Empire Cake

This small storefront packs a big punch with its delicious baked goods. My all-​time favorite is the passion fruit snack cake. The chocolate dipped snack cakes are all amazing though, with enough filling flavor to balance the moist cake, without being too overwhelming. I like their black and white cookies, albeit they are a variation on the originals — still delicious. I haven’t had a cake, but their decorations look beautiful, with a few examples on display in the store. I also Iike the fact that you can buy cute birthday cards or candles that are not run of the mill. I keep coming back here for a reason!

Black and white cookies all day. As Jerry Seinfeld says, if only people would look to the cookie, our problems would be solved. I happen to agree with him in that regard. I also agree with the fact that you have to get a bit of black and white in each bite. Although, to be honest, they aren’t really like normal black and white cookies. They’re basically like dense mini cakes covered in the white and black chocolate. But seriously though, look to the cookie.
In terms of their other baked goods, their cupcakes are moist and delicious, although on the smaller side compared to Sprinkles. I can’t really say which is better because they’re so different, but in terms of location, I like how Empire is only a block away. My sister actually had her wedding cake done at Empire, and she just wanted to quip that everything went very smoothly and the wedding cake was delicious.
Service is always very friendly and patient, even early in the morning. The prices are very much on the expensive side, but they do a great, consistent job all of their baked goods, so it’s not bad for a treat every once in a while.
Sometimes you don’t know how good a boutique bakery is going to be, but you can be assured that Empire Cake is a quality bakery, and most everything you’ll get here is delicious. You should come by and see all the inventive and creative cakes they have on display, but beware, because there are always tourists coming by from the High Line gathering around the glass to take multitudes of pictures, so you should only stop by during non-​peak hours.

I once had a custom red velvet cake ordered from here and I still dream about it. SO GOOD.
I also work across the street so we are constantly going over there to get cupcakes, cookies, lemon bars, etc. for birthday celebrations. They are consistently delicious.

They took care of my order as I wanted it exactly and the timing was respected! If you have any idea for a bday cake decoration, this is the best place, just get ready to spend and you will be truly satisfied!

Ordered for the office and their delivery is pretty fast! The lemon bars are INCREDIBLE, and their assorted cookies by the pound are awesome, too. I’ll be dreaming about those lemon bars for a while.

I had the dulce de leche cupcake which was a vanilla crème fraîche cake frosted with a light caramel Swiss meringue buttercream and sprinkled with toasted sliced almonds. The amount of frosting was overboard so I scraped off 90% of it. I did appreciate the taste of the frosting, which was probably the best part; it was light, fluffy and not overly sweet. The cake part was not moist but dry and crumbly. Their flavor options sound amazing though!

I love that I live close to Empire Cake and I hate that I live close to Empire Cake. Everything here is SO delicious that my boyfriend and I have to try to hold ourselves back from going there daily to get black and white cookies.
Normally I like the icing of my black + white cookie to be moist instead of the hardened kind, but these ones with the hardened icing are so delicious — probably because the cookie inside is soft perfection. They even have a red velvet version — or a red and white cookie — that’s just as good.
Our other favorite here is the snack cakes — especially the chocolate peanut butter. These cookies + treats make great hostess gifts — and you’ll be the favorite at the party for sure when you bring these.

I had a the red velvet cupcake. It was just okay. In spite of it’s red color, it didn’t taste much like red velvet. Just a plain red cake. The frosting was light and tasty, but again, it didn’t taste like the right frosting for red velvet. The cake was good for what it was, and I would try some other flavors if I walked by again.

Saw this place and heard great reviews, ordered a cake and had a certain vision in mind with how I wanted it to look… they nailed it!!! Absolutely beautiful!!!

