designed by Kevin Williams for the Brooklyn design house CAKE, the Node bowl is just as happy in your kitchen as it is being displayed as a simple sculpture. And call me practical, but it actually looks like a great place to keep fruits and vegetables, because I like a bowl stacked high and the spaces will let the pieces on the bottom breathe. But of course filling it up interferes with the "light and shadow effect" the artist was going for, so maybe just one or two pieces, like in the photo, would be better. Anyway, it's made of ceramic, and is available in white only. Measures 3.5"D x 11.75"Diam, $50.

Although the shape might not be quite as refined as that of the Heart Cake Pan we saw just a few days ago, this stunning Red Velvet Heart Cake is sure to stop hearts (and diets!) this Valentine's Day. The rich cake is a deep red-hued devil's food cake with a rich chocolate flavor. It is frosted with decadent vanilla buttercream. The cake sits on top of one of Williams-Sonoma's new pink stoneware cake stands ($29, sold separately). Price: $65.