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

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 is famous for its custom layer, stacked and sheet cakes, as well as its signature six-layer "Cupcake" cake. Custom orders are also accepted with advance notice.

Los Angeles, Ca.-based Sprinkles has been nominated for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cupcake.

Sprinkles is a favorite of Hollywood stars from Tyra Banks, Russell Crowe and Paris Hilton to Katie Holmes, Oprah Winfrey and Teri Hatcher, all of who proclaim love for the sumptuous treats. "I love Sprinkles Cupcakes," says Banks. "I am addicted to them." Ryan Seacrest is a fan, too. "These are not just cupcakes, they're a lifestyle," he says. Barbra Streisand once sent a box of Sprinkle's cupcakes to Oprah Winfrey. Oprah enjoyed them so much she ordered enough to share with her entire studio audience. Sprinkles is also known for its star topped variety served at Oscar parties.

Luxist readers describe the cupcakes this way:

"Amazingly delicious and beautiful with a variety of flavors."
"The best cupcakes anywhere! Long lines, but worth the wait. Their butter with vanilla frosting will change your life."
"The original luxury cupcake store."
"Their entire range of flavors is executed masterfully, from classics like Red Velvet to more exotic editions like chai latte. The cake is light and not too sweet with rich frostings that balance each other perfectly."

Company founders Candace and Charles Nelson opened the first Sprinkles in Beverly Hills in April 2005. People thought the couple were crazy to open a cupcakes-only bakery in the middle of "thin city" at a time with low carb mania was at its peak. Despite naysayers, they sold out within hours of opening, and sales haven't slowed since. Today, Sprinkles is known as much for its long lines and devoted fans as for its delicious cupcakes. Sprinkles is credited with inspiring a national cupcake craze as reported by the New York Times, USA Today, the Today Show and Nightline.


Sprinkles evokes the memory of European bakeries flooded with the smell of baked goods and awash in natural light, with a modern touch. Its cupcakes are baked in small batches throughout the day, so that they will be as fresh as possible for Sprinkles' devoted customers. The cupcakes are handcrafted from the finest ingredients, including sweet cream butter, bittersweet Belgian chocolate, pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, fresh bananas and carrots, real strawberries and natural citrus zests.

Sprinkles offers more than 20 tantalizing flavors (15 or so of which are on sale on any given day), from simple vanilla to creative chai latte. Topped with Sprinkles' trademark modern dots, rich chocolate sprinkles from France or seasonal sugar decorations, Sprinkles Cupcakes are perfect for occasions of any kind.

Sprinkles' famous gift box is a sleek rectangular box that holds one dozen freshly baked cupcakes. The bakery also offers a tray, produced by Heller in a variety of colors, that fits right into the gift box and can be kept to display the cupcakes.

Sprinkles also offers signature cupcake mixes in red velvet, vanilla, dark chocolate and lemon. The mixes are made from the same high quality ingredients used in Sprinkles bakeries and are complete with Sprinkle's trademark modern dots. In addition to Sprinkles shops, the mixes are sold at Williams-Sonoma's 250 stores nationwide and in Canada.

Its original store is two blocks west of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, but today, Sprinkles has six additional locations in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Newport Beach, Scottsdale and Palo Alto. More locations will be opening soon in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Denver, Kansas City, London, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

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

Baked, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based bakery is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cake.

The company's founders, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, came from the world of advertising, in which Matt was a producer while Renato was a graphic designer. Their thoughts were never too far from cake and coffee, and slowly (even unbeknownst to them) the idea for Baked was born.

Matt wanted to open a bakery that celebrated American desserts beyond the cupcake, and Renato had always been hankering to open a neighborhood cafe, so together they scoured New York City for the perfect location. They found a small, storefront church in the largely industrialized and gritty section of Brooklyn, and together with Rafi Avramovitz, set about building their inspiration. Finally, after many long delays, they opened Baked in 2005 on the shores of Red Hook, Brooklyn with just a few ovens, some mixers, and an espresso machine.

Baked is both a neighborhood spot, and a nationally recognized bakery. Baked has been featured on the Martha Stewart Show, the Today Show, the Food Network, and the Style Network. Baked has also received an awards from Time Out, French Culinary Institute, Citysearch, and America's Test Kitchen. Oprah recognized their brownies as a "favorite thing" and they have written recipes for Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, and many more.

As a maker of delicious, creatively designed sugar cookies, Eleni's New York has a fitting motto: "Eat Dessert First." Similarly, it should come as no surprise that the New York-based shop is a nominee for a Luxist Readers' Choice Award in the best cookie category.

Eleni's founder and name sake, Eleni Gianopulos, came by her baking acumen naturally. During her childhood in 1970s Northern California, Eleni's mother was known for treating the neighborhood kids to batches of home-baked oatmeal cookies. After switching coasts and trying her hand at the cookie-cutter corporate world, Eleni found herself with a craving for a more creative career. In the kitchen of her Manhattan apartment, she fine-tuned her mom's recipe and began selling the fruits of her labor directly from home. Just like the kids in her hometown, the "kids" in New York ate up the oatmeal treats and clamored for more; Eleni complied by opening up shop at the Chelsea bakery and dabbling in the creations that since have earned her the title of "cookie couturier."


