One Girl Cookies

My crush on Brooklyn deepens. My awe and envy of girls who have made their sweet dreams reality make me nearly weep. It happened a couple months ago at Sugar Shop, the bright, poppy, delicious candy shop just off Court Street opened by Jen Bischoff and Sara Houchins. And it happened this weekend at One Girl Cookies.

Just look at this place. Opened a couple years ago by Dawn Casale and Dave Crofton, it’s the essence of a neighborhood gem.

Adorably decorated…

…with café seating with a view of the tree-lined street. Sigh.

And simple, beautiful homemade baked goods.

Trays and trays of cookies, many named after special people in Dawn’s life.

Dangerously spiked cupcakes.

A rotating roster of moist coffee and layer cakes.

And… whoopie pies.

Old-fashioned yet modern. Comfortable, authentic, original, heartfelt. This girl wants her own One Girl Cookies!

Look out, Nolita!

The Brooklyn-spawned Little Cupcake Bakeshop has landed squarely at the intersection of Mott and Prince, and it promises to be for Nolita exactly what Magnolia is for the Willage—a blessing or a curse, depending how you see it.


The uber girly space and especially outrageous menu is guaranteed to make both fans and enemies.

For example, Fruity Pebble Treat, anyone?

How about jelly and peanut butter three-layer cake, Nutella swirl cheesecake or oatmeal whoopie pies?




If only I hadn’t already been on a sugar rampage before I visited.

I think I could have had fun sampling the smorgasbord of cupcakes that are maybe a bit much, but probably delicious.

Strawberry, lemon, devil’s food...

French toast, blue velvet, coconut…

with frostings as varied as mocha buttercream, cream cheese and meringue.

Before you get too huffy and puffy that New York needs another cupcake shop as much as you need another accidentally-expensive shopping spree in Duane Reade’s beauty aisles, take note of their good points:
• Little Cupcake Bakeshop is carbon neutral and all their equipment and (biodegradable) products come from certified green companies.
• It’s LEED-certified and runs on wind turbine and hydroelectric power—you should be able to see its carbon scorecard in the window s of its two stores.
• It regularly donates to the Carbon Fund, a non-profit organization that plants trees that soak up carbon to balance carbon emissions released by the bakery.
• The Little Cupcake Initiative is their community outreach program that has created educational campaigns and volunteer activities to advance education, sustainability and green establishments.

Un, deux, trois pommes délicieux

Another place I can cross off my must-go list: Trois Pommes. It only took me a year and a half to get there, but I finally made it since I was doing chocolate recon in Brooklyn. Plus, mom gave me the nudge after she saw the patisserie in the new Food Network Magazine.

With the French name and sophisticated perch in Park Slope, you wouldn’t expect to find such cheeky treats as whoopie pies, Oreo cookies and the “Mostess” cupcake, a dense chocolate cupcake shot through the center with espresso cream filling. But they’re there, and they’re delicious.



So are the classics. Like a good old blueberry muffin, studded with bits of crumbly buttered sugar on top and juicy blueberries inside.


The black and white cookies are gorgeous cakey pieces with sweet frosting on top, and everything else looked divine. But there was only so much I could sample in a sitting. Oink, oink.

260 Fifth Avenue
718.230.3119