CBK Cookies

337 East 81st Street New York, NY 10028 (212) 794-3383 http://www.cbkcookies.com/.

It was through NY Magazine’s Critic’s Pick list that I discovered CBK Cookies, which stands for the creator's name, Cynthia Bruce Kramer. Wanting to leave her career in the hotel business back in 1988, she started to bake cookies, making her own original recipes in a small kitchen with friends and family as her customers. Said to be her then well-loved creations were chocolate truffles, key limes, and mint juleps.

Today, CBK Cookies is no longer a little kitchen business but a famous NY bake shop at the Upper East Side that serves its customers by appointment only and whose clients include The Plaza, Tiffany's Lincoln Center and The American Museum of Natural History. It has also been mentioned as the "Butter Cream of the Crop" by New York Magazine (http://www.nymag.com/) and "A Martha Stewart's Dream" by Zagat (http://www.zagat.com/).

Current famous fancy Cookies are the Chocolate Chips, Almond Crescents, Pecan Sandies, Chocolate Truffles, Key Lime Flowers, Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan, Raspberry Linzer Hearts, which are baked from the freshest ingredients and come in a box ($25 per pound) or on a party tray ($42.50 per pound). CBK also creates Vanilla or Chocolate Cakes (priced at $75 for a single Layer Cake and $150 for a Double Layer Cake) and Cupcakes (prices start at $2 each for regular-sized ones and minis at $1.00 each, with minimum orders) delicately designed for special occasions, whether for Birthdays, Christmas, Weddings, Baptisms or Showers.

Before I realised its “By Appointment Only” policy, I tried to walk to CBK Cookies to sample some of its most famous products. And yes, I was disappointed that it was closed when I got there. Not to be dissuaded, I am writing about CBK as I have heard it to be one of the best palate pleasers of Manhattan. I am merely waiting for an opportunity and a reason to place an order and serve these supposedly wonderfully sumptuous cookies. I cannot wait to share how this experience will be and see if the price and exclusivity will all be worth it.