Every couple of weeks I find myself wander along eighth avenue in Chelsea and, without fail, the windows at Empire Cake stop me in my tracks.  I’m not a big fan of big fancy cakes mostly because wedding or birthday cakes, even though you might appreciate the workmanship that went into them, mostly look like they deserve their own blog post on cake wrecks.

If someone had said to me Oh Mark I bought these beautiful cup cakes with photos of all the characters on Downton Abbey on them  I would’ve rolled my eyes and thought: that’s just not possible.  And I would have been totally wrong as you can see from the above picture. This whole trend of photo icing (is that even a term?) seems vaguely creepy to me, are their chemicals involved?  Should we really be eating that? Then you see the above cupcakes and all those nagging questions disappear. Whoever is in charge at Empire Cake is a genius, all the things that I would have thought were impossible to pull off in a classy appealing way they manage to do with aplomb.  Look at this cake below, how long must it take to make something like this?These are characters from Toy Story (I think?) on a festive christmas cake.  The skill and artistry in this cake blows me away.  I am not a big fan of fondant, but it sure is a brilliant medium for the chefs at Empire Cake to create their edible sculptures.  Wouldn’t you cringe having to cut into a cake this amazing to eat it?  I wouldn’t want to destroy. If you aren’t in the market for a large or small fondant masterpiece for a special occasion, but instead  just want  something sweet to snack on while you stroll around Chelsea Empire Cake has you covered.   They have a good selection of more traditional pastry offerings including some new takes on old favorites like Snowballs, Twinkies and Swiss Rolls, they even have Stumptown coffee.With ingredients sourced from the Union Square Market, a whimsical contemporary aesthetic and an incredibly talented kitchen full of bakers Empire Cake is redefining American cake making and is a must visit when you are in Chelsea and in need of a little pick me up.