As I was walking along 16^th street, I stumbled across this cute little bakery. The staff was friendly but not pushy as I was just looking. I got three mini black and white cookies and a Brooklyn blackout cake. I really like the Brooklyn blackout cake – not overly sweet and very moist. It was covered in a delicious frosting, the kind that is hardened but not hard as rock. I could easily cut down the middle but I didn’t get frosting all over my hands. Also, it was not overly sweet, I guess it’s because they used dark chocolate for that one. It was my first time trying a black and white cookie; it was also moist but a bit too sweet for my liking. The prices are reasonable, it was $.85 for mini black and white cookies and around $ 3.50 for a small Brooklyn blackout cake. This is a nice small business, if you’re in Chelsea and need a cure for your sweet tooth, you should give this place a try.

I randomly stumbled upon this bakery and I was quite pleased. They had a lot of cupcakes, cookies, and other pastries. I was so happy that they had chocolate chip scones — it is SO difficult to find chocolate chip scones for some reason out in the Bay Area (as I bemoan) and here in NYC I seem to be finding a lot of these scones. But ironically I didn’t get one this time but I got their mini cakes.
Their mini cakes were $ 0.85 and they were really good. They were quite moist and were covered in this hardened icing of sorts. They make for yummy quite bites. We tried the red velvet and the black and white ones.
They had other sizes of these cakes so I’d love to try the rest out sometime. And of course the scone. And the cupcakes. TOO MANY THINGS TO TRY

Cute little place. We were drawn in by the cute cake window displays. There was one with a bunch of minions and another one with a fall theme. That’s really all it takes for me to enter a store apparently
In any case the inside is really nice and bright. It’s obvious that care is used to create each of their little treats. They have little dipped cakes as well as cupcakes and full cakes. I don’t beloved they sell cake slices.
I tried a pumpkin flavored one as well as a chocolate one. Enjoyed both. I think I prefer denser cakes but for a lighter cake piece, these were quite good. The outer sweet layer has a slight crunch which is great.
Seating is severely limited, as in two small bar style seating tables with a total of maybe 8 seats.

After a show at the nearby Highline ballroom we were looking for a little dessert to cap off the evening. We walked back into the Chelsea market to find out they disappointingly close relatively early on a Friday night (We were there ~9:45pm and it was a ghost town). We stumbled across Empire Cakes, which is opened until MIDNIGHT on weekends in the city that never sleeps.
I liked that they had elevated versions of classic treats, for example, the Twix bar being an item most reviewers mention positively — we tried this and give it a thumbs up as well! Other items include Snowballs, Twinkies, giant rainbow cookies, swiss rolls and various flavors of snack cakes. The other item we tired was a snack cake that was chocolate cake filled with peanut butter (like Funny Bones). It also was very good. Unlike their commercialized counterparts these cakes have real flavor and substance to them. The prices reflect that fact as well — reasonable for the quality.
To be sure they sell traditional bakery items such as beautifully decorated cupcakes, whole cakes, cookies and various pastries. They have hot drinks available as well so it’s a great place to pick up a little treat for yourself or get a bunch of different items to wow your friends.

Got a ordered a custom cake for a company function, Empire Cake recommended a 14 inch cake for 50 people, we ended up having only 30 people so we went with a 12 inch. That was WAYYY too much. for 30 people you only need like 8 inch. Especially since the cake was not very good. The frosting on the outside and in was just simple butter and sugar, it didn’t really taste like the promised flavor (dulce de leche) and the logo on the top didn’t resemble our company logo enough (needed a lot more spacing around it, like the sample we send). They should send a draft drawing of what the cake is going to look like before they make it.
They also billed us twice accidentally.

I go here way too much…
Empire Cake is probably one of my favorite bakeries in the city. Do yourself a favor and try one of their homemade twix bars. Once you have one you will be hooked. There’s a thick layer of rich caramel and a decadent shortbread cookie underneath it. I always try to branch out and get some new items, but I always end up grabbing a twix with whatever else I get. They are also well known for their mini snack cakes. There are a ton of regular flavors and they also introduce seasonal flavors like egg nog and pumpkin. My favorite still has to be the Brooklyn blackout.
They also offer other baked goods like cookies and cupcakes but the real winners here are the twix bars and the snack cakes.

