Flying Monkey Patisserie   

Owner Rebecca Michaels is an accomplished pastry chef, so anything that comes out of her open pastry kitchen and into one of the gleaming cases at this Reading Terminal market patisserie (look for it by the food court) is pretty special. What comes out are the handmade, whimsical cakes, brownies, tarts, cupcakes, and all other sorts of confections. Flying Monkey's double chocolate brownies fall somewhere between a cake and fudge, and come with or without walnuts. The Santa Fe brownies have a touch of cinnamon and cayenne pepper. The signature Monkey bar contains bananas, chocolate, coconut, and brown sugar, with pecan crust. Cupcakes abound in vanilla pound cake and dark chocolate cake versions, with at least 10 frostings (ask for the daily special). Any cupcake can be made into a full-sized cake (the patisserie does catering, prices range between $25 and $55; $4.50 for a slice). The Raspberry Retro cake is made of chocolate and pink raspberry butter cream. Another interesting offering is Rooibos cake, a butter cake infused with the South African herbal tea and layered with milk chocolate and raspberry butter cream. There's a $10 minimum on all credit card orders.