Hasta La Ideas

From fashion week festivities to parties at the Met, Sweet Jewels have been a recent hit on the NYC scene. New Yorker Julie Le whips up the multi-layered treats by blending cake with frosting, dipping them in chocolate and hand-rolling them in coconut.

Le—a librarian at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute by day—explains “I like watching my friends take a bite into their first cake ball, because the interior is what always surprises them once they get through the hard coconut covered chocolate shell.”

A self-taught baker and entrepreneur, her newest recipe is inspired by An Choi, a Vietnamese eatery in the city’s Lower East Side, and a collaboration with Lipstick Queen‘s Poppy King is in the works, where Le will create cake ball flavors inspired by shades of lipstick. When she has a spare moment, Le also designs one-of-a-kind necklaces she threads from vintage chains under the moniker Crunchy Jewels.

“Cake balls are entertaining all around. They are sweet, the ultimate indulgence in bite sized proportions, not messy like cupcakes, and there is a filthy connotation that goes with it that has everyone giggling like teenagers” Le said. “The jokes about my yummy, tasty balls never get old.”

Sweet Jewels sell from her Etsy shop, with prices starting at $14.

Goji berry cookies feature the antioxidant fighting power of Goji berries, the Chinese fruit famous for its bountiful health benefits. Made by NYC-based Goji Gourmet, a new bakery dedicated to deliciously healthy fare, the dessert incorporates other “Superfoods such as almonds, oats, oranges, ginger, honey, and walnuts to ensure that your sweet snacks still contribute to your overall well-being.”

The cookies come in intriguing flavor combos including Cherry Cacao, Ginger Walnut, Almond Oat, Orange Mint Chip and the inimitable Chocolate Chip. The ginger walnut and cherry chocolate were our favorites, but nearly all complimented the taste of the Goji berry.

At around 20 calories per cookie and with a nice balance of texture, moisture and density, the cookies offer a great way to infuse antioxidants into snack-time. The treats sell online from Gourmet Goji or from retailers nationwide, with prices starting at $3.

Catching our eye recently with the retro vibe of their packaging, Tasty Brand snacks back up their looks with deliciously healthy treats. We’re excited about their upcoming Carrot Cake and Pumpkin Pie vegetable cereal bars—which will be the first snack bars on the market to feature vegetables—but the entire line boasts the kind of nutrition and flavor we can get behind.

The upshot of a collaboration between a journalist and a chef, Liane Weintraub and Shannah Swanson (of Swanson frozen foods) created Tasty Brand to provide organic and sustainable food for babies. Their new Tasty Baby organic infant cereals are the first tailored for different times of the day. While a majority of the products are geared for infants, the “superfruit” snacks benefit any age. The duo also offers recipe options for their baby food, such as Carrot Coconut Soup made with their Sweetie Pie sweet potato organic puree.

Tasty Brand foods, which come in “tasty not wasty” packaging, sells at environmentally-concerned grocers, such as Whole Foods, or online from Amazon.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that we’ve got a fresh new look for the blog. After a lot of coding, tweaking and generally making a mess of CSS, I’ve managed to get it to look half-decent (let me know what you think of it!) It still remains a work-in-progress. The goal of this redesign was to make it easier to get around and add some more color. After all, you know we’re suckers for color!

Last but not least, our large header incorporates the work of a featured artist. We’ll be featuring different artists in that space and rotating them over time to keep things interesting. This isn’t a sponsored spot, but rather a testament to our support of great artists. Our first feature is of the brilliant and witty Simon Oxley, one of our all-time favorites.

Enjoy!