In the past, I’ve been known to rail against restaurants that don’t commit to dessert. I’m sorry, but if I could make it at home — looking at you olive oil cake — then it’s not worth my time. (Though how expensive is olive oil cake about to become with these tariffs?)
But I do make one exception. If a restaurant serves a Big Slice of Cake, I’m on board. Because nothing, and I mean nothing, is grander than a slab of layer cake. Psychologically, I think this is because unlike pie or an ice cream sundae, layer cakes are almost exclusively reserved for special occasions: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, showers, that one scene in the 1996 cult classic “Matilda.”
But I’m of the mind that there’s no need for an occasion to enjoy a slice: Take it from me, the co-worker who has been known to bring an entire birthday cake to the office for no reason. Here are a few spots where you can go all-in on big cake.
Guinness cake at Vinegar Hill House
There are a few cake slices I keep pictures of in my phone. The giant chocolate cake slice for two at Claud, and also the Guinness cake ($14) at Vinegar Hill House near Dumbo, which has been on the menu forever and a day and simply never gets old.
Sure, you have to venture to what the former Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni called a “tucked-away restaurant” in “a tucked-away neighborhood.” But it’s so worth it, especially after you’ve tucked away into that $47 red wattle pork chop with Cheddar jalapeño grits that’s been on the menu since the restaurant opened in 2008. (Albeit at about twice the price these days.) The crumb of the Guinness cake is light, yet rich and chocolaty, and sits under a nearly inch-high layer of cream cheese frosting. The fact that you can “split the G” while forking at your cake is just the foam on top of the beer.
72 Hudson Avenue (Water Street)
Thai tea cake at Little Grenjai
Let me tell you why Little Grenjai in Bed-Stuy is important to me: Because in a world (Brooklyn) of limited sit-down lunch options, they dare to serve lunch on weekdays. And you can enjoy a slice of their Thai tea cake ($10) any time of day. For those unfamiliar with the wonders of Thai tea, it’s milky, slightly sweet and usually made with black Ceylon tea. Oh and it’s, like, bright orange. You truly can’t miss it.
They’ve been offering this cake, baked by the wife of one of the restaurant’s partners., since Little Grenjai was a pop-up. It’s a light, spongecake layered with a custard buttercream infused with the flavor of Thai tea. Plus, you can order a whole one if you give the restaurant enough notice! It makes for a “not too sweet” ending to a plate of crab fried rice with yuzu miso butter, or the restaurant’s exceedingly good drunken noodles.
Birthday cake at Cafe Commerce
Upper East Siders, your wishes have been answered: You have a big cake in your area. And just below 72nd Street, no less! Even better it’s on Lexington Avenue, so you can get to it whether you’re near the park or yakking it up in Yorkville.
I finally, finally got around to visiting Cafe Commerce, the chef Harold Moore’s second run at the restaurant he ran in the West Village in from 2008 to 2015 (in the building that now houses the Commerce Inn). Luckily, Moore manages to infuse it with all the charm of a West Village restaurant — cozy to a fault, excellent service, absolutely no fluorescent lighting, bar with a large hand-painted mural — without making it totally inaccessible to someone without a reservation. Here’s a perfect menu run: The impressive and beautiful herb salad piled high, the well-prepared rigatoni carbonara with a glossy egg yolk that will really move you to tears over these egg shortages, and then the big slice of birthday cake or coconut cake, both $26. Maybe ask them if they can let the clearly refrigerated cake thaw a little beforehand so it becomes more melty. Even better, it’s always served with a candle, whether they know it was your birthday last week or not.
Even More Cake
The New York Times Food section’s amazing documentary video team recently released their latest episode of “Secret’s Out.” This episode is about Fernando Ponce Sosa, a Mexico-born baker who learned to make airy spongecakes at Kam Hing Bakery in Chinatown — becoming fluent in Cantonese in the process — before striking out on his own to start Spongies Cake. It’s a lovely look at a classic New York story.
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