The world needs to know, right this minute, about something called a Cookie Bar ($2.25).
It’s a cookie; a bar cookie cut into a circle, made by Kittie’s Cakes. While cupcakes are the main show at the newish German Village bakery, it’s impossible to discuss the little cakelets lucidly without first unloading about those cookies.
You know the condensed-milk-seven-layer-bars that are as addictive as crack cocaine and always show up at the holidays? This particular cookie is worse. Or better. Really, it’s better. But worse in terms of cravings.
It’s got a graham crust, topped with the stuff that turns into caramel in the oven (condensed milk is normally used), salted mixed nuts and big chunks of premium dark chocolate on top. It’s the salt thing that makes them magical. Or maybe it’s the caramel. Or the chocolate.
Someone is going to have to host an intervention.
Now about the rest of the bakery: Kittie’s Cakes is chock-full of cupcakes ($2.25 each). They are good, and “good” means way better than most you’ll find, even at the height of the local cupcake craze. Lots of cupcake dispenseries sell pretty little cupcakes that taste like cardboard. People gobble them up, ostensibly because the goods are so small and cute: no one notices the flavor.
But it’s worthwhile to stop and notice the flavors at Kittie’s Cakes, because the bakery takes the time to make its mini-masterpieces taste like something – many somethings. So far, all the flavors have been delicious.
To wit:
There is the Buckeye. It’s based on a dark chocolate cake with an equally dark, intense chocolate frosting. In the middle is a dab of peanut butter that tunnels straight down into the cupcake. The peanut butter element is less sweet than the rest of the concoction, so you get a nice little palate variation.
Then there’s the Hot Chocolate Cupcake: it’s got some spikey stuff that locals like to put in their chocolate. Here, it comes across more like red hots with chocolate, which is a combination that works, and it works well.
The Black and White Cupcake is another chocolate cupcake, this time with a smooth sweet white swirl of frosting on top.
There is a land beyond chocolate, and it includes a seasonal Sweet Potato Cupcake –with holiday homespun flavors and a tender crumb. Hidden inside the cupcake are sugary pecans. Coconut lovers will take delight in the airy Coconut Cupcake, topped with the requisite sweet coconut flakes.
And then there is the Cookies & Cream Cupcake. Rolled in cookie crumbs, it has a frosting that tastes like oreo filling, only better. Not chemically, it has a pure sweetness with a magical, airy smooth texture.
There are a few other things at the bakery counter beyond cupcakes. The bakery does an in-house version of an Oatmeal Crème Pie ($3.25) that is just lovely: thin, natural, cinnamon-y tasting oatmeal cookies hold a mammoth swirl of that sweet filling. Only the most hardcore of Little Debbie Purists found this unappealing.
There are also a super-giant Biscuit ($3): flaky with a glistening glob of jelly in the middle. It’s big enough for a breakfast -and it seems like a “healthy treat” in the land of sugary cakes.
For those with bigger appetites, Kittie’s Cakes also makes bigger cupcakes as well as traditional cakes. You can find it at 495 S. Third Street. It’s open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 8am until 6pm. On Sunday, the bakery is open from 8am until 2:30pm.
More information can be found online at www.kittiescakes.com.
Photos by Mollie Lyman of www.fornixphotography.com.
