Take Sweet Revenge on those New Year's resolutions with life's little guilty pleasures: cupcakes, wine and beer. Offering pairings of America's favorite dessert (cupcakes) with America's favorite vices (wine and beer), Sweet Revenge (62 Carmine St. NY, NY 10014) is a creative hybrid of a bakery and a bar.
The interior of Sweet Revenge looks like a classic bistro with dim bulb lighting, classic wooden bistro chairs, white tile and a dark wooden bar. The word "cozy" is an understatement as there are only about 6 small tables, but the large bar offers additional stool seating for those seeking a true "bar" atmosphere. The small bakery case boasts the savory cake specials for the day and the featured sweet options. The wait staff is pleasant, and is able to provide knowledgeable recommendations on pairings of cupcakes and beer or wine.
For the "bubbly" lover the Crimson and Cream cupcake paired with a Raspberry Bellini is recommended. The Crimson and Cream cupcake is a raspberry red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and a drizzle of raspberry sauce. The raspberry in the flavor of the red velvet cake was difficult to pick up, but is evident once you take a sip of the Raspberry Bellini. The texture of the cake is quite dense but very moist and decadent. The frosting has a delightfully pungent cream cheese flavor mixed with a thick rich texture that doesn't go overboard on the sweetness factor that American style buttercream often does.
If the cold winter weather makes you crave a dry red wine, the Las Perdices Malbec from Argentina paired with the SweetRevenge signature cupcake is recommended. Unfortunately, the dryness of the sultry Malbec only adds to the dryness of the peanut butter cake, which crumbled on contact. The chocolate ganache center sounded extremely promising when paired with a peanut butter cake, but it failed on two levels. First, it was hard as a rock since the cupcakes are served straight from the refrigerated case. Secondly, it was such a small dollop of ganache injected in the middle of the dry cake it mimicked more of a Hershey Kiss than a ganache. The saving grace of this cupcake is the peanut butter fudge frosting with its outstanding homemade peanut butter texture and taste. The frosting truly tastes like a more fluid version of actual peanut butter fudge.
So, does the sweetly spiteful combination offered at Sweet Revenge bring the best of both worlds to New Yorkers? Yes, with a few challenges that can be washed down with another Raspberry Bellini.
Comments
They should know that cakes become stale very quickly when cooled below 40 degrees because the starch crystallizes. This sounds somewhat careless on their part. It is actually better to freeze them than refrigerate them.
I agree that it is always best to freeze, especially since the high fat content of sweets like cupcakes allows for a short thaw time. I also believe that the use of all natural or homemade peanut butter(which I am a proponent of) could have also been a culprit in the dryness of the cake. Since "real" peanut butter does not have added fats from oils this may have needed to be accounted for in the recipe.
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