Butter Lane photopost

Mmm...welcome to Butter Lane, at 123 East 7th Street, NYC (between Avenue A and First Avenue).

Peeking through the beautiful door's window to the warm, welcoming cupcakery makes one happy.

Look! They posted Rachel's Cupcakes Take the Cake review on the front door.

There's a display of yummy and homey cupcakes in the window.

When I opened the door, the first thing to hit me was the scent. Warm, delicious vanilla, chocolate and baking cupcakes. SO good!

I really like Butter Lane's commitment to local and organic ingredients. Find out more at ButterLane.com, or on Facebook.

And the decor is so sweet. They used a letter press to stamp their name on things like napkins and cups.

Ahh, decisions! Blueberry-frosted Vanilla cupcakes? American Buttercream on Vanilla cupcakes? How about on Chocolate cake?

This was the cupcake I decided on -- American Buttercream Vanilla.

It was delicious! I highly recommend this cupcake. It was just like the cupcakes I remember growing up with. The cake itself was moist with good crumb, and airy with the true taste of vanilla coming through. It looks and tastes homemade, only better than any cupcake I could make. The frosting was just my style: not too sweet. Also, it had none of the graininess so often associated with confectioner's sugar-type frosting. While sweet, it wasn't too sweet, and had a silkiness to it that was a total pleasure to eat. Just look at the vanilla bean flecks!

The one wall that was wallpapered had the sweetest, homiest design -- all flowers with one birdie hidden above eye level.

Here's Anthony Duke, frosting a cupcake while coowner Maria Baugh supervises.

A tray of freshly frosted beauties.

If you are buying some cupcakes to take home with you, they will be carefully and beautifully wrapped, and you'll have a Butter Lane-stamped brown bag to carry. Very old skool!

Mmm...I was interested (read: desperate) to try the Banana Cream Cheese cupcake Rachel raved about, but they were all sold out. As if I needed another reason to return to Butter Lane, but that would be a good excuse.

Butter Lane sells icy soda in bottles. Bottles! I love it. They also have teas and Brazilian coffee, but if you buy a soda you can use the old-fashioned bottle cap remover. Here you can see customer (and bakery friend) Liz about to enjoy a bottle of Sprite with her cupcake.

Anthony's working hard at keeping up with the frosting demand. Butter Lane's only been open for 1 week, but the demand for their baked goods has been high.

Baker Haleh Stilwell in a rare moment of repose. The entire time I was there she was in motion! I have to thank Haleh, Anthony, Maria (as well as Charles Holiday (general staff), Pam Nelson and Linda Lea (coowners)) for their wonderful bakery, which is in my neighborhood, and for the amazing cupcake that I enjoyed. I took a Blueberry-frosted Vanilla one home with me, where it was just as enjoyable as I thought it would be. Butter Lane, consider me to be a fan. Especially since I hear rumors of a Red Velvet Cream Cheese cupcake in the near future...

All photos in this post copyright Stacie Joy, please credit.