How I found the best cakes I've ever eaten in the back of a bar in the seediest neighbourhood I've ever been to.

Now when you get out of the metro station, that first peek out can basically tell you everything you need to know about a place. Sometimes, you come out to food smells, hundreds of people sharing a footpath, the noise of a bustling city, and that is always fun. Other times, you come out to a desolate neighbourhood, no honking horns, not even the sound of wheels on asphalt. Well, when that happens, it's pretty creepy. But that was the neighbourhood we ended up in, Bushwick. It was a bit creepy, but we basically just decided we'd get some cakes and head back. We spent 15 minutes walking around to find the bar, the heat was intense. When we found it, inside we saw 4 ceramics stalls and no cake pop-up. Looking closer, though, one of the stalls was actually ByPensa cakes.

Nikki Pensabene has some really interesting ideas when it comes to her sponge cakes. Would you ever even imagine making a corn, dulce de leche and peach cake? The black sesame and Yuzu was a cool idea (aside from the slice being wayy too small), but the star of the show was the carrot cake. Normally, I really don't like carrot cake, which is weird because I love the idea of carrots in desserts. That being said, this was seriously special. Carrot, ginger and turmeric sponge with a vanilla bean buttercream? Yes PLEASE!

The turmeric added a really interesting depth of flavour. The normal sweetness of a carrot cake was countered by the ginger, which almost made it mildly spicy, and the turmeric. Add to that the fact that the sponge was nearly perfect, and it was hands down the best slice of cake I've had in the last few years. 

It can't be said that all of the baked goods were completely flawless, but they were extremely close. The cookies were delicious, but as a personal choice, I prefer more crunch. However, I travelled with a few other people, and they loved it. The somewhat softer cookies actually played into their preferred profile for a cookie, and they really enjoyed it. 

Overall, people, it's REALLY worth heading to Nikki Pensabene's ByPensa. I'd eat the same slices of cake again in a heartbeat, and I think anybody who enjoys trying new and interesting flavours should really check it out. 

And nikke pensabene, if you by some miracle do end up reading this, my apologies for the horrible photo taking skills.