At the 11th annual New York City Wine & Food Festival last Saturday top dessert masters Duff Goldman, Charm City Cakes, and Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi hosted decadently delicious ice cream and cake extravaganzas to benefit No Kid Hungry and the Food Bank for New York City.
In the afternoon, Goldman and a bevy of frozen dessert artisans welcomed kids of all ages at Kellogg’s on Union Square for a Family Ice Cream Fun-dae. Pint sized foodies gobbled up almost pint-sized portions of irresistible concoctions ranging from Davey’s Chocolate Mud Sundae to the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory’s Mini Green Tea and Cookies & Cream Milkshakes.
Seasonal flavors favored pumpkin – like Sam Mason, Oddfellow Ice Cream Company’s Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice cream with Hot Fudge & Graham Cracker Soil, and Ample Hills Creamery’s Coffee Ice Cream with pieces of housemade pumpkin ooey-gooey butter cake. Most fun to eat: the tri-color Rainbow Cookie Ice Cream dished out by pastry chef Stephen Collucci, Gigante’s Restaurant and Bar – honey almond nougat sandwiches dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. Most exciting for attendees and fans: opportunities for selfies with Goldman, the ever popular Food Network star.
It was the adults turn to party from 10 PM to midnight. A baker’s dozen of Chrstina Tosi’s colleagues and friends offered an array of over the top mini-cakes to pair with a wide variety of drinks at Union West, a brand-new event space in Manhattan’s booming West 20’s.
Some of the spirits were already embedded in the sweets. Bourbon was the perfect choice, said Maialino executive pastry chef Jessica Weiss, explaining her Maple Bourbon Old-Fashioned Cake, an orange buttermilk cake, maple custard, and caramel bourbon butter cream. Old fashioned cakes, but modern in spirit and flavor, proved a popular choice for this year’s festival.
Among them, two stand outs with cardamom and pistachio: Simon and the Whale’s Zoe Kanan’s Persian Love Cake, a cardamom financier, with fig and rose jam, and pistachio; and from Annie Leonard of Pittsburgh’s Hillrun bakery, one of several Milk Bar alumna in the lineup , Cardamom Pistachio Cake with Chocolate Buttercream. Tosi’s signature layer cakes, un-iced on the sides, included a buttery popcorn cake layered with salted caramel, popcorn crumbs and popcorn pudding, topped with corn fudge. Pumpkin Dulce de Leche Cake Truffles, the cake mixed with pumpkin milk, coated with white chocolate and rolled in spiced milk crumbs would be a terrific solution for any leftover layers. Let them Eat Cake!
