Baked   

The most striking thing about a bite into a Baked NYC cupcake is the subtlety of its sweetness. Sugar-shock usually accompanies the initial mouthful of many cakes, where you can almost feel your teeth begin to decay instantly. But these confections are inviting, without the mouth-coating effect of Hostess-style excess sugar -- they're sweets for adults. The effect is due in part to the old fashioned process of making boiled buttercream, which is time consuming and expensive, but suits the pace of owners Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, the former a co-owner of Manhattan's Chocolate Bar. From their understated and serene shop, Baked NYC supplies cakes and other products to restaurants and stores all over the city, like the favorite Red Hook red hot, a red velvet cake with hint of Valrhona cocoa, cinnamon buttercream and candied red hots, and malted chocolate cake. The double-dark brownies are somewhere between fudge and cake, and have even been commissioned by a well-known department store to sell under its own name. The historic neighborhood and intriguing industrial waterfront is worth the subway-bus-oxcart trip out here anyway, but it now it comes with fantastic desserts.