Famished Girl
Babycakes NYC, Lower East Side
For a city that touts itself as gastronomically forward, I’ve been hard-pressed to find delicious organic eateries in the form of restaurants and bakeries, and the answer is to not to erect a Whole Foods on every city block (although I humbly appreciate the gestures on Houston Street as well as the market in Union Square), or to sell one or two items on a lofty menu as if this way of life, organic, healthy living, were a novelty.
So it was with great pleasure (more like me crying tears of joy) that I discovered Babycakes, a sweet bakery in the Lower East Side, whose pristine 50’s style storefront is a welcomed fresh face amidst an otherwise bleak block. But trust me, there is nothing 50’s about the treats inside: 100% organic; free of glutens, refined sugars, eggs, wheat, casein, soy and dairy products, owner Erin McKenna (who was devastated to find that she was allergic to gluten and dairy and had to forgo her childhood love of chocolate chip cookies) created healthful recipes, which caught satisfied the finicky palates of her coworkers and a bakeshop was born. Cold-pressed coconut oil replaces the artery-clogging vegetable oils and guava nectar (instead of the corn syrups, fructose and cane juice, which has been proven to cause diabetes) provides the wholesome sweet taste in the delicious carrot muffin that I managed to down in record speed.
This all sounds fab, but what about are the sweets up to snuff? Absolutely. Erin serves up a healthy array of samples; cookies, cupcakes, and muffins, and is ready to answer questions from us suspicious New Yorkers. An organic convert, we agreed that it’s worth it in the long run to spend a little more for the healthy option. But many wondered, Wait, no sugar? How could it be possibly be good? Try them, the owner encourages. In the span of my short visit, I was amazed by the bevy of impressed customers that remarked on the warm oven smell, and how scrummy the samples tasted.
The bakery is sparse, clean, and drenched in sunlight ,and all the cheery employees are decked out in cute candy-stripper smocks. The food is fresh, absolutely delicious and remarkably affordable. Compared to the other alleged “organic” tea/bakery located on the LES that sells teas for $6 and sugar-ridden cakes that make you shake and do the jitterbug, at Babycakes, snag a muffin for $3, a cookie for .90 and a nice cup of tea for under a buck. And with a sign that reads, “It’s nice to be nice, so try it.” how could you possibly go wrong.
My suggestion: run, don’t walk to this bakery feat in New York’s Lower East Side.
Babycakes NYC
248 Broome Street
btwn Ludlow and Orchard
New York City
212-677-5047
Subway: F/J/M/Z to Delancey
