Girls Night Out and Cupcake Tour

This Saturday I was having a girls night out in NYC with some friends of mine.  My girl friend from college, Devon, drove up from PA and spent the weekend with us.  We decided to make a day of it in NYC on Saturday before our dinner so we did a cupcake tour!!

We didn't let heavy snow and extreme wind tunnels stop us from eating cupcakes!

Morning snuggles ;)

Taking the Metro North Train into the city. (Our hair still looked nice!)

We arrived 20 mins. before our cupcake tour was to leave so we walked around the Union Square Holiday Market.

All bundled up.  We posed in front of this vendor selling gorgeous lights.

Hand made out of tiny pieces of glass.  I made sure not to touch anything!

Looking at jewelry and caught our reflection. :)

 Baked By Melissa was our first cupcake stop! They are famous for their tie-dye cupcake however we sampled their December special cupcake, the candy cane crunch!

Devon remembered the name of our tour guide and got the last cupcake as a prize from Baked by Melissa.  They are 1 bite size cupcakes hence why you can't really see Devon holding it up!  It was delicious!

 Our second stop was at Crumbs Bakery. We each got to sample a different cupcake. We both agreed that the Crumbs Bakery had the sweetest and driest cupcakes out of all we tried.
Our third stop was to Amorino for some gelato.  (Yes, I know.  Gelato is not a cupcake but it was a nice break from the sweets.  We had the mango gelato and it tasted just like a mango!)  They also have a Amorino at the Louvre Museum in Europe.

Warming up at Amorino.

Lots of different gelato flavors!

Ahhh.  Warmth at Amorino!

 Our fourth stop was at Molly's Cupcakes.  To get there we walked through Washington Square Park.  It was snowy, quiet and perfect!  Our tour guide Mallory mentioned 2 facts that I didn't know before.  In the movie I am Legend, Will Smith's character had an apartment 1/2 block from the park.  She also pointed out Hangman's Tree in the park.  It is a candidate for the oldest tree in NYC.  310 years old and legend has it it was used for hangings.  Creepy!

Serious Devon at the Memorial in Washington Square Park.

Silly Devon.

It looks so pretty, all decorated for Christmas.

Devon and I, still warm, but with messy hair posting in front of the tree.

Today was SantaCon in the city.  An excuse for irresponsible, 20 somethings to get drunk.  We saw hundreds and hundreds of Santa's around the city today but this particular bar had about 80 congregated outside.

We finally made it to Molly's Cupcakes!  What a cute and sweet little shop!  And this is the first cupcake stop we went to where they do all their baking on site!  The smell was glorious!  We were able to decorate our own cupcake however we wanted.  Molly's Cupcake won the first cupcake war challenge on Food Network and was named the best cupcake in the U.S. by USA Today.  Oh, my was it delicious.  The best cupcake I've ever had in my life.  If you come to visit me and we go into the city, this will be a stop!

Aren't these swing like seats at the bar so charming?!

We made our own cupcake.  We got to choose our cake: Vanilla, chocolate, red velvet and carrot then our frosting, vanilla, chocolate, cream cheese, buttercream, brown butter. 

I chose a vanilla cake with Brown Butter frosting.  The frosting was amazing, and not too sweet and the cake was moist and dense.  Perfect ratio!

 Once I saw this cupcake in the display, I just had to get a picture.  Peanut Butter Nutella Cupcake, Peanut butter cake filled with Nutella and topped with Nutella Buttercream.

 Our second to last stop was at Milk and Cookies.  We each sampled the Salted Oat Surprise Cookie, that had toffee bits in it.  It was heavenly, crisp on the edges and soft and warm in the middle.  I was so nice and saved half for the kids to try! :)

Such a pretty window display!

This was their window display when I was there in May.

 Our very last stop on our tour was Magnolia Bakery.  It became really famous with lines around the corner after appearing on the show Sex and the City. We got our samples of Red Velvet Cupcakes to go.  We ate them the next morning for a snack and they were amazing.  Not to sweet and full of flavor!

To warm up and waste some time before our dinner reservations we got a manicure and back massage.  It was so relaxing!

Miss Devon getting her nails done!

My freshly painted manicure and a drink at the candle lit bar.

 We had reservations at Crispo Restaurant in the West Village.  Everyone loved their food!

Dinner with these girls was so fun.   L to R: Kathy, Katie, Me, Devon and Ashley.

Subway ride back to Grand Central Station to hop on the Metro North back to Stamford.

Ashley and Katie posing!

We got home really late, but didn't get a chance to sleep in because of two little rascals.  They loved playing with Devon and putting her in "jail!"

Thanks for coming to visit and play Devon!!!