What’s with cake? IE, why is “cake” a semi-popular ice cream flavor? Blue Bell is already heavily invested in cakey ice creams, yet here’s one more, Cake Batter. what is the “flavor” of cake batter other than “sweet” and “fake”? this started out as a limited product, available at stores only, and maybe it shoulda stayed that way (and yet i bought the stuff. jeez).

Remember when this blog used to be updated every day? and when it had original material? jeepers. big plans for this wk, tho (ice cream prods to share). but onto cupcakes, a trend that hasn’t really hit dallas but maybe will w/ the March arrival of Sprinkles, a cupcake co. from bev hills. cupcakes seize some people’s imaginations; there are numerous blogs devoted to cupcakes. it’s a visual thing and a miniature thing. anyway Magnolia came first, in 1996 (and got the SATC mention) but Sprinkles is the one coming to D (specifically, to preston center).
4020 Villanova Drive no fone yet

Cocoa Via is hardly new. It’s so not-new, it’s not worth listing all the Web sites who’ve mentioned it. The basic premise - “chocolate that’s good for you” - never appealed. what’s the point of that? but it showed up at SuperT and was thus easy to buy. anyway, made by Mars/Dove (and the color scheme is very similar to Dove), it brags about its “cocoapro process” (and they even ® it to let you know it’s special). saying it retains flavanols “to help promote healthy circulation”. hmf. take a look at the pic. there is 1. a cardboard box. and inside 2. a cardboard shelf. on which rest the five bars. over them lies 3. a piece of double-layered glued cardboard. MUCH packaging. and what do you actually get, chocolate-wise? 5 wee .71-oz bars. maybe the size of a single twix. a box of 5 costs $5.99. or $1.20 per stick. now, admittedly, this is no noka. but it’s still a helluva lot of $$. as for the flavor - it’s dark choc and not very sweet. but you have to wonder: what exactly ARE “soy sterol esters“?

before posting this, i conducted the usual investigation to see if it really was news (it’s not) and/or what other stuff might be out there. during this exhaustive search, i discovered an A+ blog, Candy for Dinner, w/ an admirably hardcore focus on breaking candy news (much more diligently than i have time for, altho said blog has such a plethora of hershey’s scoops, one wonders about an inside hershey’s connection). anyway C4D had this Hershey’s with Corn Bits bar wks ago; but it’s been foto’d here already and gets points for being weird. the corn bits are tiny, not sweet, and stick around on the teeth for a second or two. it’s clever intellectually, in that it evokes nestles crunch but with a different grain. can’t wait for the barley

Already beloved here for its xlnt “Little Schoolboy” cookies (or as the frenchies would have it, Le Petit Ecolier), cookie maker Lu Biscuits appears to be undergoing some kind of renaissance w/ a whole wave of new prods. Here & now, a pair of sandwich cookies called Lu Cremes in two varieties: a so-so choc-mint and a solidly good ginger-lemon that aptly fits Lu’s description of “spicy zing of ginger and tart-yet-sweet lemon cream filling”. These, as well as Lu’s new Cream Roulee Rolled Wafers, are notable since they represent a more revolutionary direction than its various-tho-satisfying Little Schoolboy spinoffs such as the one made w/ rice-crisp choc a la nestles crunch

what a way to start ‘07: marc, the indian scout of NYCE, scrounged up what is perhaps the quintessential, the penultimate, the emblematic NYCE product: Hershey’s ltd-ed coffee kisses. let us quantify (or is that qualify?): 1. limited edition + 2. coffee. these coffee kisses are the pinnacle in a flurry of elegant, limited-ed flavors intro’d by hershey’s over the holidays (incl. dark-choc/strawberry & dark-choc raspberry). but coffee. the aroma when you open the bag bursts right out: more folger’s than intelligentsia (props to chic coffee guru spinnakr) but still admirably dark & espresso-y, w/ a flavor similar to that Pocket Coffee stuff

Damn, hope Ghirardelli Limited Edition Peppermint Bark is still in stores, even tho it’s post-xmas. Otherwise that makes NYCE obsolete. so no, pepp bark is not brand new. but it’s still surging in popularity (which makes it newsworthy) and this new ltd-ed (w/ its A+ shiny ribbon-candy wrapper) does a twist. The usual formula izza 3-layered construction: 1. milk choc base 2. white choc layer 3. cracked pep candies. Ghirardelli’s has the pep candy mixed right in to the white choc. a radical departure + also easier to eat, as the candy shards don’t fall all over yr keyboard

Rush Patisserie is named after chef-owner Samantha Rush (vs. the ’91 drug film vs the snicker canadian power trio), who moved back to D from Vegas, where she made pastry for hotels such as the Green Valley Ranch Resort. At Rush, she’ll do cakes, pastries, and hello, croissants. She’s taken over the space in Deep Ellum that used to be sweet endings, on the corner of elm & Malcolm X. oh but “taken over” doesn’t even hint at the transformation. IE, goodbye pepto-bismol pink exterior, we won’t miss you. and “hi” to the new exterior painted café au lait. She’s changed the whole vibe, man, from quaint pastry shop to boutique. To go w/ the pastries there’ll be hot coffee .. none of that cappuccino silliness

2901 Elm St. 214-749-4040, opening any day now

note the strong little NYCE, bravely holding up the big new product. note also the 2 photos, one shot w/ light, the other w/out. feel free to cast a vote. anyhow, Oreo ChocoStix just arrived in plano tx but it turns out they’re only semi-new (been out in australia a while; intro’d here in late oct). it’s a choc-coated choc wafer w/ layers of choc & white “cream“. you’d think they’d be an automatic 10, esp if you like wafers (which of course you should). but you know what? they’re not all that. the proposition is that you get the oreo flavor in a wafer format. well, it’s most definitely a wafer, but no sign of the “oreo flavor”. i think the problem may be the choc coating. it tastes neither like choc nor oreo nor anything other than “wax“

Restaurant impresario Dale Wamstad got some more good folks to drink the Kool-Aid: A third branch of Main Street Bistro & Bakery has opened in his Shire center at the corner of the 190 (George Bush Freeway) & Jupiter Rd. This is the development w/ a branch of Wamstad’s Silver Fox steakhouse as well as Ye Shire Tavern. A Richardson chamber of commerce newsletter quotes Main St. co-owner Yasmine Bohsali as saying that she & her partner Fabien Goury “love the architecture, the look and touch of the materials“, calling it “very European“, before giving a nod to the “whole, larger vision that Dale has.” Whoa. But hey, anyone living on the east side of plano has to love the Dale not only for the development, but for bringing in some of the area’s best breads and baked goods. Like the original in grapevine and the 2nd branch at legacy in plano, this Main St has breads, pastries, sandwiches, light entrees, & coffee drinks. service, however, is N.S.G.

3600 Shire, Suite 100, Richardson. 972-578-0294