BENGALURU: Sitting by the huge glass-front of Magnolia Bakery is an interesting exercise in people watching. Almost everyone who walks past gives the eatery gives a throwaway glance, then backs up as they take note of the pretty, pastel desserts lined up on the bakery’s counter.
The outlet opens its doors at noon every day but an excited crowd starts to gather just outside its doors by 11:45 am. This line, Zonu Reddy – who along with Nischay Jayeshankar brought down the New York bakery here – tells us that it was extended till the main road of Indiranagar on opening day, which was just a week ago. Bengaluru seems besotted with the bakery, which shot to fame after its 30-second cameo in Sex and the City. Don’t miss the framed picture of the scene hanging on the wall of the Indiranagar outlet. With pastel green walls, monochrome tiled flooring and a tin ceiling, the décor closely resembles its American counterpart.
But one look at their dessert counter tells you that Magnolia has more to offer than the signature pink frosting cupcakes Carrie Bradshaw was eating. While an entire section is dedicated to cupcakes (divided into classic, specialities and eggless categories), the bakery also leaves you spoilt for choice with brownies, blondies (similar to brownies, but vanilla-based instead of cocoa), lemon bars (a must-try if you are a citrus fan), cheesecakes, icebox cakes and cookies.
We start with the cupcakes. The vanilla ones definitely look the prettiest with their pink, blue and yellow hued buttercream but these can too sweet even for those who claim to love all things sugar. So, we try the carrot cake with sweet cream cheese frosting, red velvet and chocolate with caramel meringue buttercream. The carrot variant was a winner: Not too sweet with a nice nutty texture. What surprised us was the frosting on the red velvet – light and incredibly fresh.
Up next was the Blueberry Jamboree, which we’re told soon emerged to be the star dessert, along with the tres leches cake. So much so, that the team is going to come up with a Mango Jamboree the coming summer. What stands out in the dessert is the cream cheese, which has been sweetened unlike its regular variant. While cheesecakes can usually get heavy with cream cheese, the jamboree stays light and disappears from our plate in a matter of minutes. We also tried the Key Lime Icebox bar (made with local lemons), and found that it nicely offset the sugar from the other desserts. It, however, leaves behind a slightly bitter taste, which might take some getting used to.
No visit to Magnolia is complete without their signature dish: The banana pudding. Who knew the humble, and slightly underrated, fruit could beat even chocolate in lending itself so well to dessert? Keep an open mind and you might find yourself being surprised with it. We sure were.