sugar, sweet, sunshine: where I get my cupcake fix!

In 2002, owners Peggy & Debbie, former theater actors who ran in the corporate circuit and former employees of the famed Magnolia bakery, took their love of baking and launched a full-scale operation in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Armed with dusty Betty Crocker cookbooks, quite simply, the two best friends wanted to open a cozy, comfortable shop brimming with velvet and decorative treats. Think of it like your living room – a room overflowing with pastel cupcakes, pistachio bundts, and unbelievably buttery rich coffee cakes. In 2002, Sugar Sweet Sunshine was born. And for the past four years, it’s been my home-base for indulgent treats and ever-long coffee conversations. Their cupcakes are feather-light (not the dense sort @ Crumb’s) and the icing is a thin layer of sweet vanilla cream (not the sickening stick-of-butter per cupcake icing – at least it tastes as such – @ Buttercup or Magnolia). I’m a minimalist and a purist, and I like my desserts a little sweet, airy and light, and on the smaller size, so I’ll never feel guilty about the occasional delicious dive into decadence.

SSS is a kitch place with a low-key vibe. The decor borrows from the 60’s & 70’s with pea-green chairs, tv dinner tables and other accessories of the playful era. But the cupcakes are a pure delight. Pistachio nut, pumpkin, and rich velvet pipped with either chocolate or vanilla icing, I guarantee you will enter giddy and leave with a dizzing sugar-high. And with haute bakeries hocking tiny, bland cupcakes priced upwards of $3-$4 (while I respect the Crumb’s fascination, I simply don’t get it), these darling, creatively made treats are a worthwhile steal at $1.50!

image courtesy of cheapassfood.com

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 pm and is filed under foodie gal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.