The black and white isn’t an authentic black and white, so if you’re looking for that you’ll be disappointed. However, I still found it to be really really good, unlike most knock-​offs.
The rainbow cake was delish! Nice moist, heavy cake with almond (and the say apricot but I think it was raspberry). I’d highly recommend it.
The black out snack cake was also very flavorful and not too rich. It’s not dark chocolate which I appreciate.
I wish their goods weren’t cold but I understand why. Anyhow, grab some and let them come to room temperature before you enjoy.

Contacted Empire to have a custom cake made with Will Smith’s (circa the Fresh Prince) face on it for my friends birthday.
Customer service via email was very easy and the associates I corresponded with were all very nice and helpful– sending me a preview of how the image I sent them would look on the cake. The cake order was completed within a day or so, and the cake itself was perfect and also so delicious (I got the chocolate/​salted caramel with buttermilk cream frosting)
It was kind of disturbing cutting into Will’s face when we cut the cake but hey

Best scone ever yet! Bursting with berries and moist. I took a bite then brought it home to warm it in my oven for breakfast.
Tried their flourless dark chocolate cookie and pignoli nut cookie (pine nut cookie). Took a bite and so chewy and moist inside and crispy outside. The way I love cookies made.

Came here last minute for a birthday cheesecake since I was around. I was looking for a 6 inch and it costed $ 40! That is sort of pricey for the size. So i decided to see how much the 8 inch was, which costed 5 bucks more, $ 45! Get the larger size!
I got the strawberry cheesecake and was excited to try it since I’m a sucker for cheesecake! I love love cheesecake! It never gets old.
As i cut into the cake, the cheese in the cake was sticking to the knife and it became very floury and thick in a bad way. Not how cheesecakes I usually eat. Their consistency was extremely thicker and drier. The taste was good but the consistency was ok. Overall it satisfied my sweet tooth.

Despite being called Empire Cake, they have really good cookies. They sell large ones for $ 3 and mini versions of each of the large ones for $ 20/​lb. I decided to try three mini ones: Chocolate Chip, 8^th Avenue Cookie, Flourless Chocolate Walnut. Favorite was the Flourless Chocolate Walnut.
Cookies:
Flourless Chocolate Walnut Puddle — This probably has my favorite kind of texture for cookies. Crispy when you first bite the outer shell, but really chewy and soft on the inside. It’s somewhat similar to the texture of a macaron or meringue cookie.
Chocolate Chip — More of a crisp chocolate chip cookie than a soft gooey one. The chocolate was more chunks than chips, which made it more chocolaty.
8^th Avenue Cookie — Made with almond flour, pecans, and dried fruit. I wasn’t a fan of this one. Maybe it was the almond flour, but it was extremely dry, made drier by the fruits and nuts.
Oatmeal Raisin w/​Dried Apple Bits — I didn’t really taste the apple bits, but this cookie was an all around good oatmeal raisin cookie.
Chocolate Mint Wafers — I don’t know why, but I was expecting something that reminded me of a Thin Mint. This wasn’t it. The texture was more crumbly than wafer-​like. Mint flavor was also a little week.
Bars/​Cakes
Twix Bar — For all the Twix lovers out there, but still not as good as the real thing. The shortbread cookie was soft and crumbly as opposed to crispy in a regular Twix bar. Caramel hits the spot though.
Brooklyn Blackout Twinkie — Tastes like a regular chocolate cake. Nothing too special. I’d pass on this one.
Lemon Bar — quite sour.
Passionfruit Snack Cake — The passionfruit flavor was there, but this was sweet. Maybe a little too sweet. It would have been perfect with some tartness. I liked the addition of the coconut flakes and the cake was very moist.