When I first moved to Chicago back in December, I was taught a very important piece of information...how to get to the State Street Macy's from my office without taking a step outside. Some of you may think this isn’t a big deal, but when it is -7 outside and you need a new pair of boots it becomes a huge deal! This is the Macy's downtown which has the giant Christmas tree in the Walnut Room, an entire floor dedicated to seasonal merchandise (guilty pleasure) AND the food court contains Frontera Grill. Yea, Frontera Grill as in Rick Bayless' mexican masterpiece. Kind of makes chik-fil-a look subpar. Now, this adventure is no walk in the park. It reminds me of the scene in Elf where Buddy is leaving the North Pole to head to New York City. He goes through the seven levels of the candy cane forest and through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops. My walk is not quite as glamorous as I journey through the levels of the Metra station and through the sea of bums, but the fact that I don’t have to step outside makes it totally worth it!
Once the snow melted away and it was actually warm enough to walk outdoors I took the more direct path to Macy's…this consisted of a 5 block walk. When I first made the outdoor trip I noticed a window display for Sarah’s Pastries. Obviously this was very exciting to me. That excitement diminished when I walked in the door and saw zero signs of baked goods. I figured it was just a poorly executed window display and carried on with my day. Please note I didn’t really look that hard.
Every time I went back the cakes were still in the window. I figured this mini bakery was located somewhere inside, but this Macy's has 7 floors. I have roughly 60 minutes for lunch, so no real time for a cake hunt.
Well...last week I found Sarah’s Pastries! I was walking to Macy's with my friend Matt, and as we approached the building I told him how I was so frustrated with the window display because I could not find the cakes. He took me through an entrance on the other side of the building and there it was...right when you walk in the door - exactly where the window is located (behind a Starbucks). I was mortified. It was the absolute definition of a dumb blonde move. Of course, I was with Matt when this happened because he gives me a hard time for EVERYTHING. This was just handing him material for the next few weeks. To my defense - this MINI cake stand is located in the middle of the men's underwear section. I do not regularly stroll through that section so how would I ever know the cakes were there?!?! And really Macy’s? Cakes in the underwear section?? You have 7 floors! On a total side note...some of the items in that section were shocking - i guess neon is also in for mens bottoms!
As I digress…on to the cupcake. We decided to split the cupcake of the day which was a chocolate cake with a caramel buttercream frosting and some peanut butter crisp thing on top.
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| Always appreciate a good container |
The Chocolate cake was very good. I really enjoyed the flavor. The pb crisp thing was also in the bottom of the cake. I really loved that addition – it definitely added to the texture and was a nice surprise. The frosting was super light and airy. I still don’t know if I liked that or not. On one hand it was nice that it wasn’t too heavy of a cake considering we were eating it at lunch, but on the other hand I felt the cake flavor was so strong that it needed a thicker frosting to compliment. The presentation was nice, but if I am factoring in the presentation of the “store” it was very tiny/compact and clearly difficult to find. I wonder how many others pass up the cakes due to location. I found the cupcake to be pretty creative, especially with the crisp. Overall I thought the combo was delicious. My favorite part was the peanut butter crisp since it added such a contrast of texture to the whole cake. I would definitely go back to Sarah’s now that I know where it is.
Before heading out we browsed the men's section to see if we could find Matt some fall clothes. I can't believe some of the items we came across. My favorite....
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| Perfect for those chilly days |
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| Reverse it if you want to jazz it up! |
Enjoy!
J
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