Magnolia Bakery

Cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery were every bit as good as their popularity claim them to be. I was surprised to realize that they only have 2 staples, the vanilla and chocolate; the difference was all in the icing. Other cupcake flavors, as I understood in their website, were all made to order with a minimum number of pieces. The icing on both cupcakes and probabaly in most of their other cupcakes were made from the confectioner's sugar-butter combination that almost all cupcakes are sporting, but the chocolate icing, which I liked best, had a bitter tone to it that married well with the soft, slightly bitter chocolate cupcake.

vanilla cupcake

The vanilla cupcake, on the other hand, is a purist's dream of a vanilla in a cake. It has that taste which reminded me of something old...not in a bad way, of course; it's almost as if I've tasted it way back when I was very, very young.

Magnolia Bakery's mini cheesecake

How satisfyingly good the cupcakes were only made the cheesecake disappoint in comparison. It is a baked cheesecake with all the tanginess appropriate to it, but there's also a gelatin like mouthfeel to it that seemed odd. The vanilla beans were visible enough to encourage more bites even when its graham crust was all but blown away for it's crumbliness.


Magnolia Bakery and Millie's Cookies

Now, one of the best things one can bring home as pasalubong (gift/ tokerns) are cookies. They're easy to carry, keeps well and aren't so sensitive to temperature. Almost with any chance I get, I ask for cookies from Millie's, particularly the Gingerbread cookie. It is hands-down the best gingerbread cookie for me. It is chewy, dark and brooding with spices. It is to me what chocolate chip cookies are for most people. But unfortunately, they stopped making them, for whatever reason I cannot imagine. My sister, A, got me 7 varieties which made me realize that they all taste the same save for the chocolate/fruit/flavoring used. Huh. Now, come to think of it, they look quite the same, too: thin, oversized and square-ish. Cute. The Toffee Cookie had pockmarks where the toffee candy melted, making the cookie chewier, but sweeter, too. The chocolate chip cookie was chewy and interesting enough even if the chocolate chunks were few and due to its size, far in-between. It's a cookie you'd want to nibble on until you get to the chocolate part again!

Magnolia Bakery's Oatmeal Cookie

Magnolia's cookies sport the chunky, rotund look that's very much an image of bakery-style cookies; but, they don't have the mass-produced taste I almost expected. The cinnamon in the oatmeal cookie was very evident and fared better in fragrance than what I'm accustomed to. So, this cookie was the favorite among all. The chocolate chip cookie has chocolate chunks that are bittersweet and considerably a lot, which offsets the lack of flavor in the dough. I prefer a more pronounced vanilla taste and smell in the dough.

Another great surprise of a dessert is the Banana Pudding (comes in 8 and 16oz take-out cups) from the Magnolia Bakery. It is like an icebox cake, only unbelievably creamier. It has banana slices and cake wedges lodged between waves of banana cream. It is such a revelation to eat, especially since the desciption sinisterly rich is usually reserved for chocolate desserts, but this banana pudding fits the bill. It's truly a must-try-- even over the cupcakes. A lady I met once recalled trying the pudding and it was a pleasant surprise to hear someone gush over it with as much conviction and passion as I do. I eat it straight fromthe cup, it's like having the satisfaction of eating ice cream but without having to wait for it to melt in your mouth. YUM-MY.