The Coke machine was installed this morning. Sheer joy. Utter and complete peace and joy.

We’ve arrived.

Searching for a storefront has been a true labor of love. We’d seen oodles of places and gone back and forth on our ideal location. And just when we thought our expectations were too high, we found it! 212 S. State in Orem. It’s a historic home (circa 1909) that we’re renovating into our beloved dessert cafe. The character, the charm, and the design elements of the house itself are completely perfect. I mean c’mon, there’s a little round window in one of the rooms that I want to hug every time I see it.

The front porch. We’re painting it chocolate brown, of course.

This is our only demolition (ish) project. We’re adding this doorway to connect 2 rooms so we

have more continuous bakery space.

Helpers deserve free cupcakes for life!

Nephew Nash (and Mom in the background) flexes his painting muscles. Thanks dude!

And on this kind of timeline, child labor laws totally don’t count. We’ll take all the illegal help we can get. :)

So we’ll start with Magnolia Bakery.

I’ve heard a lot of editorials about Magnolia. Like one of my NYC culinary classmates griping that it’s “not even good and it’s only famous because it was on Sex and The City.” Or “who would ever wait in line for a cupcake?” But Magnolia did for cupcakes what Rachel Ray has done for raspy voiced, over-the-shoulder-salt-throwers. It’s cool. And frankly, I love it…a lot. Their display is clean, they’re staff is sensationally friendly, and their goods are good. Of course Sex and the City and Andy Samberg made Magnolia nationally famous, but they were locally famous long before they were rapped about.

Vanilla with Chocolate, 2 Vanilla with Buttercream (pink and blue)

Red Velvet, and Carrot Cake

I sometimes think their buttercream is a little too sweet, like a karate kick in the sweet tooth. But the flavor after the sweet is so wonderful that I forget about the initial assault. And their red velvet cake is undoubtedly my favorite in the city.

Next was Two Little Red Hens.

I’m big into asking the locals and when you ask NYC locals, they’ll tell you to go here. Most bakeries in New York have a version of chocolate cake called a “Brooklyn Blackout” cake and TLRH has my favorite Brooklyn Blackout cake. Their red velvet is really good too. On the flipside though, their vanilla with buttercream is my least favorite in the city.

I love the way their cakes always look. Some of them are a

little ornate for my taste, but they’re beautiful.

And lastly, Cafe Palermo on Mulberry Street.

I’ve loved Cafe Palermo for years. As in last January, a BFF and I braved 13 degree weather and the wind chill of Antarctica to make it to this Little Italy gem only to find it closed. Gasp! The family closed up shop to visit Italy and there I was, eyelashes frozen, feeling as though someone had just broken up with me. Why? How could they? You may think I’m crazy, but eat their cannoli and then try and judge me.

I have a love affair with Italian pastries.

I also highly recommend Pasticceria Bruno. It’s also top-notch.

Georgetown Cupcakes was quaint and probably the most interesting little cupcakery we visited. Built on the ground level of an old rowhouse, it oozed charm. Teeny little storefront, not so teeny line of folks trying to get in. Their display was rather creative and inexpensive, which I always appreciate. (There’s something wonderful about seeing how other business owners showcase their products.) I’m also a total sucker for packaging. Me + good packaging = sold.

Their cupcakes were phenomenal. We tried almost every flavor over the course of the few days we were there.

The only thing that 50% of our research team didn’t like was that GC’s base frosting is a cream cheese-based frosting. So….everything was cream cheesey. Mint cream cheesey. Vanilla cream cheesey. Key lime cream cheesey. Coconut cream cheesey. So if  you love the ole cream of cheese, you’ll be in heaven.

Next was Hello Cupcake on Massachusetts Avenue. We got there a little late in the day so their goods were as good as gone, but we got our eat on with what they had left. I’m just saying….if ever wandering through DC, eat their Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake. It was offensively good cake.

The other favorite about Hello Cupcake was their use of sprinkles as decoration. Their far wall had backlit jars of sprinkles that seemed so playful and Willy Wonkaish (pre-Johnny Depp Wonka). Once again. Me + good decor = yours.

We continue to learn a lot about what makes these bakeries successful and, once again, stuffed some invaluable ideas in our apron pocket.

Having been to Boston before, we made a bee-line for our own favorites and then hit up the places recommended by friends and fellow foodies. First was Mike’s Pastry on the North End. I am a lover of all things Italian, but desserts italiano do something special for me….obviously. I don’t love Mike’s cannoli even though it’s wildly popular. Their tiramisu, however, is the stuff of legends. I could have helped myself to a third or fourth round, but I stopped after the first to maintain my dignity.

We then perused a bunch of random bakeries and for the most part, they lacked notability in any way whatsoever. (The picture at right is actually of one such dark spot on the bakery tour….a whoopie pie that was dry and chalky. Not good at all, but a very photogenic little piece of cake.)  Then there came Lyndell’s, a beacon of deliciousness on our trip. The girl behind the counter was so great about answering all our questions, and their stuff was divine. Perfect little cupcakes, mini cheesecakes and a macaroon that would blow your top off.

Thanks Boston.

Our first stop was the recommendation of an adamant Seattle foodie we met in a camera shop. He was quasi offended when we said we’d never heard of Tom Douglas (Seattle’s top chef) so we made penance by straightway heading to Tom Douglas’ Dahlia bakery (sorry, no pictures). This teensy little joint had more charm than B. Obama  and a line around the corner. We opted for the lemon huckleberry cupcake, and, well, it was kind of a let down. The cake was dry, the frosting tasted like someone forgot the sugar and for $2.95, we hoped for so much more. Obviously, the people in line were there for a reason, we probably just picked something not great. And don’t worry Tom Douglas! We ate at the Dahlia Lounge before dessert and it was THE best halibut we’ve ever had.

Stop 2 took us off the beaten path to a place called Simply Desserts. It was a small, not well-lit cafe where our order was pushed across the counter on dixie paper plates. There was nothing wowie about Simply Desserts except, well, their desserts. We had German Chocolate cake and Pumpkin Orange cake and both were unbelievably good. They had everything we look for in a cake….moist, well constructed, complementing flavors, no Crisco. It’s no wonder this place has a full dining room and a local following since 1980.

And lastly, Trophy Cupcakes. We ordered one of everything just cause that’s how we roll.  Their buttercream base is used in all their non-chocolate frostings and is so good. Our favorite was the Hummingbird (banana with chocolate chips and cream cheese buttercream) and their Chocolate Vanilla. Their branding is really whimsical and playful so it’s obvious why this place is ALWAYS busy and quite famous. The cake was perfectly moist, the frosting wasn’t too sweet or almondy, and the cupcakes are expertly decorated. This stop was a total joy.

For this love of the baked good, we are out and about, once again, to find new ideas and recipes to bring home for the opening of our dessert cafe. We’ve done this whole “in search of the best” before and it inspired a grip of The Chocolate’s offerings. (ie. our current sugar cookie, our chocolate cake, our red velvet cake, et al.) Half our menu was born from family recipes, and the other half are original recipes based on that delicious something-or-other from that one place in that one city. We eat an incredible, life-changing dessert and it becomes an issue of national security to be able to recreate it (national security=our innate sense of tastiness and professional well-being).

Basically, we want The Chocolate to be the best. We want our cafe to be synonymous with class, kindness, and offensively good cake . So we’re going to ask the places notorious for being the best what they do (and don’t do) to make them the cream of the crop, the upper echelon, the apple of  your eye, the cat’s meow. And by the time we get back, we hope to have a suitcase full (carry-on size, of course) of ideas that you’ll probably want to get in line to stuff your face with.