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Best Cupcakes in the U.S.

Filed under: Dining


Luxist Readers have nominated their favorite cupcake bakeries and the top five are:

Baked (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Crumbs Bake Shop (New York, N.Y.)
Magnolia Bakery (New York, N.Y.)
Sprinkles (Los Angeles, Ca.)
SusieCakes (Los Angeles, Ca.)



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

Godiva: One of the World's Most Celebrated Chocolatiers

Filed under: Dining


Of the many names associated with fine chocolate, there are few as iconic as Godiva. Founded in 1926 by Joseph Draps, the Belgian chocolatier has since blossomed into one of the world's most celebrated, earning it a Luxist award nomination in the best chocolate candy category.

Draps opened his first store on a cobblestone street in Brussels nearly a century ago, its name inspired by the legendary Lady Godiva. As the story goes, the medieval dame grew upset with the onerous taxes that her husband, Lord Leofric, levied upon his subjects in Coventry, England. Leofric proposed a bargain: If she could ride naked through town without any citizens looking at her, he'd ease their financial burden. Lady Godiva did exactly that, and Leofric relented.


The name Godiva still evokes images of graciousness, luxury and sensuality. Draps first expanded the company beyond Belgium in 1958, opening a boutique in Paris. The first North American shop followed in 1966; another in Tokyo came in 1972. Today there are over 450 Godiva stores in 80 countries around the globe. The chocolates can also be ordered at its online store.

Though Godiva is famous for its truffles, the chocolatier also produces a wide range of fine chocolate candy. Delectable offerings include milk chocolate pretzels ($22 per can), caramel pecan bark ($25 per tin) and chocolate bars ranging from white chocolate to almond to raspberry ($70 per 24-piece box). Unlike the original Lady Godiva, all sweets come wrapped in gold foil packaging.

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

Teuscher: Distinctive Chocolates from Switzerland

Filed under: Dining


On a blustery day in the Alps some 70 years ago, a curious man was thinking differently about chocolate. That man, Dolf Teuscher, soon started a chocolate company of the same name. Nearly a century later, Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland is one of the world's finest chocolatiers – and a Luxist nominee in the best chocolate candy category.

Dolf Teuscher founded the company in 1932, wandering far from his Alpine roots to comb the globe for the best cocoa, marzipan, fruits and nuts he could find. Over years of experimentation, he developed the distinctive recipes that brought Teuscher to the pinnacle of the chocolate world today.


Dolf's son, Dolf Teuscher, Jr., now oversees an international confectionary empire with stores in major cities from New York to Qatar to Singapore. Its kitchens in Zurich make over 100 varieties of chocolates using the original recipes; all of its products are free of chemicals, additives and preservatives.

Levain Bakery: Large and Divine Cookies in NYC

Filed under: Dining


Recently described by The New York Times as "the largest, most divine chocolate chip cookies in Manhattan," the handiwork of Levain Bakery is also a nominee for a Luxist Readers' Choice Award in the best cookies category.

Swimming pools and chocolate chip cookies aren't often associated, but in the case of Levain, the link is crucial. That's because co-founders Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald met at a pool on Manhattan's East Side. The pair became fast friends; in 1994, as both were training for an Ironman challenge, they hungrily discovered their shared love for chocolate chip cookies.


In 1995, the pair left their jobs in banking and fashion to launch Levain Bakery. They chose the name after the French word for leavening bread. Opening their first shop on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Weekes and McDonald made a commitment to baking everything fresh onsite every day; leftovers would be donated to charity every night, a tradition that continues to this day. In 2000, growing demand prompted the pair to open a shop in Wainscott, NY, a posh vacation spot near East Hampton, NY.

For those who can't make it to either location, Levain takes online orders as well. Wrapped in French cellophane and topped with a blue ribbon, the 12-cookie gift box ($66) is a terrific treat; customers can mix and match varieties including oatmeal raisin, dark chocolate butter chip and chocolate chip walnut.

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

Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man


Take a walk along the block just south of Union Square in New York, and you'll see an image of a fictional bald man who has reshaped the face of chocolate. Though Max Brenner himself doesn't exist, the company that bears his name is up for a Luxist Readers' Choice Award in the best truffles category.

Founded in 1996 in Israel, Max Brenner bears the combined names of its originators Max Fichtman and Oded Brenner. The company opened ten stores in the Holy Land in its first three years; in 2001, Max Brenner was purchased by Strauss Group, a large food conglomerate. Five years later, the company made its first foray into the U.S. market.


Today, Max Brenner boasts locations in Australia, Israel, Philippines, Singapore and the U.S. Walk into a store in New York and delicacies on the menu include The Melting Chocolate Truffle Heart Cake, served with vanilla bourbon ice cream, red berries and milk chocolate ($13), and White Chocolate Truffle Carrot Cake, which comes with orange and mint salad, whipped cream, and a milk chocolate granita chaser ($12).