From the beginning, this homegrown company has offered an array of quirky but beautiful, delicious iced sugar cookies celebrating a variety of whimsical themes – from spring flowers to high-heeled shoes to Halloween ghouls. Eleni's cupcakes, brownies, and classic cookies do tradition one better, raising the bar for basic desserts. Nicknamed "conversation cookies", the treats are baked and frosted in the shapes of everything from bees to bikini-clad women. Eleni's makes fresh dough every day, then chills it for several hours. After that, it's sheeted, hand-punched with custom-made cookie cutters, re-refrigerated, then baked and iced.

Baked, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based bakery is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cupcake.

The company's founders, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, came from the world of advertising, in which Matt was a producer while Renato was a graphic designer. Their thoughts were never too far from cake and coffee, and slowly (even unbeknownst to them) the idea for Baked was born.

Matt wanted to open a bakery that celebrated American desserts beyond the cupcake, and Renato had always been hankering to open a neighborhood cafe, so together they scoured New York City for the perfect location. They found a small, storefront church in the largely industrialized and gritty section of Brooklyn, and together with Rafi Avramovitz, set about building their inspiration. Finally, after many long delays, they opened Baked in 2005 on the shores of Red Hook, Brooklyn with just a few ovens, some mixers, and an espresso machine.

Baked is both a neighborhood spot, and a nationally recognized bakery. Baked has been featured on the Martha Stewart Show, the Today Show, the Food Network, and the Style Network. Baked has also received an awards from Time Out, French Culinary Institute, Citysearch, and America's Test Kitchen. Oprah recognized their brownies as a "favorite thing" and they have written recipes for Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, and many more.

Crumbs Bake Shop is a nominee for a 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 (and has been 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.

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

Luxist readers from around the world have nominated their favorite chocolate companies.

The top five finalists are:

Godiva
Founded in 1926 by Joseph Draps, the Belgian chocolatier has since blossomed into one of the world's most celebrated chocolatiers. Draps opened his first store on a cobblestone street in Brussels nearly a century ago, its name inspired by the legendary Lady Godiva. Though Godiva is famous for its truffles, the chocolatier also produces a wide range of fine chocolate candy.

L.A. Burdick
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.

La Maison du Chocolat
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. The company combs through plantations in South America and Africa; they study not only the cacao beans, but various vintages and the differences between them.

Max Brenner
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.

Teuscher
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.

Vote for the company you believe makes the best in chocolate. The winner will be announced on March 1st.

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 chocolate category. The company is also a nominee in the best truffle category.

Linxe founded La Maison du Chocolat in 1977, taking up residence in the basement of a building formerly used as a wine cellar. Back then, there were very few shops of its kind; chocolate was more of a seasonal delicacy than a year-round staple. By 1987, Linxe's shop became such a hit with Parisians 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 continued to expand and now has locations in Hong Kong, London, Tokyo and Cannes, in addition to seven locations in Paris and four in New York (the chocolates are also available at Bergdorf Goodman).


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.

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.

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 chocolate 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.

In this age where chefs can create magic with desserts (such as the stunning chocolate sculpture below), a company which serves as home to some of the world's finest chefs and confectioners, the Ritz-Carlton is going back to basics.

The new Ritz-Carlton Redefined Classic Dessert menus will feature the kinds of desserts we all crave, including:

• Bread & Butter Pudding
• Carrot Cake
• Creme Brulee
• Double Fudge Chocolate Cake
• Fresh Fruit Tart
• Ice Cream Sundae
• Key Lime Pie
• Molten Chocolate Cake
• New York Cheesecake
• Plum Tart
• Strawberry Shortcake (above)
• Tarte Tatin
• Tiramisu

"It's about comfort food," said George McNeill, Vice President, Culinary and Corporate Chef, with whom we caught up at a launch event in the Ritz-Carlton Suite of the NYC Central Park South hotel. The company's return to classics answers society's yearning for simpler times. The truth is, dessert has gotten a little complicated. "We just want to make the best cheesecake," said McNeill. He added that 50 percent of the dessert menus will still be up to chefs' discretion. "They're artists. We don't want to stifle them."

They are indeed artists, as exemplified by this chocolate sculpture which was handmade by Sebastien Thieffine, Executive Pastry Chef from the Naples, Florida Ritz-Carlton. We spoke briefly with Thieffine, who has a charming French accent, about the piece.

Luxist: How on Earth did you create this?

Sebastien Thieffine: Well, we wanted a "chef display," so I incorporated copper pans, cocoa beans ...

L: But those copper pans are chocolate, right?

ST: They are chocolate, and I applied a copper powder on them.

L: Are they still edible?

ST: They are. Would you like to try it?

L: Yes.

Thieffine then handed us a wooden spoon which appeared to be dipped in chocolate. We shyly tasted the chocolate, and he said "No, you have to crack it." We bit down and found the spoon was not wooden at all, but entirely comprised of delicious, bitter chocolate. A pleasant surprise!

ST: You just ate a spatula.

L: That's delicious! How did you come up with this design?

ST: I always try to have three sections, so I have the base, the center, and the top -- very light. You don't want to have heaviness everywhere. I incorporated cocoa pans, an old jam maker, the flowers. You can look at it from both sides.

L: Did you study sculpture or art history?

ST: No.

L: So, this is just something you can do?

ST: There have been a lot of tries. A lot of breaking.

The Ritz-Carlton Redefined Classic Desserts arrived at domestic properties on January 22, 2010, along with a selection of warm winter and cool champagne cocktails. In addition to savoring the delicious fare, guests will also now have the option to take home a book of the recipes for all of the above dessert dishes; the same recipes as those used in the Ritz-Carlton kitchens, merely fleshed out to make cooking easier for chefs of all levels. Have a look at exclusive photos of some of our favorites below: