The Buttercup Bake Shop: Red Velvet, Hummingbird and Banana Pudding

Everytime someone asks me where I live in Manhattan, they usually respond, "Oh, there are a lot of restaurants over there."  Why yes, there are.  But truth be told, I have not really eaten at any of them (as you know my love for the East Village), but I certainly have tried the sweet shops in the area!

Buttercup Bake Shop is one of the sweet shops that are just a few blocks away from me.  I had eaten here a couple of years ago, and I remembered I was not very impressed.  Time heals all wounds though, so I figured I should go ahead and pay them another visit.  Here is what I've tried!

The bakery itself is super tiny.  You walk into the width of a narrow hallway, and to the right are the glass display cases with these beautifully decorated puppies:

Butterup has several other neat flavors too, like the Devil Dog, which has a meringuish frosting, and the Lady Baltimore, an almond-flavored cake filled with coconut, candied cherries, cookie crumbs and almonds

The clerk behind the counter professed that his ultimate love in the bakery is the banana pudding (not the cupcakes!).  I have actually heard this about Magnolia Bakery also - the truth is in the banana pudding!

I took home the red velvet, the hummingbird cupcakes and of course, the banana pudding, because the clerk's challenge was on !  Could the banana pudding be that much better than the cupcakes ??

The Red Velvet topped with cream cheese frosting (as all red velvets should!).  I love how the frosting is about as tall as the cake itself.

I was pleasantly surprised how tasty this cupcake was.  My favorite red velvet in Manhattan is Tonnie's Minis, which has unfortunately moved on up to Harlem, but Buttercup's might be second on the list now.  The cake was fairly moist, and the cream cheese frosting was terrific - thick, incredibly chream cheesy and sufficiently sweet without being over the top.  The red sugar sprinkles are a nice touch too. 

The Hummingbird: banana, pineapple and walnuts; supposed to taste like banana bread

And it totally tasted like banana bread!  I was nervous about how the pineapple would taste in the mix, but I couldn't even taste it.  The cake was moist even the next day, post airflight to Kansas City!  Some reviewers say that it is basically a muffin.  But, hello, it is a muffin with frosting and it's a bit more moist.  Awesomeness.

A small order of banana pudding is placed in one of these cups.  You can see a picture of my cool succulent plant to the right (I'll feature that bad boy in a separate post).

The cup is absolutely filled to the brim with banana pudding.  You can see the chunks of banana and Nilla wafers throughout.

This is my first time to be eat banana pudding ever, and it was a lot better than I imagined!  Really tasty, but suuuuuuper rich.  After about six spoonfuls, I was feeling pretty disgusted with myself, and I hadn't even gotten to the halfway mark of the cup.  I think it is best appreciated in small quantities, and a small cup should be more than enough for two people to share.  The pudding is really, really sweet which kills the ability to eat mass amounts, if you're into that sort of thing.

But I totally loved these chunks of Nilla wafers that soften in the pudding.  Yum!

I had kind of hoped that Buttercup wouldn't be any good because it is sooo dangerously close to my apartment (and conveniently on my way home from the subway!), but I really did enjoy it, so I'll need to start allocating some calorie count to this spot hereonout!

Buttercup Bake Shop

973 2nd Avenue, New York

(212) 350-4144