Magnolia's AC is Broken

Via Eater NY.















If you've ever been to Magnolia's original location at 401 Bleecker, you know how tiny it is, and how sweaty and over-crowded the place gets in the summer. Now imagine that experience minus the cooling effect of the air conditioner. Ugh, no thanks.

Sex and the City Tour No Longer Visiting Magnolias

Original photo can be found here.

Via The Wall Street Journal.












A spokeswoman for On Location Tours (the company that runs those extremely annoying Sex and the City tours), says Magnolia's couldn't fulfill the needs of the tour, and that their removal from the tour route was an issue of supply and demand.

Now tour goers will be offered cupcakes from Billy's Bakery in Chelsea on the bus itself, but they can still walk along Bleecker Street and have the chance to visit Magnolia's.

Magnolia Bakery Opens Grand Central Location

Via Cupcakes Take the Cake.

Magnolia's opened their Grand Central lower level dining concourse location today, and along with their usual famous goodies they will also be serving Magnolia Blend coffees.

Magnolia's Sidewalk Cafe Permit Trouble

Original photo can be found here.



Magnolia Bakery
200 Columbus Ave.
at W. 69th St.







Community Board 7 voted against renewing the bakery's license for their sidewalk cafe. They said the issue has to do with the absence of chairs and tables in the addition. Instead the bakery has been using the space to house their famously long lines of people (not the worst idea ever, in my opinion, since people will just have to line up outside anyway). The Community Board says it makes the sidewalk too narrow and that it violates "every reasonable spatial requirement for a cafe (despite being attractively designed and well managed)"

But all this doesn't mean the sidewalk cafe will be gone- at least not yet. Check out Westside Independent's article, it has a link at the bottom that explains the "long and convoluted process".

Eat for Haiti at Magnolia's

Starting tomorrow and continuing till February 28th, Magnolia's will be selling special cupcakes with the Red Cross logo for $3, $1 of each purchase will go to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund.

Also, tomorrow is the last day 20% of your purchase at Taste Cookies will go to help Haiti.

For an up to date and complete(?) list of restaurants that will be donating a percentage of their sales to Haiti, visit Time Out New York.

Magnolia's Original Location Closed for Renovations

Original photo can be found here.












Via Jeremiah's Vanishing New York.

Magnolia's original location at 401 Bleecker St. has been gutted for renovations. No worries though, you can still get their cupcakes at two of their other locations.

In other Magnolia's related news, the original owner Allysa Torey gave an interview where she talks about living a quieter life on a farm in upstate New York with her adopted baby.

Current owner Steve Abrams is expanding the bakery, opening its first location outside of the US, in Dubai. The store will be managed and operated by Al Tayer Insignia, in Bloomingdale's Home store, in The Dubai Mall, and is slated to open February 2010.

Magnolia's is also planning on opening two new locations in the US, one in Grand Central Terminal in January and their first location on the West Coast in Spring of 2010.

Recipe Review: Magnolia's Apple Pecan Quick-Bread

Recipe: Apple Pecan Quick Bread

Source: The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Overall rating out of 5:




OK, I know this bread doesn't seem impressive, but it definitely tastes better than it looks. A friend asked me what "quick bread" actually is, and Wiki tells me its: "a type of bread which is leavened with chemical leaveners such as baking powder, sodium bicarbonate, or cream of tartar" (as opposed to yeast that takes hours to rise).

The book suggests replacing half of the apples with cranberries if you want more of a tart flavor.

Makes 1 loaf:
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup orange juice (I left this out)
5 1/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped Golden Delicious apples
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, making a well in the center. Set aside. Stir in the liquid ingredients till just combined, do not over mix. Gently stir in the apples and pecans. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or till a cake tester inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached. Don't over bake.


Since I omitted the orange juice, the bread was undoubtably more dry than it would have been, I didn't have to "pour" in the batter. When I pulled it out of the oven I lowered any expectations I had, and was very surprised to have it taste so well. The bread itself tastes somewhat similar to Irish soda bread, the apples add sweetness and the pecans counter them nicely. Its a little crumbly, so next time I'll definitely add the orange juice. Its a quick yummy snack, perfect for breakfast too.

New Cookbook: The *Complete* Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook
by Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey

I am extremely exited about this! The second I saw it I put it on my gift list.

Like a lot of people, my initiation into cupcake culture started with Magnolia's. I haven't really liked their cupcakes for a couple of years now. You eat enough of it, and of other cupcakes, and you realize there is more out there than just pure sugar. But they have two other products that still have me coming back, standing in long lines in crazy weather.

The red velvet cake, and the banana pudding.
BOTH of these recipes are in this 240 page beauty!

And the price is right, $13.59 (Amazon.com) is dirt cheap.

Original photo can be found here.