Spot Dessert Bar

I'm thrilled about Pichet Ong's new consulting chef role at Spot Dessert Bar on St Marks Place.

His trademark sparkling cupcakes are there in chocolate green tea, mocha salted caramel and vanilla almond coconut along with a selection of equally tasty looking cookies.

The coconut macaroon nutella almond cookie was chewy and delicious.

The unusual white miso semifreddo was garnished with raspberries, sorbet, brown sugar crunch, olive oil, a crunchy wafer and tiny mint leaves - all the elements combined for a perfect bite.

There's also a selection of Pacojet machine-made ice cream and with toppings ranging from chocolate crumbs to basil seeds!

This ovaltine flavored ice cream was chocolatey and dense and topped with crunchy caramel flakes - a perfect ending to a flight of desserts!

Kumquat Cupcakery

Keavy Landreth from Kumquat Cupcakery was at Brooklyn Flea's Gifted holiday market this weekend with her super-cute and tasty bite sized cupcakes.

The offerings included a fragrant chocolate lavender, rich peanut butter honey banana, red velvet, spiced pumpkin topped with pumpkin seeds, and the perfectly salty maple bacon topped with a few pieces of crunchy bacon on top!

Mark Burger

Lately I'm becoming more fond of St Marks Place for the growing number of good cheap restaurant options - including Mark Burger. The space looks like a lounge with bar seating and table service, which was a nice surprise given the sliders start at $2!

The generously sized sliders are available in two options: regular and bacon. Both were juicy and topped with cheese and onions. A side of fries was perfect for trying out the four house-made sauces: a rich and spicy chipotle, BBQ, a hot jalapeno and regular ketchup.

Crumbs mini apple cupcakes

How adorable are these mini size cupcakes from Crumbs Bake Shop! Both have a delicious apple cinnamon cake, but the apple cobbler has crumb topping and the caramel apple is topped with caramel and has an apple pie filling.

Boccalone lard caramels

Photo courtesy of The Moment, NYTimes.com

I'm dying to try these Boccalone lard caramels from Humphry Slocombe, along with the meat flavored proscuitto, foie gras, and pistachio-bacon ice creams on the next trip to San Francisco.

Serious Eats pumpkin find: Billy's Bakery

photo by Kathy Chan, courtesy of Serious Eats New York

Check out this post on Serious Eats NY about the pumpkin bar at Billy's Bakery!

Boston Cream Cupcake

My favorite doughnut is now a cupcake! Baked by Two Little Red Hens and found at Dean & Deluca, it's irresistible with spongy white cake, thick custard filling, and fudge frosting topped with tiny white chocolate curls. Now instead of wanting a doughnut with coffee in the morning, I'll be craving this cupcake instead.