For those who live outside of Max's chocolatey radius, a delicious array options are available online. In the truffle department, there's the liqueur-drenched Luxury White Truffle With Coconut ($15) and the fine cocoa-imbued Luxury Gingerbread Truffle ($15), among others.

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

SusieCakes: Cupcakes That Take you Back to Your Childhood

Filed under: Dining


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.

Tate's Bake Shop: Southampton's Award-Winning Cookies

Filed under: Dining


Tate's Bake Shop is a nominee for a Luxist Readers' Choice Award in the Best Cookie category.

This nomination will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever tasted the signature cookie of one of the country's leading independent bakers.

The company was founded by Kathleen King, who has been baking professionally since she was eleven. Born and raised on North Sea Farms in Southampton, she started to baking cookies to earn spending money. Packaged simply at first, Kings' cookies came in plastic bags with twist ties.



By the time King was in high school, she was baking 12-hours a day, and perfecting her thin, crisp, buttery and caramel tasting chocolate chip cookies. She was so successful, her baking put her through college: SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, New York. When King was 20, she opened her first bakery and within one year she had made a name for herself in the fashionable communities on the south fork of Long Island.

L.A. Burdick: The Art of Chocolate Truffles

Filed under: Dining


For nearly a quarter of a century, L.A. Burdick has been bringing the best ingredients in the world together in the offerings of a single company. Small wonder the chocolatier is a nominee for a Luxist Readers' Choice award in the best truffles category.

After years spent studying the art of chocolate in France and Switzerland, Larry Burdick founded his chocolate company in a Brooklyn, New York workshop in 1987. Within a year, he was selling his bonbons to a handful of New York restaurants. In 1990, a positive review in The New York Times sparked interest in Burdick's handwork; a year later, he started his chocolate mail order business.


In 1993, Burdick and his wife, Paula, moved to Walpole, New Hampshire. They grew the business from a fledgling startup to an international chocolate mail order and retail outfit, with Larrry supplying the chocolate expertise and Paula using design smarts honed at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology to prepare the packaging.

Today, L.A. Burdick operates retail stores in Walpole, N.H., Cambridge, Mass., and New York, N.Y. For those who can't make it to one of the shops, truffles are available online in quantities ranging from the party host-friendly Favor Assortment ($5-$8) to the Connoisseur Collection ($90), which also includes chocolate-covered cigars, caramelized nuts, and chocolate-dipped fruit.

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

Teuscher: Truffles are Its Speciality

Filed under: Dining


On a blustery day in the Alps some 70 years ago, a curious man was thinking differently about chocolate. That man, Dolf Teuscher, soon launched a chocolate company of the same name. Nearly a century later, Teuscher is one of the world's finest chocolatiers – and a Luxist nominee in the best truffles category.

Dolf Teuscher founded the company in 1932, wandering far from his Alpine roots to comb the globe for the best cocoa, marzipan, fruits and nuts. Over years of experimentation, he developed the distinctive recipes that have brought Teuscher to the pinnacle of the chocolate world today.


Dolf's son, Dolf Teuscher, Jr., now oversees an international confectionary empire with stores in major cities from New York to Qatar to Singapore. Its kitchens in Zurich make over 100 varieties of chocolates using the original recipes and fly them to stores across the globe; all products are free of chemicals, additives and preservatives.

Godiva: Truffles that are Pure Luxury

Filed under: Dining


Of all the names associated with fine chocolate, there are few as iconic as Godiva. Founded in 1926 by Joseph Draps, the Belgian chocolatier has since blossomed into one of the world's most celebrated, earning it a Luxist award nomination in the best truffles category.

Draps opened his first store on a cobblestone street in Brussels nearly a century ago, its name inspired by the legendary Lady Godiva. As the story goes, the medieval dame grew upset with the onerous taxes that her husband, Lord Leofric, levied upon his subjects in Coventry, England. Leofric proposed a bargain: If she could ride naked through town without any citizens eyeing her, he'd ease their financial burden. Lady Godiva did exactly that, and Leofric relented.


The name Godiva still evokes images of graciousness, luxury and sensuality. Draps first expanded the company beyond Belgium in 1958, opening a boutique in Paris. The first North American shop followed in 1966; another in Tokyo came in 1972. Today there are over 450 Godiva stores in 80 countries around the globe. Of course, its delectible chocolates can also be ordered at its online shop.

Though Godiva boats a wide range of fine chocolate candies, the chocolatier is as famous for its packaging as Lady Godiva was for her lack thereof. Godiva's signature is the Ballotin, French for "little box of chocolates." The boxes come in all manner of colors, from the traditional gold to seasonal red, and sport festive ribbons. The truffle boxes fit a wide range occasions, from the two-piece Gold Ballotin ($3.50) to the 105-piece set ($115.00).

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

Crumbs Bake Shop: Cupcakes Like Mom Used to Bake

Filed under: Dining


Crumbs Bake Shop is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cupcake.

