Cake Man Cake Man

I finally made the (short) pilgrimage to Cake Man Raven last week. I am not usually in the order of seeking out dessert, but Elizabeth and I happened to be passing by this notorious cake spot and figured we couldn't hold out any longer, especially considering it was only a few blocks from home. I knew what we were getting before we went inside: a slice of Red Velvet Cake. But it still blew me away that shop front was pretty much a register and a glass case filled exclusively with individually boxed pieces of thick red cake. That was it. Elizabeth asked a teenager behind the counter his opinion of the dessert but he could barely answer on account of his mouthful of red velvet. At first, I thought 6 bucks was expensive for the slice but then I felt its weight and realized it would feed us both and then some.

After dinner we dug in. It was perfect. The nuts on the outside added a crunch to the thick white frosting, which wasn't saccharine but nevertheless intense. I managed to get some frosting with every bite of the moist, rather heavy cake, and the combination was heavenly. It didn't just taste like vanilla cake with red food coloring either; the cocoa and buttermilk in the batter gave it an extra kick.

Then on Saturday I happened to go to a party serving Magnolia red velvet cake! And I must say Cake Man Raven wins. Magnolia's red velvet was light and airy, which is often a good thing for cakes. But in the end, it didn't stand up. There was something deep and rich about Cake Man Raven's red velvet that had me wishing I was back in Fort Greene rather than Manhattan.