Crumbs is famous for its Signature size cupcakes. 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.

Made with the finest ingredients, Crumbs' cupcakes remind us that the best things in life are simple. Crumbs offers a selection in three different sizes: Classic, Signature and Taste size cupcakes. "Classic" cupcakes are the largest variety and are sold individually. The medium sized cupcakes, "Signature", are sold individually in stores, and can be ordered online in increments of six. Customers can create their own individual six packs or choose a pre-selected assortment. The smallest size, the "Taste" size cupcakes are offered by the dozen in single flavors and pre-selected favorite assortments. At this time Crumbs is not shipping its classic size.



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.

Currently, Crumbs has locations in California, Connecticut and New Jersey. Crumbs treats can also be ordered online.

Ice Box Cafe: Award-Winning Cakes

Filed under: Dining


The Ice Box Cafe has been nominated for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cake.

Owner Robert Siegmann, is a former New York caterer who was discovered by Martha Stewart after he prepared a celebatory luncheon for 100 people at her home in East Hampton. Born in New York, but raised in Mexico,

The South Beach (Miami, Fla.)-based cafe features a massive bakery counter and a minimally decorated, informal dining room. From its old-fashioned pink coconut layer cake to its signature Ice Box Cake, all of its hand-made baked goods are natural and contain no artificial colors or artificial flavorings.

Oprah Winfrey said the Ice Box Cafe bakes the best cakes in the country. Her favorite? The Bomb, which is a decadent symphony of chocolate with two layers of rich chocolate cake filled with melt-in-your-mouth bittersweet chocolate mousse and a layer of cheesecake brownies. The Bomb is topped off with a bittersweet chocolate ganache.


La Maison du Chocolat: Truffles that are Perfection

Filed under: Dining


Shortly after Robert Linxe opened his first store in Paris, he was dubbed "The Wizard of Ganache." Small wonder the company he founded, La Maison du Chocolat, is a Luxist Readers' Choice nominee in the best truffle category.

Born in the French Basque region, Linxe learned his profession of chocolatier in Bayonne, before perfecting his art in Switzerland. He founded Maison du Chocolat in 1977, taking up residence in the basement of a Parisian building formerly used as a wine cellar on the prestigious Faubourg St. Honoré. Back then, there were very few shops of its kind; chocolate was more of a seasonal delicacy than a year-round staple. A master artisan, he selected this location specifically because it provided ideal conditions to preserve chocolate---much like wine. He installed his laboratory in the basement and worked there for more than ten years.

By 1987, Linxe's shop became such a hit with the locals that he was able to open a second shop. Three years later, he expanded to the U.S. with a location on Madison Avenue in New York.


La Maison du Chocolat sets itself apart from other chocolatiers in a number of ways, perhaps none more important than the incredible detail paid to the component parts of its chocolates. Linxe's company combs through plantations in South America and Africa; they study not only the cacao beans, but various vintages and the differences between them. This respect for ingredients, subtlety of balance, richness of taste and palette of flavors is why La Maison du Chocolat's creations are so distinctive and considered the great classics of chocolate.

Tom's Mom's Cookies: Chocolate Chunks that Melt in your Mouth

Filed under: Dining


Located less than 75 miles south of the Canadian border, the sleepy town of Harbor Springs, Mich. (pop: 1,600) may be known as the birthplace of the Shay Locomotive, but today, it is also famous for being the location of Tom's Mom's Cookies. Thanks to delicious dough and chunky chips, Tom's Mom's Cookies is up for a Luxist Readers' Choice Award in the best cookie category.

Tom's Mom's Cookies has operated in Harbor Springs for the past 25 years. As Harbor Springs is a resort community with many out of state residents during the summer months, Tom's Mom's Cookies has a very large and loyal following all over the country. Its customers use its cookies as wedding cakes, as favors at receptions, and in gift packages. Its recipes date back to its earliest days. Chocolate chunks are cut buy hand from 10-pound bars of semisweet chocolate while careful attention is paid to the selection of other ingredients such as almonds, pecans, walnuts, macadamia nuts and locally-grown cherries. No additives or preservatives are used.


For a small outfit in a tiny village, the volume of press received by Tom's Mom's Cookies is a testament to the quality of the tasty treats it produces. In 2003, Tom's Mom's Cookies were featured on The Food Network's "Food Finds"; in 2007, the cookies were featured as Rachael Ray's "snack of the day." The company has received additional attention from Family Circle and Business Week.

Tom's Mom's Cookies are available via mail order from the company's website; they ship from the retail shop and bakery in downtown Harbor Springs. Swaddled in star-covered tissue, shipments are sure to please the recipient's eyes as well as their taste buds. Popular gift packages include the Cup of Cookies – a coffee mug packed with a dozen mini-cookies ($18.50), as well as a variety of cookies priced by the dozen ($17.50) plus shipping.

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

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